The annual gathering of the elite from business and politics opened Tuesday in the Swiss alpine city of Davos with a strident call for a more rapid pace of economic development that delivers progress that is both fair and inclusive the peoples of the world.
At the opening addressed by the Swiss President, the forum’s founder joined by the CEO of Microsoft and an array of young co-chairs on the podium, was told that rather than be pre-occupied with the failings of the past, global leaders should instead focus on what they can do urgently to reshape the future trajectory of the world.
Ueli Maurer the Swiss leader canvassed freedom and liberty and the opening up of economies around the world to offer people opportunities they badly need as he welcomed business leaders gathered some of whom would have used one of the 1,500 private jects estimated to be involved in one way or the other with delegates arriving Davos.
Forum founder Klaus Schwab who conceded that globalisation has not fully delivered said the world needs to be more collaborative in contrast to the tendency today for leaders to seek to go it alone.
He spoke of the subtle difference between globalisation and globalism and warned that of the urgent need to redraw the architecture of global engagement to foster more collaboration.
There was an applause from the business and political leaders gathered when a refugee from Kenya Mohammed Hassan who is originally from Somalia spoke of his life in the refugee camp in Kenya in the last 20 years and how he will have to return to the camp after his visit to Davos.
“The challenge today”, he said, “is how to move from keeping people in the refugee camps to giving them the skill they need in life and moving them out into the world with hope to change their lives and the world.”
Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft who is chairing the dialogue said he had been inspired by the contributions of the collection of young leaders that had spoken and said world leaders now must use innovation and technology to challenge the status quo to bring about development that does not just deliver economic progress but economic development that is both fair and inclusive.
The meetings this year are focussing 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 Donald Trump to the Chinese president as well as Emmanuel Macaron the French leader who lit up last year’s gathering with his blistering criticism of nationalism are staying away this year, but the 2019 annual meetings of the World Economic Forum promises to be just as engaging.
The world is at crossroads says 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 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.”
Another prominent leader 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. Prime Minister Abiy 42, spoke exclusively to Businessday and the report of this encounter will be brought later.
As was the case last year, Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari will be missing at the gathering.
Frank Aigbogun, Davos
