World Economic Forum 2019 in Davos
SSP Partners in Davos.
DAVOS-KLOSTERS, Switzerland
Strategic Swiss Partners (SSP) had the honour of participating once again in the prestigious World Economic Forum side events 2019, held in Davos from Jan 22-25.
This year's summit was themed “Globalisation 4.0: Shaping a Global Architecture in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)" and was aimed at defining new models for the creation of sustainable and inclusive societies in a growing, culturally pluralistic world.
“Globalisation, as we know it, may have reached its peak, but global integration will continue. It is sustained by the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the urgent need to address challenges such as climate change and biodiversity, the loss of jobs to automation, and a threat of rupturing global cooperation.
These changes specifically impact the coming generations, which is why it is essential to forcefully participate in the construction of a new sustainable and inclusive global architecture,” founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab said in a statement.
Executive WEF Chairman Klaus Schwab (center) and SSP’s Benedikt Rieger & Lucius Giese at the Davos Indonesia Dinner.
South Asia has the potential to become a hub of innovation in the 4IR, with its young population well connected to new global technological developments; opportunities created by the growth of 4IR technologies; and a large, educated labour market.
The rise of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), block chain and autonomous vehicles present interesting opportunities to tackle some of the large-scale systemic challenges in South Asia.
But a lack of understanding of the technologies, unreliable existing systems, and fear of the negative effects of these technologies are stifling their adoption.
How Asia could be the winner in the US and China's Belt and Road race
Infrastructure development has become one of the greatest battlegrounds. The world’s three largest economies – the US, China and Japan – are actively manoeuvring for economic and geopolitical influence through an infrastructure-funding and investment race across emerging markets globally, with Asia Pacific taking centre stage.
The core issues now are how governments and developers that sit within targeted countries handle this newfound attention, and if they can turn it to the advantage of their people.
This infrastructure race will clearly have a major impact on the future of global trade and supply chains, manufacturing and services, as well as the development of strategic, long-term alliances.
It has been kicked into higher gear with China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has woken the world afresh to the strategic implications of infrastructure and energy development.
It is also clear China has turned its investment sights closer to home.
Recently released data from Baker McKenzie and the Rhodium Group show that combined Chinese FDI into North America and Europe fell 73% in 2018, from US$111 billion in 2017 to a six-year low of US$30 billion last year, due to a combination of new controls at home and greater investment screening in target nations.
This means the Asia Pacific region will be more of a focus for China than ever before.
Forbes Chairman Steve Forbes (centre) and SSP’s esports partner Martin Wyss and Fabian Mahalingam at the Davos Forbes dinner.
The Forum’s history
The World Economic Forum came about in 1971 in Geneva (Switzerland), as a non-profit organisation “independent, impartial and not tied to special interests.”
Its founder is Klaus M. Schwab, a professor at the University of Geneva, who more than four decades ago invited 444 executives from European companies to a meeting on corporate governance in the convention center of Davos.
His idea was to introduce the American business management approach to European firms and never imagined that that initial meeting would lead to the unparalleled international summit that it has become.
The World Economic Forum, held annually offers an opportunity for business and government leaders to discuss solutions to the world’s most pressing economic and social challenges.
SSP joined these global leaders and participated in discussions in the side events organised and designed to develop meaningful and measurable solutions to these challenges.
