The Davos meet

Politics and economics come together at the World Economic Forum at Davos every year. Nestled deep in the Swiss Alps, the forum has transformed since its inception in 1971 into the largest event that brings together market leaders and political leaders in an effort to work together to solve global problems and discuss them in depth. Critics of the Davos annual meeting, however, question whether a meeting of global elites is the appropriate forum to address the challenges facing the world. This year around, there was intense conjecture that the theme of the forum, ‘Responsive and Responsible Leadership’, was chosen as the world awaited the Trump years. One of the key questions at Davos has been the future of free trade, and there have been concerns about an anti-free trade agenda gaining support after Brexit and Trump’s election to the US presidency. At Davos, both British Prime Minister Theresa May and Chinese President Xi Jinping came out as supporters of globalisation. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde noted that the middle class was in crisis, while outgoing US vice-president said that the world’s richest one percent must do more. The mood of the summit seemed to, overall, be reflective – looking more at the weak economic and political health of the world since free trade and inequality are set to be the key fault lines that shape the economic debate the coming years.

For Pakistan, the Davos meet presented an opportunity to sell itself to new investors and undertake some much needed diplomacy. We somehow managed to miss the opportunity. With Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif leading the delegation, much of his time was spent meeting business leaders who could offer little in terms of short-term investment in the country. Sharif met the head of e-commerce firm Alibaba, the head of a Dutch telecom company, the CEO of Standard Charted bank and the head of Proctor and Gamble. On a positive side, the PM highlighted the story of Pakistan’s economic recovery and also focused on Kashmir, an issue that the world has rather sadly chosen to ignore. We hope his words will have some impact. In what can be seen as useful diplomacy, PM Sharif also met his Sri Lankan counterpart and stressed the importance of keeping Saarc afloat. As always the platforms at Davos were wide, though once more we ponder if the thoughts and ideas will resound far past the Swiss Alps which so often seem to lock them in, disallowing a louder echo.