Jacob Wallenberg, in what ways do you personally engage with the World Economic
Forum? Well I've been going to Davos for some
15/17 years. I've enjoyed it tremendously.
I'm a member of the IBC, the International Business Council.
I've been a member of different industrial forums and so on.
But maybe to me the important thing is not to go to Davos in order to conduct
business per se because to me Davos is not only business and conducting
business, to me it is as much about developing yourself help it coming out of
these four/five days in Davos, hope at a slightly higher level with some
reflections in your mind, that's what I like about Davos.
You mentioned the crisis. One aspect of the crisis has been the
increased role of the state in international business.
Has this raised any concerns as far as you're concerned about the future
direction of competition policy and its impact on international trade?
Of course. I think we're in a fairly difficult time
where we're all dependent on international trade but because of the
challenges we're going through, you see, increased pressures for protectionism,
different ways of political support for domestic business at the expense of
international business and potentially international trade, I think that is
a huge challenge and it's something that is very important to deal with.
We now see how Pascal Lamy is actually in the process of re-launching the Doha
round and I think it's a very opportune time to reinvigor this whole issue
and make sure that people, politicians, business focus on it.
The theme of this year's meeting is "Shared Norms in an Independent yet
Diverse World." In your opinion, what are
the most important shared norms that need to develop in the coming year?
I think given what we've been going through, maybe the word "trust"
goes through my mind.
We have to trust in a system, we have to trust in our partners, we have to trust
in that the world will continue to move forward, positive spirit if you wish,
very important.
What do you think is the best mechanism with which to build trust?
We're starting, say, to move away from the G8 and its expansion to the G20.
Do you think the G20 is the right forum for the building of trust?
I think - for certain questions I think G8 or smaller forums are really
important. I think G20 is a great development
because it brings in large parts of the world community that have not been
engaged before so it really adds some real value to the process.
But I also think that the traditional institutions, such as the IMF, not always
liked but, in my book, has a very important role, has proven itself in
works. It hurts but it works.
One theme of this year's forum is a discussion of the Nordic experience.
How do you define the Nordic experience and to what extent is it transferrable to
the rest of Europe? Every country has their culture,
their tradition, so maybe it's not transferrable, but the Nordics have been
I guess pretty good at coming together, the populations of the individual
countries have come together, have solved some very difficult issues.
We had in Sweden the banking crisis in the early ‘90s, the Finns had the similar
one and lost 25% of their international trade that went to Russia in those days
more or less overnight. Now each individual country came
together and dealt with these and today you see how they developed very strongly
from an economic point of view which also is because, I should add, because there's
been some fiscal discipline here that have been brought into place at an early
stage and I think that's hugely helpful in today's day and age.
So to other countries around the world that are discussing the possibilities of
tough fiscal retrenchment, the model for the Nordics is that fiscal entrenchment
can lead rapidly through growth. If not rapidly but it will lead into
a much sounder situation and it works.
Do you think this will allow the Nordic region to punch above its weight?
Whether we punch above our weight or not but at least we can punch.