39th Meeting of World Economic Forum over in Davos

DAVOS. February 2. KAZINFORM The 39th Meeting of the World Economic Forum is over in Davos, Switzerland. The forum took place amidst the global financial and economic turmoil, which had an effect on the agenda.

The five-day debate of 2,500 politicians, businessmen, scholars and representatives of public organizations focused on the formation of a post-crisis world. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin defined roots of the crisis and suggested practical steps and reforms of world financial and trade relationships at the forum?s opening ceremony. The need to modernize the world banking system, to upgrade international financial institutions and to develop socially oriented economies, which was expressed by Putin, gained support of many world leaders in Davos. For instance, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a review of outdated mandates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB), and German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel suggested the formation of a UN international economic council similar with the UN Security Council. The poor countries have suffered most from this crisis, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said. World leading economies must not forget that poor countries have the total population of over 1 billion people, he remarked. Davos forums never end with declarations or agreements. The forum founder, Prof. Klaus Schwab, defines Davos as a unique floor for discussing the most pressing political and economic problems and elaborating joint and efficient answers to modern challenges. Schwab took notice of the Merkel initiative and welcomed a declaration of trade ministers of 20 member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO), who suggested the soonest completion of the Doha round dedicated to liberalized trade, Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS. He said that the Davos brainstorming would help overcome the crisis.