Davos opens amid hope, anxiety
- Source: Global Times
- [02:29 January 28 2010]
- Comments
Participants listen to speakers during the session "What is the 'New Normal' for Global Growth?" on the first day of the World Economic Forum in Davos Wednesday. Photo: AFP
By Guo Qiang
The annual 2010 World Economic Forum (WEF) opened Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland, amid increasing confidence in the world economy recovering this year.
However, concerns about unemployment, debt crisis, asset bubbles and trade protectionism still cloud the economic outlook.
Additionally, analysts said, the world will undoubtedly look to the rising power of China at this forum, hoping that the strong engine can give the world economy a further boost through its growing buying power. Pressuring the appreciation of the Chinese currency may be another option, but it will certainly be met with resistance by China, analysts added.
More than 2,500 leaders from over 90 countries, representing business, government and civil sectors, gathered at Switzerland's Davos ski resort Wednesday with a theme of "Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild."
Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang was heading the largest-ever Chinese delegation to this year's forum, which will run through Sunday.
High-profile business leaders from the telecommunication sector also participated, including Wang Jianzhou, chairman and chief executive of China Mobile, the world's largest mobile-phone operator, and Sun Yafang, chairwoman of Huawei Technologies, the largest networking and telecommunications-equipment supplier in China.
Business confidence is bouncing back. According to a survey released Wednesday, 81 percent of 1,200 CEOs in 52 countries are confident about revenue prospects for the next 12 months, up from 64 percent a year ago, and 31 percent are "very confident," up 10 percentage points from last year's low.
The survey found that 39 percent of industry bosses aimed to increase headcounts in 2010, while 25 percent planned more job cuts, down from nearly half who slashed jobs last year.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its estimates of the world economy in 2010 and 2011, saying the economy was recovering faster than previously anticipated and would grow 3.9 percent this year and 4.3 percent in 2011.
But the recovery is proceeding at different speeds around the world, with emerging markets, led by Asia, seen as relatively vigorous, and advanced economies viewed as still sluggish and dependent on government stimulus measures, the IMF said in an update to its World Economic Outlook.
Issues on the agenda include what lessons the world should draw from the recent financial and economic crisis and how to promote a stable recovery, global ne-gotiations on climate change, and the reconstruction of quake-hit Haiti. Dubai's sovereignty crisis is also expected to be a hot topic at the forum.
Jeremy Jurgens, senior director of the Center for Global Growth Companies at the World Economic Forum, told the Global Times that the world is interested in the effort that China has made, both domestically and worldwide.
"With the tremendous contributions China made to global growth in 2009, there is a very keen interest to understand the steps China will take in 2010 to maintain strong growth and what ef-forts will be made to further strengthen domestic consumption," Jurgens said.
