Uncertainty marks end of Davos summit
Source: Agencies |
February 1, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE world's foremost gathering of business and government leaders wrapped up a five-day meeting yesterday with widespread agreement that a fragile recovery is under way but no consensus on what's going to spur job growth and prevent another global economic meltdown.
The World Economic Forum gathering of some 2,500 VIPs in the Swiss resort of Davos saw spirited debate on whether more regulation is needed for the financial industry, how to boost sagging global unemployment, and finding ways to ensure the nascent recovery is kept on course through 2010.
The atmosphere of doom and gloom that pervaded last year's forum was replaced this year by a feeling of some satisfaction that a modest recovery is under way but uncertainty about the way forward and how banks should respond.
Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann said the worst of the economic crisis had been managed "quite successfully" but decision makers now had a tough choice: "Should we take more risk, be a creative force for growth, or should we focus on security?"
Peter Sands, CEO of Britain's Standard Chartered Bank, said the right balance must be struck "between making a safer banking system and a financial system that can support the sort of dynamism and growth in job creation.
"Get it wrong one way and we risk a new crisis; get it wrong the other way and we'll take the steam out of the recovery and reduce the chances of creating new jobs," he said.
Klaus Schwab, the forum's founder, ended the meeting with a call to the business and government leaders to reflect "on values" and social responsibility.
With China and India spurring the global economy, Azim Premji, chairman of India's Wipro Limited, a global communications company, predicted that richer countries will "more aggressively" invest in emerging markets in order to maintain their own growth, which will be "good for the emerging world."
The World Economic Forum gathering of some 2,500 VIPs in the Swiss resort of Davos saw spirited debate on whether more regulation is needed for the financial industry, how to boost sagging global unemployment, and finding ways to ensure the nascent recovery is kept on course through 2010.
The atmosphere of doom and gloom that pervaded last year's forum was replaced this year by a feeling of some satisfaction that a modest recovery is under way but uncertainty about the way forward and how banks should respond.
Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann said the worst of the economic crisis had been managed "quite successfully" but decision makers now had a tough choice: "Should we take more risk, be a creative force for growth, or should we focus on security?"
Peter Sands, CEO of Britain's Standard Chartered Bank, said the right balance must be struck "between making a safer banking system and a financial system that can support the sort of dynamism and growth in job creation.
"Get it wrong one way and we risk a new crisis; get it wrong the other way and we'll take the steam out of the recovery and reduce the chances of creating new jobs," he said.
Klaus Schwab, the forum's founder, ended the meeting with a call to the business and government leaders to reflect "on values" and social responsibility.
With China and India spurring the global economy, Azim Premji, chairman of India's Wipro Limited, a global communications company, predicted that richer countries will "more aggressively" invest in emerging markets in order to maintain their own growth, which will be "good for the emerging world."
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