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DAVOS, Switzerland: Corporate responsibility rather than profit was
set to take center stage in Davos on Friday, as the annual
get-together of business chiefs turns its attention to issues of
health, aid and development.
Rock star activist Bono, billionaire
philanthropist Bill Gates and UN chief Ban Ki Moon were to steer the
conversation away from the global economy and geopolitics, towards
issues such as malaria eradication, poverty alleviation and climate
change.
The Davos event has long prided itself on
showing the caring side of capitalism, although participants have
often been criticized for trumpeting big ideas on big issues in
public, while actually expending most of their energy on corridor
schmoozing and backroom deals.
Gates was scheduled to update delegates on the
agricultural projects funded by the charitable foundation he founded
with his wife Melinda, before joining Bono, Ban and British Prime
Minister Gordon Brown for a debate on progress, or the lack thereof,
in reaching the UN Millennium Development Goals.
A perennial participant at Davos, Gates on
Thursday pitched a new form of capitalism to forum delegates that
would better serve the neglected poor.
“The challenge here is to design a system
including profit and recognition to do more for the poor,” he
said, calling for a new form of “creative capitalism.”
“Creative capitalism is an approach where
governments, businesses and NGOs [nongovernment organizations] work
together to stretch the reach of market forces so that more people
can make a profit or gain recognition doing work that eases the
world’s inequalities,” he said.
“I’d like to ask everyone here … to take
on a project of creative capitalism and see where you can stretch
the reach of market forces,” he added.
This year’s Davos event has drawn nearly 30
heads of state or government, more than 110 cabinet ministers and
several hundred corporate titans.
The first day was taken up with talk of a
looming US recession, a subject that was to be revisited on Friday
with a roundtable discussion on the theme of “Global Economic
Shocks: Perfect Storm Ahead?”
Thursday saw the focus of debate switch to the
situation in the Middle East and efforts to resolve the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In an impassioned speech to delegates, Israel
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni urged them to pull out of Iran and
isolate the Islamic republic.
“Iran is a global threat. And you can stop
Iran. You can make the change,” Livni said.
“Tremendous power is gathered in this room.
The importance of wealth is not only to mingle and engage in social
interaction, but for policy making,” she said.
Arguing that Iran’s nuclear ambitions
threatened “the entire global community,” she appealed to the
delegates’ personal sense of responsibility.
“Excuse me for saying this. This is not just a
political decision. This is your own personal decision and history
will judge us all,” she said.
“If every company here, if every country
represented here would decide to divest from Iran, that can stop
Iran,” she added. “The decision is in your hands.”
-- AFP
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