The annual elite gathering of the global leaders from business and politics will open here in the Swiss alpine city of Davos, with focus on how to make globalisation work better for a world increasingly divided by nationalism and anti-immigration fervour sweeping across the globe.
Many world leaders, from US President Donald Trump to Chinese President Xi Jinping, as well as French President Emmanuel Macron who lit up last year’s gathering with his blistering criticism of nationalism, will be staying away this year, but the 2019 annual meetings of the World Economic Forum promise to be just as engaging.
The world is at a crossroads, say the organisers of the meetings, adding, “We can continue the present trajectory of polarising views, increased conflicts and numerous unresolved problems. At best this path will result in permanent global crisis management. At worst, it will deteriorate into chaos, with innumerable unintended consequences. There is another option – shaping a global architecture in the age of the fourth industrial revolution. Together, we can and we must draw on the spirit of Davos to build the future, in a constructive, collaborative way.”
According to Klaus Schwab, the gathering’s founder, “Unfortunately, the rise of populism has been fuelled by a public discourse that does not sufficiently address, and more often confounds the substantive differences and implications of two related concepts, globalisation and globalism, even if the two terms refer to the same phenomenon of global connectivity and global cooperation.”
He argues that the answer to the challenge of globalisation cannot be found in “closing economies, or fuel protectionist and nationalistic sentiments. Rather it calls for restoring a compact between citizens and their leaders in the public and private sectors that makes them feel secure enough at home to open up to the world at large.”
This year, six inspiring young leaders, including Mohammed Hassan from Kenya as well as a refugee from Iraq who campaigns for peace, have been selected as co-chairs and will join the Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to steer discussions at the gathering.
Many of the national delegations began to arrive Davos last night and national flags are taking prime spots along the Promenade, the main artery behind the main congress venue of the meetings, and not many will miss the imposing pavilion of South Africa whose president, Cyril Ramaphosa, will be one of those flying Africa’s flag to Davos this year.
Another prominent leader expected in Davos is the new Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed who has caught the imagination of a tired world with his breath-taking reform of his country, and Jair Bolsonaro, the controversial president of Brazil who will address the forum later this afternoon.
Prime Minister Abiy will have a one-on-one tomorrow where the 42-year-old leader will speak about his reform which is beginning to open up Ethiopia to the world.
As was the case last year, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari will be missing at the gathering.
By Our Reporter
