This week, the World Economic Forum 2017 opened with a welcome by the the Swiss President Doris Leuthard. This year’s attendees include UK PM Theresa May as well as London mayor Sadiq Khan alongside various heads of state and top executives, as well as some celebrities such as Matt Damon, Forest Whitaker and even Shakira.
With the official theme of the event being ‘Responsive and Responsible Leadership‘, this year’s programme looks at themes such as the fourth industrial revolution; sustainable development; the future of finance, innovation, consumption and energy; gender equality; and climate change among others. While previous WEF events have drawn criticism for what has been perceived as an ‘out-of-touch elitism’, this year the intention is to focus on actual world problems, largely – the WEF organisers admit – as a response to the Brexit referendum in the UK, and the rise of popularist movements. The event, however, continues its exclusivity by the use of a variety of badges indicating a hierarchy for those who are permitted to attend particular closed-door sessions and meetings.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, the first Chinese president to ever address Davos, today delivered an opening plenary, symbolising China’s commitment to globalisation. He emphasised that economic globalisation was not the cause of world problems, but that war, conflict and regional turmoil were responsible. President Xi’s speech called for the need for collaboration, reconciliation and stability. He added that China has no intention of launching a currency or trade war and that there will be no winners in such a climate.
President Xi’s delivery was equally poetic, having opened his speech by first quoting Dickens’ “It was the best of time, it was the worst of times”, suggesting we now live in times of incredible opportunity, with equal measures of turmoil and hardship. He moved on to other sayings, such as Chinese proverb “Honey melons hang from bitter vines” as well as drawing comparison between the perusal of protectionism with locking oneself in a dark room, while wind and rain may be kept outside so are light and air.
Today’s programme is packed with various sessions, such as An Insight, An Idea with Matt Damon and Gary White; An Insight, An Idea with Shakira; A Conversation with John Kerry: Diplomacy in an Era of Disruption and China’s Pivot to World Markets
Other earlier sessions include one on Monetary Policy, discussing the role of the world’s central banks, with speakers Anthony Scaramucci (Assistant to President-Elect Donald Trump), Axel Weber (UBS Chairman of the Board of Directors), Carmen M. Reinhart (Harvard Kennedy School of Government) and Li Daokui (Tsinghua University); and one on session on the Future of Big Business, looking at its contribution to increasing inequality, with Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, claiming ‘It’s not that the big companies are doing bad things…there is transparency, hard work and innovation, but there is now a winner takes all approach’ (see reference).
The event will continue throughout the week until Friday. Various media are covering the event live, such as the WEF, the Guardian, and the Telegraph. The twitter hashtag to follow live tweets is #wef17.
The full programme is also provided online.