The US regains first position in the rankings of the World Economic Forum's Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006
The United States tops the rankings of The Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006’s “Networked Readiness Index” for the third time in five years, maintaining its eminent position as a leader in the area of innovation and confirming its position as an information and communication technology powerhouse.
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 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2006
Jan 25-29, 2006 - Davos, Switzerland |
| Annual Meeting closes with new initiatives that seize "the creative imperative" |
The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2006 has closed with participants detailing new projects in disaster relief, hunger, anti-corruption, financing for development and public-private partnerships.
"I was particularly impressed by this notion of 'I will'," said Founder Klaus Schwab. "That's what the purpose of this meeting is. The Forum will provide platforms for collaborative efforts so the new initiatives or ones that have been enhanced will be implemented," he told participants in Davos.
Held under the theme "The Creative Imperative", participants used workshops and discussion groups to generate innovative solutions to global challenges. "There was a new effort to bring together people to discuss the big themes, and brainstorm action," reported Laura Tyson, Dean of the London Business School. |
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Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum
© World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch
Photo by Andy Mettler |
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Peter Brabeck, Chairman and CEO of Nestlé, urged participants to take individual responsibility to act. "I think sometimes we are not translating what we are discussing in virtual terms into action which would really reflect the 'spirit of Davos'. I think the Forum is here to help us to find out what the main issues are and then it is up to us to act individually," he said. "Some of what we achieved in the trade sessions, discussing the education divide and others, we got excellent inputs to create a more balanced world," added Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries.
The panellists agreed that the rise of the developing world is changing the balance of power. This makes it imperative that social imbalances are redressed, said James Wolfensohn, former head of the World Bank. "If we don't do that, we will not have a stable planet… and I think Davos is approaching these questions," he said. |
| World Economic Forum - Annual Meeting 2006: Factsheet |
The Annual Meeting 2006 is characterized by the quality of its business participation. This year 735 of the 2,340 participants are chief executives or chairmen – the highest ever since the World Economic Forum was launched in 1971. The participants will address this year’s overall theme “The Creative Imperative”.
The clear emphasis of the five-day meeting is on human imagination, innovation and the creativity necessary to address the major challenges the world is facing. Participants will kick off the meeting with “The Big Debate”, an interactive town hall-style plenary session designed to thrash out the five sub-themes of the Annual Meeting, which range from “The Emergence of China and India” and “The Changing Economic Landscape” to “New Mindsets and Changing Attitudes”, “Creating Future Jobs” and “Regional Identities and Struggles”. |
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Most of the 244 sessions, workshops, panel discussions, lunches and dinners, will be interactive to foster collaborative approaches to resolving issues. As such, the Annual Meeting is not a conference in the traditional sense, but the flagship of the Forum's larger set of activities – including regional meetings, task forces and initiatives – that engage top leaders from business, politics, religious groups and non-governmental organizations to shape the global, regional and industry agendas.
This year a quarter of the sessions are broadcast – often live – on Swiss television and major international channels, and also webcast – live or taped – on the World Economic Forum’s website. For the first time, a dozen key debates can also be downloaded as podcasts or audioblogs. In an effort to open up the discussions, every single participant has been asked to post a blog on the Forum blog at www.forumblog.org
Facts and Figures
Over the course of the five-day Meeting, over 2,340 participants from 89 countries will gather in Davos. Around 50% are business leaders, drawn principally from the Forum's members – 1,000 of the foremost companies from around the world and across economic sectors.
This year more than 735 chairmen and CEOs from the world’s leading companies are participating. More than 132 companies from the Fortune 500 and 94 from the FT Most Trusted companies are actively taking part.
Other major categories of participants from around the world include:
# 175 public figures, including 15 heads of state or government, 60 cabinet ministers, 21 ambassadors, and 65 heads or senior officials of international organizations
# more than 490 participants from civil society including:
- 31 heads of non-governmental organizations
- 13 union leaders
- 154 leaders from academic institutions and think tanks
- 272 media leaders and fellows
# 23 religious leaders of different faiths
# 233 reporters from the world’s leading media organizations.
Initiatives
To realize its vision of being a catalyst for action in the public interest, the World Economic Forum organizes issue-specific task forces and initiatives devoted to developing new solutions, expanding common ground among different stakeholders, or mobilizing additional effort on important problems. Developments on the following initiatives will be announced at this World Economic Forum Annual Meeting:
Global Health Initiative
www.weforum.org/globalhealth
The goal of the Global Health Initiative (GHI) is to facilitate and stimulate greater business engagement in the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria. To achieve this goal, the Global Health Initiative works closely with the World Economic Forum's member companies as well as UNAIDS, the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria and the World Health Organization's Stop TB and Roll Back Malaria partnerships. A broad range of NGOs and other members of civil society, as well as governments, have also joined the efforts of the Global Health Initiative. The GHI provides a unique platform for dialogue, partnership and action on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria involving both the private and the public sectors. It coordinates a community of more than 230 companies that confront similar fundamental health challenges to their operations. In particular, the Global Health Initiative provides a forum to share experiences, to define generally accepted standards and to act as an advocate for the private sector.
Disaster Resource Network
www.weforum.org/drn
The Disaster Resource Network (DRN) is a Swiss-registered, non-profit foundation with the mission of helping to mobilize the resources of the international business community for the benefit of individuals affected by disaster. The Disaster Resource Network makes it easier for businesses to donate talent, in-kind goods or financial support to disaster relief and recovery operations in developing countries, and to ensure that their help is delivered in a coordinated, effective and transparent manner. The Disaster Resource Network was instrumental in providing more than 6 million Swiss francs of support to the people of Pakistan and India after the recent South Asia earthquake.
Global Education Initiative
www.weforum.org/gei
Business leaders at the Annual Meeting 2003 launched an ambitious initiative aimed at advancing education through new collaborative sustainable models of public-private partnership (PPP). As a result, the Jordan Education Initiative was launched in the summer of 2003. Since then, similar ground-breaking initiatives have been launched in the Palestinian Territories (2005) and Rajasthan (2005) and encouraging discussions are under way to establish an Egyptian Initiative. This year, we will celebrate the progress, discuss the lessons learned, and share the vision and plans for the future of education reform in these countries and other regions around the world.
Global Governance Initiative
www.weforum.org/globalgovernance
The Global Governance Initiative monitors the efforts of governments, the private sector, international organizations and civil society to meet the goals of the United Nations Millennium Declaration related to poverty and hunger, peace and security, health, education, the environment and human rights. This year's report finds that while global efforts to reach the goals improved on some fronts in 2005 – notably for poverty and hunger, peace and security, education and health – the environment and human rights actually lost ground. Overall, the Global Governance Initiative's report finds that the world is still investing less than half the effort needed to meet the Millennium Declaration goals, and world leaders must redouble their attempts to get efforts back on track to meet the goals by 2015.
Global Greenhouse Gas Register
www.weforum.org/ghg
The Global Greenhouse Gas Register, kicked off at the Annual Meeting 2004, now represents 16 global companies, constituting over 800 million tons of CO2-equivalent emissions per year – more than 5% of the world total. The aim is for the Register to work with partners to become the world’s pre-eminent repository for corporate "carbon footprints", while reducing the costs of fragmentation associated with companies preparing and disclosing information to different stakeholders.
Global Risk Network
The purpose of the Global Risk Network, a collaboration between the Forum and some of its strategic and academic partners, is to identify and assess current and emerging global risks; study the links between them and assess their likely effect on different markets and industries; and advance the thinking around more effective mitigation of global risks. At the Annual Meeting the Global Risk Network will release its Global Risks 2006 report. |
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