The 2015 annual meeting meeting of the World Economic Forum starts in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday 20th January and runs through until the closing Soiree on Saturday 24th January. It is a hectic four and a bit days with 2 500 participants able to select from almost 250 official sessions and dozens of private events.
This year the meeting’s theme is The New Global Context, framed around concerns that the era of economic integration and global partnership which began with the Falling of the Berlin Wall is under threat. As the WEF’s official documentation puts it: “Profound political, economic, social and, above all, technological transformations are altering long-standing assumptions about our prospects. “
The “new global context” applies to a range of issues. Ahead of Davos 2015, the WEF suggested the key ones are:
· Deepening geopolitical fault-lines.
· Ending of quantitative easing and resulting higher interest rates.
· Trust erosion in public and private sector institutions.
· Deteriorating dialogue between government and business
· Impact of scientific and technological advances
· Poor management and governance of natural resources and cyberspace.
· Little progress on climate change, youth unemployment and income inequality
· The rise of sectarianism, populism, nationalism and Statism.
South Africa is exposed to many of these tectonic shifts. And as a small economy in global terms, is extremely vulnerable to forces outside of its control. Attending Davos helps its leaders understand these issues and their potential impact.