The Hindu Business Line : A heady mix at Davos

In total, 27 heads of state and 113 cabinet ministers from around the world are taking part in the World Economic Forum’s formal discussions and a multitude of private talks. The 235 sessions over five days span topics from resolving the West Asian conflict and terrorist threats to the world’s next technological breakthroughs.

Mohan Murti

My first pilgrimage to the Swiss mountain resort Davos was in 1994 when I accompanied my guru and mentor Tarun Das to the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Since then, each year, the Forum has not only been growing in size but also becoming rich and rewarding in content for attendees.

This year’s Economic Forum under the catch-all theme of ‘Collaborative Innovation’, covered a huge range of human activities. Sessions discussed how businesses need to work together and how Shiites and Sunnis need to collaborate to build a new Iraq.

They also revolved around how the world’s leaders need to make the UN Committee on Climate Change work through seeking collaboration, otherwise we all will see the seas washing over our homes as global warming fails to be stopped.

India’s privilege

India had the proud privilege of having K.V. Kamath, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, ICICI Bank, and Indian born Indra K. Nooyi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo, as Co-Chairs to the Annual Meeting along with Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair who is back again this year, not as a political leader but as a member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum and co-chairman of its 2008 annual meeting.

The guest list is a heady mix of egos, personalities and leaders. Some have been here before, while others have made their way for the first time.

Among the political names are Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Pervez Musharaff, the Pakistani President; Prime Minister Gordon Brown; and Al Gore, the former vice-president and Nobel laureate.

From the business community, Bill Gates of Microsoft is back as are the Google co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin; Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, Henry R. Kravis of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group are on the list representing the Wall Street crowd.

And, there are a handful of sheiks from West Asia to represent the growing power of sovereign wealth funds. Yes, Bono, a longtime Davos devotee, is here too. No singing, though.

In total, 27 heads of state or government and 113 cabinet ministers from around the world are taking part in the forum’s formal discussions and a multitude of private talks. The formal, five-day agenda of 235 sessions spans topics from resolving Middle East conflict and terrorist threats to the sources of the world’s next technological breakthroughs.

As world leaders streamed into Davos, the US’ stimulus package, the stock markets’ plunge and the Societe General’s rogue trader were giving them plenty to talk about. Around Davos, it is traditional to claim to be thinking the big thoughts, not to worry about today’s news. But the Blackberries are out in force, watching every market move.

The most interesting and timely event on the opening day was the World Economic Brainstorming session on ‘Addressing Uncertainty’, where corporate and policy leaders identified nine threats to the global economy in the coming year and a consensus was drawn over the lack of coordinated response and leadership by the US and voted the single greatest threat to worldwide economic growth. I had the pleasure of being part of the 85 per cent who electronically voted.

The conclusions of the brainstorming session truly set the stage for further discussions. Participants at the session on the state of the global economy moderated by Michael Elliott, Editor of TIME International, had a bearish consensus that US recession risks are high and growing and that a major downturn in the world’s largest economy will inevitably result in a severe slowdown in growth in the rest of the world.

In contrast, and in a rather sloppily bold opening address to the 2500 participants. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice preached that the US economy is resilient, its structure is sound, and its long-term economic fundamentals are healthy.

Other important strands

After a day of debates dedicated to the US economy’s outlook, I attended an aptly named dinner debate titled ‘Recession’. Nouriel Roubini played his part and told everyone that the $300 billion in sub-prime losses would soon be considered ‘spare change’ and that not only the US but the whole world may indeed be headed for recession.

Other important strands within the overall theme included dealing with ’Economic insecurity’, as poverty and individual’s lack of economic stability are one of the major causes of harming both economic growth and rational politics. But, as in each year, the Economic Forum is not all bleak, gloomy, depressing stuff: I attended a session on the Mysteries of the Mind, looking into the way knowledge, memory learning and emotions all bump around in one’s head.

Another interesting session was on the Power of Scent: looking at how our sense of smell is largely underused, and what should be done to be more aware of its uses.

Sobering picture

On a truly serious crisis gripping the planet, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, at a panel, ‘Time is Running Out for Water,’ painted a sobering picture of the potential effects of a global water shortage.

Anti-poverty campaigner Bono and global warming campaigner Al Gore highlighted a merging of efforts to find joint solutions to both problems. “The Millennium Development Goals can only be met if the climate crisis is taken into the fold of that effort.

If the world warms up by two degrees all of the good work done in development will be undone,” said Al Gore.

For me the past four days have been like a pressure cooker with 2,500 participants locked into this tiny Swiss village of story-book beauty to debate major issues facing the world. As in each year, at Davos, we had the numerous traditional private meetings and get-togethers throughout the week. And then there are the late-night parties too, one of the few times you can watch heads of state and chief executives actually get down on the dance floor.

It is inside the conference hallways and late night cocktail parties where the real business gets done and the actual news is made.

As I file this, we are just about to kick off with a breakfast session on Genetics and synthetic Life with Craig Venter who will talk about inserting an engineered genome into bacterial cells to harness energy.

The author is former Europe Director of CII. He presently lives in Cologne, Germany. Feedback may be sent to mohan.murti@t-online.de

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