Agro Perspectiva

Will Davos Forum find way out of crisis?

25.01.2012 11:29 "Agro Perspectiva" (Kyiv) — The 42nd World Economic Forum is getting under way in Davos, Switzerland, today to last until the 29th of this month. The organizers expect that forum attendance will exceed 2,500 and include heads of government, government ministers, CEOs of national central banks and business elites. Russia is represented by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina. Despite its motto «The Grand Transformation: Shaping New Models», the forum is not actually expected to come up with any breakthrough decisions. Experts believe that the parties to the forum will concentrate on fresh ways to cope with another wave of the world crisis, but will eventually come up with the same old recipes. But at the moment Davos is focusing on clearing the snow from its venue rather than dealing with the economic crisis. The World Economic Forum’s traditional venue is all covered in snow. If the snow continues for another day, Davos will be literally cut off from the rest of the world. Just as the world economy in general, Davos is going through a crisis, says the leading expert of the Russian Centre for the Study of Political Situations, Dmitry Abzalov, and elaborates. Originally, everyone was interested in Davos forums, Dmitry Abzalov says, since its participants put forward and promoted key economic and political initiatives. But the interest has since waned, for a number of reasons. One such reason is that Russia has got its own venue for discussing economic problems — the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, where any promising projects are now normally taken to, for discussion. Besides, the format of the Davos Forum has changed. Davos is now associated with ’backstage’ discussions, a club, rather than a platform for important discussions by major world players. This year’s Davos forum will focus on the current global economic problems. We have more from the Director of the Centre for Economic Studies of the Moscow Financial-Industrial Academy, Sergei Moiseev. I think, Sergei Moiseev says, the discussions will focus on the international problems that are related to European countries’ bankruptcy, as well as the slowdown of economic growth in India and China, and on the situation around the United States. But Davos is unlikely to produce any sensational news. The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, has all of a sudden started to make scary statements to the effect that the world was about to face another Great Depression. It seems that the only one who’s optimistic about the situation is the World Economic Forum President Claus Schwab, who feels that 2012 will prove decisive in international efforts to find a way out of the European crisis and decide which path to follow to ensure economic growth.