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Davos-Klosters, Switzerland. As leaders gather for the annual World Economic Forum meeting to forge a new direction for the global economy and to tackle some of the most pressing problems the word faces today, the mood is downbeat and apprehensive.

Two surveys released at the meeting on Tuesday point to trying times ahead for both corporate and government leaders.

Fear among international experts of a major geopolitical disruption in the next 12 months has risen significantly to 54 percent, from 36 percent in the last quarter, while confidence in global cooperation has dropped, according to the World Economic Forum’s third Global Confidence Index.

“A major geopolitical disruption early in the new year would certainly tip the global economy in the wrong direction given current confidence levels,” said Lee Howell, the managing director at the World Economic Forum responsible for the annual meeting and the Forum’s Global Risks Report 2012.

The fraying global system and lingering economic malaise will be the focus of the Forum’s 42nd Annual Meeting.

World leaders, including heads of government and ministerial representation from 19 of the Group of 20 countries, are among the more than 2,600 participants who will convene under the theme “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models,” which reflects the need for a profound overhaul of the current economic and governance systems.

Indonesia is represented at the WEF by the minister of tourism and creative industries, Mari Elka Pangestu, and Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan. They are accompanied by some of the country’s top corporate leaders, such as Emirsyah Satar from Garuda Indonesia; Anindya Bakrie from the Bakrie Group; Franky Widjaja from Sinar Mas; Zulkifli Zaini from Bank Mandiri; and SP Lohia from Indorama.

Separately, PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global accounting and management firm, revealed in its Annual Global CEO Survey that almost half of 1,258 CEOs it polled worldwide believe the global economy will decline in the next 12 months. Not surprisingly, the biggest decline was in Western Europe, a region beset by the sovereign debt crisis.

“CEOs today are experiencing a lot of instability and challenges,” said Dennis M. Nally, chairman of PwC International. “It’s hard to know which way the wind is blowing today, much less predicting the outlook for the next 12 or even three months.”

He added that CEOs see a pretty gloomy outlook for the global economy but ironically corporate leaders are confident in their own prospects for growth this year. That is because CEOs are learning to adapt to the current volatile global environment and have restructured their organizations to cope with the uncertainty.

Forty percent in the survey said they were “very confident” of revenue growth for their companies in the next 12 months, down from 48 percent last year but up from 31 percent who were very confident in 2010.

When it comes to growth opportunities, most CEOs said they would look to increase their share in existing markets and develop new products and services.

Emerging markets are seen as a vital growth opportunity as 59 percent of the respondents said growing markets were more important to their company’s future than more developed economies.

Top growth targets include the BRIC countries — named after Brazil, Russia, India and China — as well as the United States and Germany.