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WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
Business Leaders gather with much
optimism, in Davos
World business leaders attending the
World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland said they hoped
to take home a message of optimism on the global economy
from the five-day gathering in the mountain resort.
Introducing the program, World Economic
Forum Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab said the
theme, "Partnering for Security and Prosperity," is intended
to ensure a broad discussion among the 2100 participants.
After three Annual Meetings when single issues largely
dominated deliberations – the global economic downturn in
2001, terrorism in 2002 in the
wake of the 11 September attacks on the United States, and
Iraq last year. "We have tried to arrange a program covering
all the big issues on the global agenda, and ensure that
they be discussed in a systemic way".
The Annual Meeting Co-Chairs hailed the
"unique opportunity" provided by the Meeting to exchange
ideas not only with other corporate chiefs but also with
government officials from developed and developing
countries, with scientists, philosophers, cultural and
religious figures, tackling the world’s most pressing
problems.
Marilyn C. Nelson, Chair and Chief
Executive Officer of Carlson Companies,USA, said "I would
like to leave Davos with a sense of real optimism about
global growth and the creation of new jobs,", at a news
conference, also addressed by her three Meeting Co-Chairs
and Klaus Schwab. "This Meeting can add to optimism about
the outlook for the global economy so that we can get out of
this depressing phase we’ve had over the past few years,"
said Walter B. Kielholz, Chairman of the Board, Credit
Suisse Group, Switzerland.
John T. Chambers, President and Chief
Executive Officer, Cisco Systems, USA, said the very first
time he came to a meeting of the World Economic Forum he had
come expecting to meet fellow executives and some of his
company’s customers. "But I soon discovered this is a very
unique event, bringing in political leaders, heads of
non-governmental organisations, prominent scientists. ... I
can hear and learn things here that I would not have if I
travelled around the world." “The Meeting is a great
opportunity to meet people you would never normally meet" ,
said Carlos Ghosn, President, Nissan Motor Company, Japan,.
Sessions on the margins of the gathering on art, science and
faith issues "can offer business leaders a lot of new ideas
and give them a better understanding of what is going on
outside their own world". Ghosn also firmly rejected a
suggestion from one journalist that corporate scandals and
what he called "lying" by executives in the United States
and Europe over the past few years cast into doubt the
honesty and sincerity of business leaders in pledging to
observe social responsibility. "I think it is a
generalisation to say that corporate leaders are lying. That
is a bit excessive. There have been exceptions and they are
grave, but they are exceptional," the Nissan President
declared. Around the world there has been a strengthening of
corporate responsibility, transparency and accountability.
Commenting on the reporter’s question,
Schwab noted that two thirds of global companies identified
by the authoritative Financial Times as the world’s most
respected among business, market analysts and campaigning
non-governmental organisations, are attended the World
Economic Forum’s Meeting.
Source:
World Economic Forum
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