WEF President Klaus Schwab
'We are the same'

Economic guru sees semblance of purpose for the economic and social gatherings but claims the World Economic Forum's model is more practical.

By Emad Mekay

DAVOS, Switzerland - World Economic Forum President Klaus Schwab says his exclusive forum currently under way in this luxury alpine resort town, and its simultaneous alternative, the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, are not at all rivals.

"I have just one word for Porto Alegre: we are the same," Schwab told IPS. "Both events, in principle, have the same objectives. That is to create a better world."

Schwab did not elaborate on points of agreement between the two forums but acknowledged that there are some differences.

"Here we have the decision-makers but also NGOs," he said. "Where we differ is that here we look at very pragmatic ways of how to change the world and how to improve the state of the world. In Porto Alegre, it is more of an ideological discussion."

Schwab's statement reflects the widespread sentiment at the Davos meet that the WSF is short on practical solutions. In general, the corporate executives, financiers and government leaders gathered here believe they hold the key to finding the answers.

Pragmatism vs. ideology

But NGOs refute the tag of impracticality, saying they have been proposing concrete solutions, but the business and political power brokers have not listened.

The latest in a series of proposals put forward by a group of thinkers from the global social justice movement was a book published last year, "Alternatives to Economic Globalisation: A Better World Is Possible", detailing plans for local decision making and ecological responsibility.

But as the Davos Forum continues, it is not clear how the rival WSF is not "pragmatic" because the wealthy and powerful here seem to be paying little attention to the activists, their publications or their views.

While the meeting halls and corridors at the elegant Congress Hall in the heart of Davos are littered with annual reports from Merrill Lynch, Ernst & Young and Sun Microsystems, to name a few, there was no sign of the book or, indeed, any other publication by civil society groups.

And daily reading material comes from the corporate media like The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and Businessweek - all of which publish special sections on Davos sponsored by companies like Oracle and DaimlerChrysler. Reuters, one of the leading market information companies, was beaming stock market charts and data on several big screens throughout the venue, non-stop.

A matter of priorities

The World Economic Forum is advised by an international business council, comprised of CEOs from the world's largest companies, seen by activists as working mainly for the benefit of like-minded corporations.

Minutes before Schwab spoke to IPS, Public Eye on Davos, a coalition of watchdog groups that monitor the annual gathering, issued a statement criticising the Davos Forum for the failure of corporations to fulfil the promises made last year to make their business practices socially responsible and to foster development in addition to their goals of "pragmatism".

The groups said the corporate world is still mired in fraudulent practices and disregard for the social and environmental concerns of the world.

Schwab, however, shrugged off such accusations as unfounded.

"That's not true," he said. "There have been many efforts. We have had many working groups and engaged our participants very much in improving corporate governance."

Such initiatives include a plan the Davos forum says is designed to bridge the "global digital divide" by bringing new technologies to the developing world, and the Global Greenhouse Gas Register, a major scheme to track corporate inventories of greenhouse gas emissions and reduction targets.

"It's easy (for them) to say no progress has been made, but, in fact, progress has been made," he said.