It's the 40th time that I stand in front of you to welcome you cordially to the 40th
Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum
One thing that has been more impactful for me this year than any other year is the actions
in Davos, particularly around redesign, rethink, rebuild, agreement to take some action, so
I think that's an important step forward.
What I like about the Forum, is that the interdisciplinary approach between politics, science, culture
and business. This is my 22nd year I am participating in this forum and I think
it evolves in the right direction.
We are facing the highest level of unemployment ever recorded, youth unemployment three times
higher than adult unemployment and we're also facing a jobless recovery. This is the issue
of today, the social and the political issue.
We need a different set of arrangements, we must step out of the positions we occupy to
rethink the institutions that'll hold us together. We must commit ourselves differently to the
outcomes because in so many big decisions it hasn't been possible to bind countries.
I think last year's session was really a little bit shell-shocked in the wake of the global
crisis and I am delighted to see that as always we have regrouped, and rethought our priorities
and our missions and I think the subjects of this year's forum are, are very relevant
indeed.
The prosperity of the post-war era owed a great deal to Bretton Woods, to its rules
and its institutions. That is exactly what we need today; we need a new Bretton Woods.
If inadequate regulation is not addressed, I believe the consequences could actually
be worse than before the crisis.
Especially when facing the financial crisis, we need to rethink whether the decisions we
have made are correct, and whether the actions we have taken can help us to recover from
the crisis
I think the themes of the World Economic Forum this year couldn't be more relevant. And the
reason is that I'm sure we're going to face one more recession again. And if we walk away
from this recession not learning the lessons, of this recession and not rethinking, rebuilding
and redesigning our organisation, our society, our culture, we will make a big mistake.
After all, this is a global village somehow. Whatever happens in the US or in Europe anywhere,
at least psychologically affects us. But we didn't have any problems. I mean, you go throughout
all the emerging markets, we didn't have a crisis in the real sense as we saw it in the
US or in Europe.
How do we combine the public opinion frustration and the necessary time that it will take for
the banking industry to restore some of its parameters and to rehabilitate itself with
those public opinions. Big timing issue.
Don't underestimate, the world is different, the dynamics of power blocks is different,
and the self confidence of emerging nations is of a completely different order of magnitude
today
Well, first of all, we have to recognise this is the first crisis in a globalized world.
And this will require new answers. It has not only to do with the financial sector itself,
it has to do with some of the global imbalances. And we have to work on finding solutions to
that. And this will create a lot of uncertainties and a lot of triggers.
We have got to move away from merely a focus on shareholders and talk about multi-stakeholders
because multi-stakeholders is not just a utopian notion it's a reality.
This year one of the most fascinating things we've seen is how people really galvanised
to action, The World Economic Forum, Clinton's Foundation, Clinton himself coming here,
talking to groups of all kinds; people from both public and private sector they're coming
together and talking about something very concrete, very important that is happening
right now.
The pitch here was for the private sector to come and invest in Haiti. Most would never
have thought of it in a thousand years. So it's raised the visibility of a very poor
country, with a large surplus pool of labour, very close to the largest consumer market
in the world, the USA. If that stimulates some interest, all the better.
Every company should take the social responsibility for the reduction of energy consumption and
reduction of emission of carbon.
I realize how important is for the world to get a success in Cancun, how important is
to start taking actions today. For me it's clear, the scientific evidence is overwhelming.
The effects of global warming are already affecting ordinary people, the lives of ordinary
people in developing and developed countries.
We're announcing that we'll spend over $10 billion dollars on vaccines that will help
invent new vaccines that will help get new vaccines out and that will help increase the
coverage.
It is amazing how much innovation the forum has developed over the last, I would really
say five years, and how it has transformed bringing more content, having strong regional
organisations, more ambitious also on what agendas we want to define. This role is much
needed in a globally more networked world than we've ever seen.
When I look at this year compared to maybe five years ago, the dialogue is richer, it's
more honest, it's more transparent. And I think as we get there it really assures the
future of the World Economic Forum because very few places can that that transparent
debate.
This year I think the mood is a mood of soul searching, but also looking for solutions.
There are a lot of session where people are putting ideas on the table and certainly
looking for opportunities to share what has worked and what hasn't worked.
I am very happy that in Davos we are talking about more core values now, I think this means
that we are sharing the problems all together, it's not my problem, it's not his problem,
it's everybody's problem, and when it's everybody's problem I think we can solve it.
It's action which shows our real commitment. Thank you.