A major event

For nearly 50 years, the Forum has brought together business leaders, experts, heads of government and representatives of civil society to remake the world. In their own way, of course. It is even more important to pay attention to it. Let us recall that in 2019, the young Greta Thunberg had chosen this platform to organize her weekly School Strike demonstration and shake up the assembled elite. Displaying their finest suits flanked by eye-catching smiles, the businessmen and women and statesmen had listened. Today, the planet is burning, spitting, flooding and becoming deserted.

Notable this year: Emmanuel Macron and Joe Biden did not think it necessary to travel. The Chinese Communist Party (perhaps because of its zero-Covid strategy) and the Russian economic and political participants were conspicuous by their absence at this great mass.

Priorities

Here are the pretty thematic pillars that the decision-makers looked at:

• Promoting global and regional cooperation

• Ensuring economic recovery, preparing a new era of growth

• Building healthy and equitable societies

• Preserving the climate, food and ecosystems

• Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Technological Transformation

Aside from the abyss into which these words risk plunging before they can be realized, the current reality on the globe, highlighted in the recent Oxfam report , calls for concrete and immediate actions. However, the world's great fortunes, which have so far emerged unscathed, or even strengthened, from the pandemic, have a beautiful playground before them. If we can say that they have something to celebrate at the WEF 2022, at least they have pockets deep enough to settle some business, and undertake actions that live up to the ambitions they proclaim. Good for them! The informal power of companies is at its best here. The opportunity for public-private partnerships that benefit a large number is also. How will they go about it?

Proposed models and impacts on us

Between the famous (and possibly worrying) Great Reset, proposed by the German economist, founding president of the WEF, Klaus Schwab, and other models put forward to redefine our societies and transform the economy, many hearts are racing.

We know that globalization has been organized towards the least expensive, at the cost of dependencies on certain regions. We also know that confined China is running out of steam, disrupting global supply chains. The IMF recommends diversifying imports to guarantee supplies. The flows of capital, people, goods and services have increased productivity, tripling the size of the global economy, but widening inequalities. Avoiding talking about “deglobalization”, Pamela Coke-Hamilton, the director of the International Trade Center, spoke of diversification and relocation to closer and less conflictual areas…

The 2022 context: crises and inflation

“ History at a turning point: government policies and business strategies ”: this is the theme of the 2022 edition, which was “the most important of all,” according to the big boss. It has been two years since the face-to-face meeting was on hold. A week ago, it took place against the backdrop of a global pandemic that continues to destabilize the agenda. The specter of the virus in question still lurks, the effects of lockdowns continue to shake economies and mental health (need we mention the recent killings in our southern neighbors), and an impossible war rages in Ukraine, on the oldest continent that was nevertheless thought to be stable. It is this last event that mobilized the Forum.

Humanitarian crises, food crises, corruption, inflation (shock on the price of raw materials, and particularly on food prices), debt, tightening of monetary policies, soaring oil prices, democracies threatened by increasingly polarized societies … nothing really new, but the intensity seems to have gone up a notch, and to have spread where it would not have been suspected before. The lack of trust in institutions and decision-makers is clearer. Economy, politics and society dance hand in hand, limping along, weakened together.

Climate change is getting worse (even though several leaders have arrived by private jet).

The solution at Davos can be summed up in one sentence: transform the economy by automating machines using artificial intelligence and the widespread use of green energy. But the solutions proposed are subject to criticism: ecological devastation to implement them, and even energy inefficiency. While wind turbines or electric cars are presented as what will save the planet, many speak of marketing lies.

And to top off the poor record and at the other end of the spectrum, “we want to bring Davos into the metaverse and create a global, open-source collaboration village,” said Schwab. While the concept is still vague for most of us, it is evidence of a virtual world that is well and truly established. And which already seems unbridled. Cross-border cyberattacks , disinformation and growing inequalities between those who have, and those who do not have, access to digital technology are among the five most serious risks threatening businesses and governments for the next two to five years, according to the WEF 2022 report . A concept that Michel Lambert, from the Quebec company eQualitie , explains to us.

If the picture looks bleak, there is no point in falling into worry and gloom. Being aware of reality is a first step towards adjusting the decisions of individuals, states and companies.