Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, on Covid-19 creating an opportunity to accelerate their globalization plans.
Note: somehow, lack of inclusion, lack of paying sufficient attention to zee environment, redefinition of supply chains, cyber attacks and global warming are all connected.
First, I think it’s very important to know that zee COVID-19 pandemic just has accelerated certain trends which we had seen before and which actually were discussed in Davos this year, like zee lack of inclusion, zee lack of paying sufficient attention to zee environment.
So what we will see now is acceleration of those trends and of course a unique opportunity to reset our global agenda to do something about all those negative developments.
I include also zee lack of international cooperation.
Because if we don’t address those issues we will end up in a much worse world than we are today.
So let’s use this window of opportunity and let’s recreate a global framework which really is in line with the requirements of a society in the 21st century.
CNBC Interviewer:
Klaus, it was day two of our coverage in January that we really started asking questions in Davos about coronavirus and it wasn’t obvious then that virus would bring the global economy to its knees.
You spent years debating the globalization models, is it clear, because of coronavirus, that the planet is just too interconnected?
Klaus Schwab:
I think we have two aspects actually contradicting each another.
On the one hand, zee virus, zee pandemics has reminded us how interdependent we are in the world. How we are part of a global destiny, a common global destiny.
On zee other hand, zee virus also has demonstrated that we need more resilience and interdependence also creates greater risks.
So, what we will see is hopefully one the one hand more globalization, on the other hand probably with the redefinition of supply chains and so on we will also see some aspects of de-globalization.
CNBC Interviewer:
You mentioned global coordination a moment ago, and clearly as we progress questions are going to be asked, how do avoid a pandemic, a health crisis, like this in the future? What do you think the answer is going to be, because it feels there’s more of a breakdown in communication right now than anything. ‘
Klaus Schwab:
Yes I think we have become very much aware that we need to build a more resilient world and the virus is just a call for action.
You have also big risks which we have alluded to in our risk report like cyber attack, of course zee whole issue of global warming. So I hope that this COVID crisis [end of video clip]
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