DAVOS, Switzerland It is late January. There are mountains and snow. It must be Davos. The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum is a fixture in that calendar where news and socializing meet, where the great, the good and the not so good mix with each other and the media. It certainly beats events like the World Bank/IMF annual meeting with its overload of bankers and economists. Here there are scientists and artists as well as familiar politicians and business figures. This year there is also extra snow, and Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac are at the top of the bill. But is that why we come? As a visitor for 10 of the past 15 years, the event has singular attractions for me. The prospect of meeting up with scattered friends and old colleagues has a pull all of its own. Many of the same people attend year in year out, which is comforting. The food is good, the organization superb, and there are no big city distractions from socializing. But as one who must be counted as a Davos loyalist, I must say, the "World" in World Economic Forum has become something of a misnomer. That in turn raises the question of why the event continues to receive almost blanket news coverage for mostly unexceptional speeches and interviews. The warped nature of the Davos globe is illustrated by a quick count of the country-of-residence of the 500 or so individuals who are speaking or moderating this week. The United States accounts for 40 percent; Britain, 15 percent; and the rest of Europe, 20 percent. Add in a few others, like Australia, and nearly 80 percent are from the Western, developed world. South Africa gets a respectable showing, as does the Arab world. But the rest of Africa is barely represented, and, despite the appearance of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil makes little mark. As for Asia, the feeble representation of dynamic Korea, rich Japan, inventive Taiwan, fast-growing China and India, and the Asean 10 big trading nations is remarkable. The 300 million democratic Muslims of Indonesia and Bangladesh barely exist for the Davos world of 2005. Of the 2,000 or so participants, only some 450 are from the non-Western world, as are only 10 of 80 corporate "partners," or sponsors. There is just one such partner from dynamic east Asia. There is Nestlé and Coca Cola, Volkswagen and Siemens, Goldman Sachs, Merck and Microsoft. But no Toyota or Canon, Samsung, Toshiba, Hutchison, LG or Acer. The decline in Asia's presence from a few years ago is particularly striking at a time when its role in the global economy has become so large. The most senior Asian politicians on the list are two No. 2's from Pakistan and Malaysia. Even more striking is the low level of participation from technology leaders from Korea, Japan and Taiwan, or of the heads of Asian global brand names. A decline in the willingness of Asian companies and governments to spend the large sums required to participate reflects a sense that the event is too dominated by Western political, corporate and intellectual interests to be worth attending. The decline has become self-reinforcing. It cannot be blamed on China's attempt to establish a rival and specifically Asian equivalent, the Boao Forum for Asia held in Hainan in April, which suffers from being Beijing-sponsored. Nor does the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, present direct competition other than for NGOs. Poorer nations and individuals from them often find the cost of attending Davos too steep. Despite its self-description as "Committed to Improving the State of the World," the WEF is not a charity. You get what you pay for. Davos's promotion of globalization could be much better served by its signature event. Its composition does not reflect the political, commercial, industrial or intellectual worlds of the present, let alone the future. Indeed, critics would argue that the composition reflects the arrogance and complacence of the West in the face of its rapid relative decline. That's a pity, because Davos does have the framework and the status. But for all its faults, Davos is still fun, especially for skiers now that there's all that snow.