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Work in Progress

After a very successful Annual Meeting, (and one week off), we are now working on how to put the thoughts and ideas generated throughout the Annual Meeting into concrete actions.

The ideas ranged from creating a social venture fund with private-public seed money for pro-poor business activities, to conveying information about disease outbreaks, etc., using our Members' e-mail networks. However, the key question in the area of "New Mindsets / Changing Attitudes" raised during the Big Debate in Davos has been

"How can we create a global education framework that fosters inclusivity?"

We are now assessing the different ideas, as well as our existing initiatives and projects, to come up with a concrete implementation plan by the end of March.

We will keep you posted.

Best regards,

Saman Ahsan & Emanuel Frauenlob

To Kick-Start the “New Mindsets / Changing Attitudes” Action Group

Welcome to the World Economic Forum Action Group 3 Blog. This action group, formed in our Annual Meeting 2006 focuses on New Mindsets/ Changing Attitudes.

We are looking forward to an exciting and intensive discussion process over the next days. What are the upcoming disruptive technologies changing the way we think and act, how to unleash the power of alternative energy and how to take responsibility for the next generations. What are the new mindsets that we need to create and how do we go about it? These are just some of the questions that we shall discuss on this blog and during our Action Group meetings.

Just “hot air”?

No, we don’t think so.

1. Each Action Group will be composed of different communities (such as Young Global Leaders, Business Leaders, Academia), representing the stakeholders of real-world issues, and providing a broad range of intellectual views and experiences
2. Whilst the brainstorming will not be limited in any way, at the end of the Annual Meeting Journey we will come up with a concrete recommendation
3. Throughout 2006 we will work hard to implement parts of the recommendation, by making the best use of the existing initiatives of the World Economic Forum.

We would like to especially invite everybody to contribute and to post your opinion. Please enter any relevant messages regarding this theme so we gather and sift through information as we go through our Annual Meeting and also beyond.

Please ensure you sign your name after each comment so we can attribute good ideas later.

We are looking forward to your posts!

Saman Ahsan                                                            

Global Leadership Fellow                                          

C-100 Initiative         

    

and

 

Emanuel Frauenlob

Global Leadership Fellow

Europe

Arab World Competitiveness Report 2005

The Arab World Competitiveness Report 2005 will be released on 2 April 2005.

There is growing consensus among prominent leaders in the Arab world that ambitious and sustained economic and political reforms are the only way to boost the region's growth performance. The countries of the Arab world vary significantly in their levels of per capita income, the degree of political and economic liberalization that underpins them, and the structure of the productive apparatus, with many being unduly dependent on the energy sector. However, all must boost job creation and income levels and no one questions the urgent need for all Arab countries to implement policies aimed at enhancing national competitiveness. Helping precipitate a debate on how best this can be done, and in what areas, is the main aim of the Arab World Competitiveness Report 2005. Failure to act now could have worrisome consequences for the region's economies and for the regimes that sustain them. Unless countries in the Arab world can ensure gainful employment for their fast-growing populations—particularly the young—the significant political difficulties that are already emerging could worsen, with potentially unfavorable economic and political consequences. World Economic Forum website links: World Economic Forum in Jordan Annual Meeting 2005: "The magic has returned to the mountains," says Peres Egypt's Nazif supports modernization without westernization

How to modernize without westernizing?

Eastern countries have to change without losing their cultural values, said in substance Egypt's Prime Minister Ahmed Mahmoud Nazif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shaukat Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, and Vice-President of Iran, Masoumeh Ebtekar. 

As leaders of Islamic societies, they feel very concerned with the idea that there is a way to combine the need for reforms - that would give their people a better future - with the preservation of their culture and religious patrimony. 

Modernization, they said, should be a process coming from within the society, a process that is in conformity with its moral values. And not something impose from the West in general or any country in particular. 

“No one has the monopoly of wisdom”, stressed Shaukat Aziz, “if somebody has something [Islamic societies] can benefit from, [they] should accept it”. 

There is no single path to modernize a country. Other ways can be found and every country is free to develop his own. As long as democracy is provided one may add. 

According to Najib Razak, Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, democracy is both a prerequisite and “a tool to achieve modernization”. 

Still, another issue is at stake today. If eastern countries should not fear the influence of the West, the West should not fear the East. Nor Islam.

Arab Business Council

Yesterday we published the discussion summary of the annual Arab Business Council meeting. The Arab world must improve its competitiveness and business will be the driver of economic, corporate and education reforms.