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This year's gathering at the 39th annual World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, focused on nothing less than "shaping the post-crisis world."
The annual meeting brought together the glitterati consisting of politicians, policymakers and business moguls for discussions on the economic crisis, poverty, energy, climate change and free trade.
With the increased turbulence in the financial markets, this year’s meeting was seen as more important than previous years.
Some 2,500 guests, including senior executives from some of the world's biggest banks as well as 40 heads of state and government discussed ways to ward off recession and save jobs amidst a rapidly escalating financial crisis in the world markets.
However, the five-day World Economic Forum wrapped up on February 1, 2009, in the same atmosphere of indecision and uncertain gloom that it began, with a realization that the depth of the crisis is still unfathomable and the solution remains, as yet, elusive.
To end with, there's plenty left to do - that was the widespread agreement across the forum with many questions still left unanswered.
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In the News
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Eton Park keen on parking funds in India
Eton Park is one of the world’s top hedge funds and the one that has survived the Wall Street wipeout. With over $10 billion in investment, Eton Park's CEO, Eric Mindich is not hibernating this recession.
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Davos meet ends without any solution to crisis
The five-day World Economic Forum wrapped up on Sunday in the same atmosphere of doom and gloom that it began, with a realization that the depth of the crisis is still unknown and the solution remains elusive.
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Do not expect bailouts: Kamal Nath
The global economic downturn is fast turning into a global unemployment crisis. That seems to preoccupy leaders gathered for the World Economic Forum at Davos. NDTV Profit spoke to Commerce Minister Kamal Nath who's heading the Indian delegation. |
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Davos: Don't let crisis breed more corruption
Here's yet another danger from the global economic crisis. It could breed more corruption, as recession-starved officials increasingly demand bribes and hungry companies compete for shrinking resources.
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WEF honours Amitabh with Crystal Award
Legendary Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan has been honoured with the World Economic Forum's Crystal Award at Davos for his contribution to the world of cinema.
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Labour leader slams Davos
A leading labour leader who has been a fierce critic of business leaders at this year's Davos forum slammed the event on Saturday for failing to address the "social timebomb" of unemployment.
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Charities brace for economic slowdown
Six-figure charity donations from Wall Street warriors dried up with corporate year-end bonuses this year. The children's charity World Vision made up for the difference by calling its donor list one by one.
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Turkish PM storms out of Gaza debate at WEF
Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stormed out of a panel discussion on Gaza war after he was not given a chance to reply to comments made by the Israeli president’s at WEF meeting.
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Need economic stimulus? Think mobile phones
Need economic stimulus? Just look to the mobile phone industry. That's the message the head of the mobile phone industry's trade association brought to the WEF where the world's political and business elite have come to debate a way out of economic crisis.
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India calls for IMF restructuring
India made a strong case for restructuring of the IMF, saying it is not capable enough to deal with the problems of the world following the global financial meltdown. |
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Go government, boo business in Davos
Forget big business, this year politicians seem to have all the answers. The forum in this Swiss Alpine hamlet is flooded every year with business leaders, and their solutions to all of life's ills. |
Davos turns to trade amid fears of protectionism
World leaders looking for hope amid recessionary gloom turned their attention on Saturday to a long-stalled global trade deal, increasingly seen as a necessary bulwark against the rising threat of protectionism. |
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India finds ally in Brown on protectionism
Amidst an atmosphere of global gloom and doom, India today harped on its economy clocking a high growth rate even as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke against protectionism, echoing New Delhi's views on the issue. |
Bank funds not reaching industry, consumers: Nath
Liquidity injected by the Indian government and the central bank has not reached the cash-starved industry and consumers, posing a key challenge for the policy-makers, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said. |
India, Brazil jointly protest Dutch drug seizure
Furious at the seizure of a shipment of generics medicine from India to Brazil by the Dutch authorities, the Asian and the South American countries will jointly protest at the WTO against the European rules. |
Environment, Africa in focus at Davos
The World Economic Forum settled back into even-tempered discussion of global warming, help for Africa and the faltering world economy on Friday, a day after Middle East tensions ruffled the elite gathering. |
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India to grow at 7-7.5% next fiscal: Nath
India has exuded optimism that it would continue to maintain economic growth rate of 7-7.5 per cent next fiscal, the same level it is expected to register in the current fiscal, even as its neighbour China termed its lower growth projection of 8 per cent in 2009 as a tall order. |
Keep over-regulation at bay: Nooyi
Asserting that the current economic situation does not call for over-regulation, Pepsico chief Indra Nooyi on Thursday said it is time to challenge the corporations to examine their morality and ethics. |
Davos turns from economic gloom to politics
Israeli election front-runner Benjamin Netanyahu told a session of the World Economic Forum that keeping nuclear weapons out of Iran's hands was more important than the economy. |
Iran nukes trump global economy: Netanyahu
Israeli election front-runner Benjamin Netanyahu told a session of the WEF that preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons ranks far above the global economy among the challenges facing leaders. |
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UN seeks $613 mn in urgent aid for Gaza war victims
The United Nations on Thursday launched an emergency appeal for $613 million to help Palestinians recover from Israel's attack on Gaza. "Help is indeed needed urgently," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. |
Bill Clinton jokes about Putin, backs Obama
Former US President Bill Clinton must have thought he'd heard it all. But in a new era of billion-dollar bailouts, state control of the economy and bank nationalization, he discovered an unexpected champion of liberal markets: Vladimir Putin. |
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Indian market can soothe woes, Nath tells global firms
Global manufacturers can lessen their pain arising out of recession in major markets by setting up production facilities in India, which still offers a competitive environment, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said on Thursday. |
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Chinese economy to grow at 8% in 2009: Jiabao
Hard pressed by the global financial crisis, China has set a target of eight per cent economic growth in 2009, lower than nine per cent attained last year but still the highest in the world. |
WEF begins, co-chairs deliberate on meltdown
The five-day annual meeting of the World Economic Forum got off on Wednesday with one of the co-chairs warning that resolution of current global financial meltdown will take long if drastic actions are not taken. |
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Crisis hit Davos goes on sale
Every year thousands of delegates show up at Davos not just to discuss and debate important issues, but also to get a taste of high end shopping at the promenade of Davos. |
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Davos scales back glitz
With capitalism in crisis, the 2,500 business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week will find less starpower than usual. Organizers say the five-day event...
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Davos 2009 to discuss crisis without US finance chiefs
The World Economic Forum will search for solutions to the financial crisis with some 40 world leaders — but without the top finance officials of the new US administration, occupied by the crisis or by the confirmation process at home.
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The world's top business and political leaders begin their five-day brainstorming on January 28, 2009 where they will search for solutions to the financial crisis with some 40-world leaders, in the World Economic Forum. |
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Dateline Davos
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Davos in Doubt? Shivnath ThukralDelegates attending the Davos meeting can be classified into two categories. The believers and non-believers. |
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In Quotes
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Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and the father of microcredit and Nobel Peace Prize winner
It's not just disappointment and frustrations. This is the greatest moment we have because things need to be changed, it's as simple as that. We don't want to go back to the same normalcy that we're coming from. We will create a new normalcy that will stay and keep on moving and change the world.
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Stephen Roach, chairman of investment bank Morgan Stanley in Asia
Davos just sort of encapsulates the broader global debate. We're now moving into the ugliest phase of every crisis, the blame game.
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Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore
Everybody's lost in Davos. No one seems to have a clear understanding of how big this crisis is and what we need to do to get out of it. My own view is that you really need to do a fundamental reexamination of the whole global system to see what went wrong, and nobody here is yet ready to ask these kinds of fundamental questions in Davos.
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Lars G. Josefsson, President and Chief Executive, Vattenfall.
We have to rebuild our society.There are so many investments opportunities from the private sector that can be done in reducing carbon emission."
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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director, the World Bank.
"Investment in women is smart economics. Investment in girls is even smarter economics because they are at the center of development."
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Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso.
"The world is now facing a crisis that is said to occur only once a century."
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Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs:
"Consumers are buying high-end smart phones still, which is surprising in an economic crisis. But the fact of the matter is that people are seeing the value in wireless data.
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Elizabeth Daly, dean of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California:
"My fear ... is that families will revert to saying 'I've got to save the money for the boy. I'm not going to put my girl forward.' Maybe I'm wrong, and I hope I am. We'll wait and see. Next fall will be the proof.
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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Managing Director, World Bank:
"Investment in women is smart economics. Investment in girls is even smarter economics because they are at the center of development.
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Lars G. Josefsson, President and Chief Executive, Vattenfall:
"We have to rebuild our society. There are so many investments opportunities from the private sector that can be done in reducing carbon emission.
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Taro Aso, Prime Minister, Japan:
"The world economy is facing a crisis that is said to occur only once a century.
Economic prosperity is now confronted by challenges around the world. We will resolutely fight all protectionism in order to put the world economy back on its trajectory.
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Rainer Ohler, senior vice president of Airbus SA:
"There are certain areas where governments need to take action and there are certain areas where it's clearly the financial markets that should take care of things. Governments are not the answer. We all need to do our homework and take care of ourselves.
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Gordon Brown, Prime Minister, Britain:
"This is not like the 1930s. The world can come together. This is a global banking crisis and you've got to deal with it for what it is, a global banking crisis.
It's important that we build on the right ideas.
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Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission:
"Institutions (like IMF) that we have, are not capable to deal with the problem...let us restructure these institutions. We have got a huge crisis, and the way institutions function needs to be rethought. "
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Theologian Jim Wallis, CEO of Sojourners USA:
"We have trusted the invisible hand so much that we forgot to bring virtue to bear on our decisions so the invisible hand has let go of some important things, like the common good. The common good has not been very common in our decision-making about economics for a long time."
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Abdalla Salem El-Badri, Secretary-General of Oil Cartel OPEC:
"We are not happy with $40 a barrel or even $50. This is not enough to permit our member countries to invest and if they don't invest now, there will not be enough capacity to meet the increased demand when the economy recovers."
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Yuri Ushakov, Deputy Chief of Staff for Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:
"The prime minister will have no opportunity to ski."
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Mukesh Ambani,
Chairman & MD, Reliance Industries:
"The bulk of the demand is going to come in the next 25 years from the developing world, from Asia, from the Middle East and price becomes a very, very important factor because it's not just about government economics or company economics, it's really about quality of life for millions and millions of people and affordability is critical."
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Manouchehr Mottaki, Iranian Foreign Minister:
"We do believe that if the new administration of the United States, as Mr. Obama says, is going to change its policies — not in saying but practice — they will find in the region a cooperative approach and reaction."
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Bill Clinton, Former U.S. President:
"The Chinese premier was right: It all started in the United States. America has to lead the way."
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Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
"Help is indeed needed urgently to enable the UN and other aid organizations to jump into action to help the 1.4 million citizens of the Gaza Strip to recover.
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Indra Nooyi, Pepsico chief:
"This is not the time to over-regulate one part of the industry that you understand, just to put something in place to answer the crisis that is going on today.It's not the laws that you have in the books but how you comply with those laws, that's important.
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Dennis Snower, President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, Germany:
"The market has not failed. The market has not been regulated well."
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Lord Adair Turner, Chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority:
"The crucial principle in future is that if it looks like a bank and quacks like a bank, we better regulate it like a bank. We have to regulate according to economic substance, not legal form."
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Billionaire philanthropist George Soros:
"The size of the problem confronting us today is larger than in the 1930s."
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Laura Tyson, economist and former economic adviser to President Bill Clinton:
"Governments can borrow. Banks cannot. The reason they cannot is because no one trusts them. Why should they trust them? They weren't transparent. They lost trillions of dollars. They created instruments even they didn't understand."
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Rupert Murdoch, chief executive of News Corp:
"Don't let's lose sight of what creates wealth. It is open markets, it is capitalism."
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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao:
"Let us strengthen confidence and work together to bring about a new round of global economic growth."
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Stephen S. Roach, chairman, Asia, Morgan Stanley:
"We cannot underestimate the challenges and the dangers that we face in 2009. We are in a global recession the likes of which we have never seen. But there is no quick fix."
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Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum :
"The annual meeting 2009 is one of the most crucial in the near 40 year history of the World Economic Forum. The extraordinary participation in terms of political and business leaders and other stakeholders demonstrates that our Annual Meeting will be the place where key actors can address both a crisis of unprecedented scope and, at the same time, the sort of world we collectively want to see emerging once the crisis is over."
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Anand Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra Group Vice Chairman & Managing Director:
"The annual meeting 2009 will serve as an ideal forum for a diverse range of policy makers, business leaders and influencer's from both emerging and developed nations to come together on a common platform and evolve a solution to the current economic crisis facing the world."
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Kamal Nath, Commerce and Industry Minister:
"India's growth story is based on domestic demand. It is not based on the export market entirely. We cannot insulate or isolate ourselves from the global downturn, but can continue to keep our domestic demand-driven growth. We are not going to get hit as badly as other countries. I had meetings with industry. They said in the last 15 days they have seen a pick-up...they are seeing things brighten up...of course they want more."
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Send us your thoughts
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As the world’s top business leaders and politicians gather on a single platform, what according to you should dominate the agenda at the World Economic Forum?
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