Forumblog.org - The World Economic Forum Blog

Vote on the best video and decide who will attend the Summer Davos

We have received over 130 video entries about sustainability to the Summer Davos Debates on Youku, one of China’s main video portals. Together with our friends at Youku and Ogilvy Asia we have chosen ten finalists.

Now we want you to choose the two lucky persons who will attend the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin. Watch the entries and select the best video according to these criteria: Which video best illustrates sustainable growth? Which is the most creative? Which video best represents the interests of their community? Your opinion matters! Vote early and vote often.

The creators of the two best videos will represent their community at the Summer Davos in Tianjin. This is the first time the World Economic Forum is inviting ordinary citizens from mainland China to participate in the Summer Davos.

The two lucky netizens will be able to have direct conversations with the participants about Driving Growth through Sustainability, the main theme of the meeting. At the conference centre in Tianjin we have set up a special video corner where the two netizens will be able to interview the participants. These interviews will be available on the Forum’s Youku channel.

Chinese netizens invited to participate in the Summer Davos in Tianjin all expenses paid

The World Economic Forum is launching the Summer Davos Debates online at Youku.com to provide the public with the opportunity to present ideas to world leaders at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2010 in Tianjin, China, on 13-15 September.

The Forum is inviting two Chinese netizens to participate in what has become known as the “Summer Davos”. It is the first time the Forum is opening its meeting in China to ordinary citizens through video sumission on Youku.com, the largest video site in China.

The theme of the 2010 Meeting is “Driving Growth through Sustainability”. The Forum wants to understand how Youku users would meet local, regional and global challenges. Among the key questions on the agenda at the Summer Davos are: How can we manage resources more efficiently? How can we increase energy efficiency? How can we lower carbon emissions? How can we rebuild basic infrastructure?

The Forum is asking Youku users to share examples of sustainability in their community and submit the video on Youku at http://DavosDebates.youku.com, where users also can vote on their favourite submissions by others.

The creators of the two best videos submitted will have the opportunity to take part in the Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin all expenses paid, where they can participate in the event, interact with world leaders and represent the general public in dialogue.

Programme of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions

Over 1300 policy-makers and business leaders from around the world including Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will meet in Dalian, northeastern China from 10-12 September for the Annual Meeting of the New Champions. The meeting also dubbed the ‘Summer Davos’ is held under the theme "Relaunching Growth". Participants will debate and define the course needed to relaunch growth. Key sessions listed below will be streamed live on Livestream, key quotes will be live tweeted on the Forum’s Twitter feed, and high resolution photos will be available for free download on Flickr.

Thursday 10 September, 09.00 - 10.00 (01.00 - 02.00 GMT)

Global Redesign Series -- What Is the Basis of a New Social Compact? Collaborative governance, corporate responsibility and soft regulation were at the core of the social compact between business and society until the economic crisis. What shared values will underpin economic systems in the post-crisis world? Aron Cramer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), USA; Global Agenda Council on Sustainable Consumption Timothy P. Flynn, Chairman, KPMG International, USA; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions Sir Mohammad Jaafar, Chairman and Managing Director, Kuwaiti Danish Dairy Company, Kuwait Stuart Popham, Senior Partner, Clifford Chance, United Kingdom Chaired by Rui Chenggang, Director and Anchor, China Central Television, People's Republic of China; Global Agenda Council on the Future of Journalism

Thursday 10 September, 10.30 - 11.30 (02.30 - 03.30 GMT)

Global Redesign Series -- Managing Global Risks Global risks manifest themselves at any time, as evidenced by the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the H1N1 influenza outbreak less than a year from each other. What global risks need urgent attention, and how can they be mitigated? Erwann Michel-Kerjan, Managing Director, Center for Risk Management and Decision Processes, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA; Young Global Leader Robin Niblett, Director, Chatham House, United Kingdom; Global Agenda Council on Global Institutional Governance Peer M. Schatz Chief Executive Officer, Qiagen, Germany; Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals Geoffrey B. West, President and Distinguished Professor, Santa Fe Institute, USA Robert S. Zeigler, Director-General, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines Chaired by Rafael Ramirez, James Martin Senior Research Fellow in Futures, Oxford Institute for Science, Innovation & Society, 21st Century School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Global Agenda Council on Strategic Foresight

Thursday 10 September, 11.45 - 12.45 (03.45 - 04.45 GMT)

Management Lessons from the Great Recession The decline of global growth in 2008 and 2009 has been deemed the "great recession" given the synchronized nature of an unprecedented decline in real GDP and a contraction in emerging economies. What have been the most important management lessons from the downturn for global companies? Maurice Lévy, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Publicis Group, France; Member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum Arif M. Naqvi, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Abraaj Capital, United Arab Emirates; Global Agenda Council on Global Capital Flows James J. Schiro, Group Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Group Management Board, Zurich Financial Services, Switzerland; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions Sun Hong, Chairman, Dalian Port (PDA) Company, People's Republic of China Chaired by Hellmut Schütte, Emeritus Professor of INSEAD, Distinguished Professor of China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), People's Republic of China

Thursday 10 September, 14.00 - 15.00 (06.00 - 07.00 GMT)

The Global Downturn and the Developing World The World Bank estimates that a 1% decline in growth rates of developing countries traps an additional 20 million people in poverty. What measures can lessen the impact of the global recession on the developing world? Lim Guan Eng, Chief Minister of Penang, Malaysia Mahmoud Safwat Mohieldin, Minister of Investment of Egypt Sha Zukang, Undersecretary-General, Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), United Nations, New York Hanna Tetteh, Minister of Trade, Industry, Private Sector and Presidential Special Initiatives of Ghana Luis Carlos Villegas Echeverri, President, Asociacion Nacional de Industriales - Andi, Colombia Zhang Xiaoqiang, Vice-Chairman, National Development and Reform Commission, People's Republic of China Chaired by Gideon Rachman, Associate Editor, Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, Financial Times, United Kingdom; Global Agenda Council on Global Institutional Governance

Thursday 10 September, 15.30 - 16.30 (07.30 - 08.30 GMT)

Financing Global Growth: Time for a New Paradigm? Governments -- through guarantees, asset purchases and lending facilities -- have provided over US$ 8 trillion to support the banking sector and continue to promote lending; yet, for many, corporate credit is still unavailable. As the rules of international finance are rewritten, how will companies fund future global growth? Rashad Y. Janahi, Managing Director and Board Member, Abu Dhabi Investment House, United Arab Emirates Ronald Kent, Executive Vice President, Head of International Listings, NYSE Euronext, United Kingdom Li Yang, Vice-President, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), People's Republic of China Luis Guillermo Plata, Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism of Colombia; Young Global Leader Christopher Rodrigues, Chairman, International Personal Finance, United Kingdom Levin Zhu, President and Chief Executive Officer, China International Capital Corporation, People's Republic of China Chaired by Stephen Engle, China Correspondent, Bloomberg News, People's Republic of China

Thursday 10 September, 17.00 - 17.10 (09.00 - 09.10 GMT)

Welcome to the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009 Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum Xia Deren, Party Secretary, Dalian CPC Municipal Committee, People's Republic of China

Thursday 10 September, 17.10 - 18.00 (09.10 - 10.00 GMT)

Opening Plenary with Premier Wen Jiabao Wen Jiabao, Premier of the People's Republic of China Chaired by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum

Friday 11 September, 09.00 - 10.00 (01.00 - 02.00 GMT)

Preventing the Next Great Backlash The Global Risk Report 2009 warns of dramatic deterioration of fiscal balances in G8 and other economies that will put major stress on healthcare and social security systems. What are the implications for business and the global recovery process? John Bryant, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Operation Hope, USA; Young Global Leader; Global Agenda Council on Poverty & Development Finance Margery Kraus, President and Chief Executive Officer, APCO Worldwide, USA Jean-Pierre Lehmann, Professor of International Political Economy, Institute for Management Development International (IMD), Switzerland; Global Agenda Council on the Future of China Ben J. Verwaayen, Chief Executive Officer, Alcatel-Lucent, France; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions Valdis Zatlers, President of Latvia Chaired by Nik Gowing, Main Presenter, BBC World News, United Kingdom

Friday 11 September, 10.30 - 11.30 (02.30 - 03.30 GMT)

Recalibrating Global Demand Few prognosticators predicted the sub-prime collapse, and even fewer economists forecasted that global demand would fall so dramatically in the wake of the financial crisis. What are the systemic risks, industry dynamics and normative changes affecting global demand today? David Dollar, Economic and Financial Emissary to the People's Republic of China, US Department of the Treasury; Global Agenda Council on Trade Ilian Mihov, Professor of Economics, Novartis Chaired Professor of Management and the Environment, INSEAD, Singapore Vincent Van Quickenborne, Minister of Economy and Reform of Belgium Zhang Xiaogang, President, Anshan Iron and Steel Group Corporation, People's Republic of China Chaired by Ian A. Goldin, Director, 21st Century School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Global Agenda Council on Global Institutional Governance

Friday 11 September, 11.45 - 12.45 (03.45 - 04.45 GMT)

The Global Economic Outlook The International Monetary Fund now projects that global growth will return next year at 2.5%, provided that the now recovering financial system is truly on the mend. As fiscal and monetary options narrow, particularly in the West, what will be the global economic outlook, and is the financial crisis truly behind us? Miranda S. Goeltom, Acting Governor of Bank Indonesia H.E. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Essa Al Khalifa, Chief Executive, Bahrain Economic Development Board, Bahrain; Young Global Leader Antony Leung, Senior Managing Director and Chairman of Greater China, Blackstone Group (HK), Hong Kong SAR Stephen S. Roach, Chairman, Asia, Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong SAR Heizo Takenaka, Director, Global Security Research Institute, Keio University, Japan; Member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum; Global Agenda Council on Economic Imbalances Zhu Min Group Executive Vice-President, Bank of China, People's Republic of China Chaired by Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times, United Kingdom; Global Agenda Council on Systemic Financial Risk

Friday 11 September, 14.00 - 15.00 (06.00 - 07.00 GMT)

The Global Dimensions of China's Domestic Growth With per capita GDP at US$ 2,000, Chinese incomes are currently about one-tenth of those of Americans; yet, expectations are that the country will eventually overtake the United States as the world's consumer of last resort. How will China's future growth and consumption affect trade patterns, commodity markets and investment flows worldwide? This session will share key findings from the Resource Summit organized at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions to provide a long-term sector outlook for metals and minerals. Welber Barral, Secretary of International Trade of Brazil Jon M. Huntsman Jr, US Ambassador to the People's Republic of China David Li Daokui, Director and Mansfield Freeman Professor of Economics, Center for China in the World Economy (CCWE), Tsinghua University, People's Republic of China Xiong Weiping, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Aluminum Corporation of China (CHALCO), People's Republic of China Zhao Xiaoyu, Vice-President, Operations, Asian Development Bank, Manila Chaired by Bernard Lo, Presenter, Bloomberg News, Hong Kong SAR

Friday 11 September, 15.30 - 16.45 (07.30 - 08.45 GMT)

Finding the New Shoots of Growth As the global economy begins to exit from the deepest recession since World War II, the recovery is expected to follow a different path from those of recent memory. What, and where, are the new drivers of growth? Marwan M. Boodai, Chief Executive Officer, Boodai Corporation, Kuwait Liu Jiren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Neusoft Corporation, People's Republic of China; Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals Deepak Puri, Chairman and Managing Director, Moser Baer, India Iqbal Survé, Executive Chairman, Sekunjalo Investments, South Africa James S. Turley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Ernst & Young, USA Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China Chaired by Victor Halberstadt, Professor of Public Economics, Leiden University, Netherlands; Global Agenda Council on International Monetary Systems

Friday 11 September, 17.00 - 18.00 (09.00 - 10.00 GMT)

The New Champions of Competitiveness How countries outperform others in terms of maximizing productivity and growth, given their available resources, has been measured by The Global Competitiveness Report for over three decades. How have some countries managed to improve their productive potential, and what strategies are they using to reinforce their longer-term competitiveness amid the global economic downturn? Hoang Trung Hai, Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam Yoko Ishikura, Professor, Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy, Hitotsubashi University, Japan; Global Agenda Council on the Skills Gap Mahmoud Safwat Mohieldin, Minister of Investment of Egypt Marco Vinicio Ruiz Gutierrez, Minister of Foreign Trade of Costa Rica Ramakrishna Sithanen, Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economic Empowerment of Mauritius Chaired by Nik Gowing, Main Presenter, BBC World News, United Kingdom

Saturday 12 September, 09.00 - 10.30 (01:00 - 02.30 GMT)

Asia's Foreign Currency Exposure: Buy, Hold or Sell? China's proposal for the International Monetary Fund to create a new reserve currency to lessen global reliance on the US dollar caught many in the financial world by surprise. As concern builds over the future of the US dollar, how should Asia manage its nearly US$ 4 trillion in foreign currency reserves in the near and long term? In partnership with the World Economic Forum, CNBC hosts this discussion. Oki Matsumoto, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Monex Group, Japan Stephen S. Roach, Chairman, Asia, Morgan Stanley, Hong Kong SAR Kiat Sittheeamorn, President of Thailand Trade Representative Martin Wolf, Associate Editor and Chief Economics Commentator, Financial Times, United Kingdom; Global Agenda Council on Systemic Financial Risk Yu Yongding, Senior Fellow, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), People's Republic of China; Global Agenda Council on International Monetary Systems Moderated by Geoff Cutmore, Anchor, CNBC, United Kingdom

Saturday 12 September, 10.30 - 11.30 (02.30 - 03.30 GMT)

Success versus Survival in a Global Downturn Companies that can increase profitability as well as enter new markets will not only get through the global recession but will also lead the recovery. How can firms build and brand their products and services, not just to survive but also to thrive in the current economic environment? Pramod Bhasin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Genpact, India Yoshihiko Miyauchi, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Orix Corporation, Japan Vivek Y. Ranadive, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, TIBCO Software, USA Sir Martin Sorrell, Group Chief Executive, WPP, United Kingdom; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions; Global Agenda Council on Marketing & Branding Wang Jianlin, Chairman and President, Dalian Wanda Group, People's Republic of China Chaired by David Schlesinger, Editor-in-Chief, Thomson Reuters, United Kingdom

Saturday 12 September, 11.45 - 12.45 (03.45 - 04.45 GMT)

Global Redesign Series - Asia's New Role in Managing the Global Economy Although Asia has almost US$ 4 trillion in currency reserves, the combined voting rights of Japan, China and India in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are fewer than those of the US and half of EU member states. As Asia's influence increases in the IMF, World Bank and World Trade Organization, how will it change the future mandate, leadership and management of such institutions? Jaspal S. Bindra, Chief Executive Officer, Asia, Standard Chartered Bank, Hong Kong SAR; Global Agenda Council on Talent and Diversity Alejandro Jara, Deputy Director-General, World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva Muhammad Lutfi, Chairman, Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), Indonesia; Young Global Leader Moon Chung-In, Professor of Political Science, Yonsei University, Republic of Korea; Global Agenda Council on the Future of Korea Zhu Min, Group Executive Vice-President, Bank of China, People's Republic of China Chaired by Hiroko Kuniya, Anchor, Today's Close-Up, NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Japan

Saturday 12 September, 15.30 - 16.30 (07.30 - 08.30 GMT)

Building a Sustainable Value Chain The EU highlights that if the rest of the world adopted European lifestyles, the resources of two and a half planets would be needed to support consumption. As consumption trends towards sustainability in major economies, what will be the future business model for manufacturers and retailers in advanced and developing economies? Ed Chan, President and Chief Executive Officer, Wal-Mart China, People's Republic of China Chen Yunxian, Mayor of Foshan, People's Republic of China John C. Compton, Chief Executive Officer, PepsiCo Americas Foods, PepsiCo, USA Michael Kuhndt, Head, UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP), Germany; Global Agenda Council on Sustainable Consumption Tarek Sultan Al Essa, Chairman and Managing Director, Agility, Kuwait; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions Chaired by Aron Cramer, President and Chief Executive Officer, Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), USA; Global Agenda Council on Sustainable Consumption

Saturday 12 September, 16.45 - 17.35 (08.45 - 09.35 GMT)

The Next Steps towards a Global Recovery Although the latest International Monetary Fund estimates predict the world economy will contract by 1.4% in 2009, they also forecast a 2.5% rebound in global growth in 2010. How can leaders from industry, government and international organizations work together to ensure that key economies make the right decisions on regulatory, trade and investment issues going forward? Sharan Burrow, President, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Belgium; Global Agenda Council on Employment & Social Protection David Kennedy, Head, Institute on Global Law and Policy, Harvard Law School, USA; Global Agenda Council on Global Institutional Governance Liu Jiren, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Neusoft Corporation, People's Republic of China; Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals Tarek Sultan Al Essa, Chairman and Managing Director, Agility, Kuwait; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions Ben J. Verwaayen, Chief Executive Officer, Alcatel-Lucent, France; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions John Zhao, Chief Executive Officer, Hony Capital, People's Republic of China; Mentor of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions; Global Agenda Council on the Future of China Closing Remarks by Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum Xia Deren, Party Secretary, Dalian CPC Municipal Committee, People's Republic of China Chaired by Nik Gowing, Main Presenter, BBC World News, United Kingdom

Saturday 12 September, 17.35 - 17.45 (09.35 - 09.45 GMT)

Social Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Asia The Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship provides a global platform to promote social entrepreneurship as a means of advancing societies and addressing social issues in an innovative and effective manner. Introduced by Nik Gowing, Main Presenter, BBC World News, United Kingdom Presented by Hilde Schwab, Chairperson and Co-Founder, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

What will be the new drivers of growth?

World business leaders who are the Mentors of the Global Growth Companies answer the question: "What will be the New Drivers of Growth?". They will further discuss ways to foster growth and development at the 'Summer Davos', the Annual Meeting of the New Champions to be held in Dalian, China 10-12 September 2009.

The Mentors are a select group of business leaders from the World Economic Forum’s Partners and Members with extensive international experience in building global businesses and include:

• Gregory Brown, Chief Executive Officer, Motorola, USA
• Fu Chengyu, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), People's Republic of China
• Timothy P. Flynn, Chairman, KPMG International, USA
• Klaus Kleinfeld, President and Chief Executive Officer, Alcoa, USA
• James T. Riady, Chief Executive Officer, Lippo Group, Indonesia
• James J. Schiro, Group Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Group Management Board, Zurich Financial Services, Switzerland
• Sir Martin Sorrell, Group Chief Executive, WPP, United Kingdom
• Tarek Sultan Al Essa, Chairman and Managing Director, Agility, Kuwait
• Ben J. Verwaayen, Chief Executive Officer, Alcatel-Lucent, France
• John Zhao, Chief Executive Officer, Hony Capital, People's Republic of China

Will China pull us out of the economic crisis?

We have launched the Davos Debates in China to coincide with its Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009, held in Dalian, People’s Republic of China, on 10-12 September. We invite the general public to share their thoughts on how China can be a significant driver in bringing the world economy out of its present recession. YouTubers should answer the following question: Will China pull us out of the economic crisis? The videos submitted will become part of the discussions at the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2009.

In the World Expo Center in Dalian, a dedicated video corner will allow the over 1,000 industry, government and thought leaders to reply to the videos submitted by the YouTube community. Chinese Internet users will be able to leave their comments on a special page set up on Sina.com, one of China’s top three most popular websites.

Launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008 in Davos, Switzerland, the Davos Debates have allowed world leaders to reply directly to the YouTube community. The Forum has hosted similar Davos Debates at its regional meetings in South Africa, Jordan and South Korea, with the notable participation of South African President Jacob Zuma and Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Exclusive China Business Summit Blog by Kaiser Kuo

The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and do not represent the views of the World Economic Forum.

Kaiser Kuo is the China Bureau Chief of Red Herring Magazine

Welcome Message

Welcome to the World Economic Forum Action Group Blog.  This action group, formed in our Annual Meeting 2006 focuses on The Emergence of China and India.

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.

Your sincerely,

Chris Cooper

Yu Liu

India & China: optimism for a win-win relationship

On Sunday, a Western speaker on one of the panels expressed concern that the rapid economic growth of China and India over the coming decades "will outstrip our countries' ability to adjust."

But while the world may be in for a shock, Chinese and Indian speakers at this morning's breakfast panel were confident that these two rising economic powers should be able to construct a win-win relationship. A detailed summary of the session is here. All panelists vehemently disagreed with any suggestion that India and China might find themselves competing head-to-head for markets, foreign investment dollars, or resources. Ashok Jha, Secretary of India's Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said that the future "is not India versus China. It is India and China." There was much discussion of how the two countries' complementary strengths can help fuel each others' growth. Were they perhaps a little overly optimistic?

One question we did not have time to address is the extent to which India and China might coordinate strategy on global trade issues. There is growing political resistance in the U.S. and elsewhere to outsourcing and "exporting of jobs" to India and China. Will the two countries increasingly coordinate strategy to deal with this? Will they join forces on trade disputes? Might they even coordinate economic and financial policies??

Several commentators at this summit have supported the idea that China and India should be more fully integrated into international economic and financial governance bodies like the IMF and G7, given their impact on the global economy. Would that bring India and China even closer together?

Please hit the "comments" link and let us know your views.

Worrying times?

As I wandered down the hallways and in and out of the session rooms at the World Economic Forum's China Business Summit, I realized that two main themes were emerging from the presentations and discussions.
First, US government officials and many Western economists are worried that the Chinese economy is overheating and that borrowing needs to be discouraged by raising interest rates. Second, concern is growing that a speculative bubble may be growing around the real estate market in mainland China just as it did in Hong Kong back in the 1990s.

Chinese officials, however, appear confident that the economy can be managed successfully through credit controls and other administrative measures. After all, they have managed to sustain economic growth at or above 7.5% per year since 1990 while the rest of the world has suffered two recessions.

China has enjoyed an unprecedented period of wealth creation. In the last 25 years assets held by Chinese banks have risen a hundredfold, with 400 million people rising above the global poverty line. It's too early to say whether China will manage a soft economic landing but its record in recent years has been exemplary.
Perhaps some in the West cannot yet accept that China has grown up and can look after itself. Or maybe they don't understand that Chinese capitalism is different and doesn't work by purely Western rules.

I'll let you know more about what's coming out of this Summit before it wraps up on Monday evening.

"China's growth is a tougher event than anything we faced since World War Two" - Jeffrey E. Garten, Dean, Yale School of Management

China's growth has been very high in the last years, and we can feel it everywhere. China and Russia had a similar politic and economic situation a few years ago and I am trying to understand how the Chinese made possible this growth, compared to Russia. What I learnt today is that one of the reason of China's success is that Russia changed at the same time its politics system and its economy, where China moved to a market economy keeping a very stable political system. I agree, I think that doing both at the same time has created many unexpected issues in Russia.

China has grown at 8% per year for many years, it is the sixth economy in the World. The standard of living has improved dramatically with an average per capita income above $1000, it was only $300 twenty years ago. 400 million Chinese are now above the global poverty line.

What strikes me the most is how unprepared the US and Europe are to China's growth. The impact of China's economic development is now already huge on the Global Economy. The first consequence that is very often seen is of course jobs being transferred to China but the impact of China's internal demand for energy for example is equally important, China is for example now the second largest importer of oil and second largest electricity consumer. This has an impact on global energy prices and it will only increase.

I think generally in the USA and Europe we do not realize the impact of China's growth and we are totally unprepared because of the speed at which the change happens. It is impossible for Countries and people used to live in comfort to react to this new competition at the same pace.

Vice-premier of the People's Republic of China Zeng Peiyan shared with us today his vision of China becoming a 4 trillion dollar GDP Country by 2020. I was impressed by how many times the word Entrepreneur was quoted. China is definitely committed to creating an open door market environment favorable to Entrepreneurs and private companies. Another reason of China's success has been its shift towards accepting foreign investments. China has been the Country in the World that has received the largest investments last year, ahead of the US and the participation of many international investors and venture capital firms to this Summit shows their interest and their willingness to invest in China. Many new funds are created to invest only in China and I met many investors who where focusing before on the US or Europe that moved here. Robert Yung for example used to work for Intel in the USA and he is now based in Beijing, raising a $75M private equity fund totally dedicated to early stage Chinese startups. In the Technology session, Robert said that five of the ten most successful IPOs at the Nasdaq recently have been Chinese (Robert quoted SINA or SOHU for example), some of them are multi-billion dollar market cap companies and he predicts we will soon see the first ones that are valued above ten billion dollar.

The technology education available in China is according to Robert to World Class Standards. China graduates 2 to 2.5 million students a year and 60% of them are in the technology sector, where India graduates 1 million for 50% in technology and the USA 2 million a year with only 25% in technology.

We mostly think about toys or clothes production when we think about China. China has become the manufacture of the World but with such high standards of education and such a high number of highly qualified technology graduates China is now ready to move to the next step and create World Class leaders and companies. It would be a big mistake to consider China's competition to the US, Europe and Japan as low cost subcontracting capabilities only. The innovation capability I have felt all around these days, the speed at which information circulates in today's information Society and the level of globalization enables China to move from the positioning of the manufacture of the World into the fastest growing innovation center of the World. Microsoft's head of Research in Asia Harry Shum insisted on the contribution of his Chinese team into new Microsoft's worldwide products. I quite agree when the Technology panel said that the question is not if China will be the R&D center of the world, the question is when.

Seen from the US and Europe, the threat is generally understood as loosing jobs subcontracted in China. It should probably be understood more as new fast moving Chinese companies created and not only addressing their local market but becoming new leaders. I had a great dinner with the New Asian Leaders which is a very active community of young entrepreneurs and investors of the World Economic Forum and they are not wondering how they will increase their revenues by getting more business from subcontracting but rather how they can help building new Chinese World leaders.

Of course there are also important challenges ahead and Jeffrey E. Garten, Dean of Yale School of Management said that "the whole movement of globalization is going to slow down. China's growing impact on global manufacturing is going to put enormous pressure to western economies and it turn put enormous pressure to China." Mr Garten does not see China's growth to continue without a major crisis in the next years.

It is absolutely possible, but the energy and the fast pace we can all feel both at a Government and an Entrepreneurial level in China is incomparable with the way Europe for example got used to live in comfort.

The reaction of the USA and Europe could be to protect their markets from this threat for their economies and Kristin Forbes of the Office of the President of the United States insisted on the fact that free trade was the only way to go and that building trade barriers was useless. I agree, but the impact will be so huge on jobs and on the competitiveness of European and US companies that it will become harder and harder for Governments not to react.

How do you feel China's growth impact in your Countries and what do you think should be the reaction of both US and European Governments and businesses to this new situation ?

You can read summaries of most sessions on the World Economic Forum's website.

-Loïc Le Meur