Good to have you with us.
Well the Swiss ski resort of Davos is preparing to play host, once again,
to the World Economic Forum (WEF).
It's a unique occassion,
where top executives and political leaders rub shoulders
and chew of the key issues facing the world economy.
And what a difference a year makes,
12 months ago an atmosphere of close-to panic
hung over Davos with talk of being on the brink
of a global depression.
This year, the focus is on recovery
with most of the world's leading economies growing again.
Well let's go live now and speak to Tanya Beckett
who's there for us in Davos as well. Good to see you Tanya.
So much on the agenda as ever, what do you think will dominate?
(Ms Beckett) Well Sally the theme is, as Simon was saying there,
how can you shape a post-crisis world such that you can stop
not just the finanical crises happening,
but also, um, the economic aftermath
and also political crisis? Also the disaster in Haiti?
The theme is very much predict and avoid.
Threatening to spoil that,
is the fact that the bankers will want to put up a fight,
and they will want to perhaps distract the agenda a little bit.
They're now emboldened by having made profits
and handed out some quite significant bonuses over the last year,
having been saved only, really, a year ago.
So that is going to be a firey debate
which perhaps threatens to undermine more meaningful debates.
There is a third strand, perhaps if you like, of a debate,
and that is not all the pieces of this financial crisis
have yet been picked up.
There is, for example,
an enormous unemployment problem.
In 2009,
27 million people lost their jobs across the world,
and since the crisis began,
that figure is 34 million.
And those people, for the most part,
face no prospect of finding a job in the near future.
How can we solve that problem?
Juan Somavia joins us now,
he is Director-General
of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Welcome to the programme. (Mr Somavia) Morning, how are you?
(Ms Beckett) Very well.
Your frustration is, really that political leaders have addressed
saving the banks, but are not addressing long-term job growth.
(Mr Somavia) I think that that's a key and it's a frustration of people.
Why not apply the same policy decisiveness
with which we save banks,
to save and create jobs?
And I think that that's the question of this Davos,
because it will have to happen by a combination of public policy,
and private investment,
and this is a good place to discuss those things.
(Ms Beckett) In the immediate terms, certainly in the Western economies,
we have seen efforts to save jobs; companies for example propped up.
Your talking about the longer- term in the Western economies
and also developing economies where,
really frankly, the funds have not been applied to saving jobs.
(Mr Somavia) The situation will be much worse
if governments had not made all of the policies,
put in place all of the policies that have been put in place.
We calculated for the G20, we asked a study from the ILO
that 7 to 11 million jobs had even been saved or created.
So those figures that you mentioned could have been much worse.
The problem is that there was a crisis before the crisis,
so you have an enormous amount of people working in poverty,
you have about 50% of the world population in
uncertain, insecure, vulnerable jobs.
(Ms Beckett) So specifically, what are you calling for this week?
(Mr Somavia) Look, we want to put the issue on the table.
Let's say, is it possible to give it the same political impetuous
to job creation that we did to the banks?
And if the answer is yes,
the ILO has proposed a Global Jobs Pact.
We have agreed in the ILO, which is tripartite by the way,
it's employers, it's workers, it's governments
so it's not just the governments, it's also the real economy.
We proposed a Global Jobs Pact,
which is an innovative way of looking at it
because you have to combine the series of policies on social protection, on job creation.
So you have a tool.
So the question is: is this world
governements and business, prepared to take the Global Jobs Pact and say,
OK, we're going to make it a central element of the way we confront the crisis?
In principle the answer is yes. There's a lot of backing in the G20.
(Ms Beckett) But detailed to be worked out this week.
(Mr Somavia) But it needs to happen as a political decision,
that this is the thing,
no recovery without job recovery.
(Ms Beckett) Juan Somavia, thank you very much indeed,
Director-General of the International Labour Organization.
So the fight has already started. Back to you Sally.
(Sally) Thank you very much Tanya, we'll see you again soon.