2020 – Posted in: RSTV – Tags: WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2020, World Economic Forum at 50, World trade and India

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2020

Introduction

The 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) kicked off in Davos, Switzerland on January 21, 2020. The four-day event will run from January 21 to 24 and will bring together more than 50 heads of state from 117 nations around the world.

On the first day of the forum, they saw prominent speakers such as the President of the United States, Donald Trump, the young environmental activist Greta Thunberg and the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen. WEF founder and CEO Klaus Schwab officially opened the annual meeting.

World Economic Forum (WEF)

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a non-profit organization founded in January 1971. The WEF is based in Cologny-Geneva, Switzerland, and was created with an initiative to improve the states of the world. This organization was previously known as the European Management Forum.

Structure of the World Economic Forum (WEF)

The World Economic Forum (WEF) is based in Cologny, Switzerland, and also has offices in New York, Beijing and Tokyo. Under the law of the host State of Switzerland, the Swiss federal government has designated WEF as an NGO with the status of “other international body”. The WEF is chaired by the founder and executive chairman, Professor Klaus Schwab, and is chaired by a board of directors made up of business, political, academic and civil society leaders. The Board of Directors is chaired by WEF President Borge Brende and acts as the executive body of the World Economic Forum. The World Economic Forum (WEF) is also funded by 1,000 member companies which are global companies with over $ 5 billion in sales. These companies have a leading role to play and rank among the main companies in their sector and / or their country.

Initiatives under World Economic Forum (WEF)

Some of the initiatives taken within the framework of the World Economic Forum are analyzed
below:

At the 2002 annual meeting, Kofi Annan launched the Global Health Initiative to fight HIV / AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and the health system through the participation of business in a public-private partnership.
The Global Education Initiative (GHG), launched at the 2003 annual meeting, brought together international IT companies and governments in Jordan, Egypt and India. GEI has made new personal computer equipment available in classrooms as well as online training for more local teachers.
The WEF launched a global public-private partnership in January 2017 known as the Platform to Accelerate the Circular Economy (PACE).
On January 19, 2017, a global epidemic initiative was launched at WEF Davos. This initiative has been called the Coalition for Innovations in Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), which aims to ensure the supply of vaccines for global emergencies and pandemics and to seek new vaccines against tropical diseases.
Also in 2017, the WEF launched the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) for the Earth initiative, which is collaboration between the WEF, Stanford University and PwC. The initiative is funded by the Mava Foundation and in 2018; the WEF announced that a project within the framework of this initiative would be the Bio Genome of Earth project with the aim of sequencing the genomes of each organism on Earth.

World Economic Forum at 50: The Journey

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, WEF is an international non-profit organization created in 1971. The Forum provides a platform for the CEOs of the largest companies, heads of state of the countries, to meet and discuss business through bilateral meetings.
It is a meeting to show the potential of countries to attract companies.
The theme of WEF 2020 is stakeholders for a coherent and sustainable world.
It is basically a networking event where countries should get investment.

WEF Goals and Challenges

Protectionism is the biggest problem the world faces and the 50th WEF summit is being held in this context.
In the recent past, the United States has argued for protectionism and has also attempted to decimate the WTO and other similar organizations.
The US approach to the climate agenda and trade has been disruptive.
As a result of the trade war between the United States and China, there has been a marked decline in investment and trade flows. World trade faced new winds in 2018, as trade tensions and the uncertainty of economic policies increased dramatically.
All the major fastest growing economies, including India and China, have now slowed down. Most European economies are growing below 1%.
Many economists predict that by the end of 2020, there could be a slight global recession.

World trade and India

India is a land that has the power of democracy, demography, leadership, talent, culminating in the “power of opportunity”. These are the 5 points of sale that India has projected in the rest of the world:

FDI: India needs to attract more FDI. India needs a place for exports of manufactured goods and, if there are tariff and non-tariff barriers, it is necessary to break them. Reforms are needed, such as better infrastructure, land and labor reforms and minor regulations.
Other important factors in attracting FDI will be labor problems, electricity supply problems and electricity prices, logistics, the infrastructure scenario and the large Indian domestic market.
FDI in the manufacturing industry in India is not much, it is mainly concentrated in the e- commerce and services sector.
More internal reforms are needed to promote FDI in the manufacturing sector before competing skilfully with countries like Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, etc.
Corresponds to the 6 key problems: India’s performance in attracting FDI will depend on how these five points of sale correspond to the 6 key problems that the WEF described, namely: economy, ecology, technology, society, geopolitics and industry These factors are interdependent and India must take advantage of them”.
Focus on exports: The United States and China contribute nearly 40% of world GDP. The simple formula for increasing a country’s GDP is to increase consumption, more private investment, more public spending, and more exports, less imports.
Government incentives: All that India can achieve will depend on the various incentives offered by the government, in particular the recent reduction in corporate tax.

Best way forward

India needs to establish cross-border data localization and data flow policies.
India will also need to make a clear case for special and differential treatment for its inshore fishermen who fish as a source of income rather than for commercial purposes, unlike Korea, Japan and China.
India must support multilateralism and multilateral institutions. You have to work on your perception and project a confident image of yourself on the world economic scene, assuring investors of your economic stability.

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