World Economic Forum in Davos - Coursework Example

Introduction: Once in a year, the World Economic Forum conducts a meeting in Davos, Suitzerland, which many of the world’s top economist and business leaders attend in an attempt to solve universal problems. In 2009 this has been especially important, considering the global economic weakness and associated problems. High on the agenda at this round of talks have been the global economic downturn and the so called “credit crunch.” The aim of these discussions has been to plan for a future that can be more resilient to such situations. Culture and Globalisation: 1. One of the seven forces of globalisation (Markets, Production, Culture, Labour, Technology, Environment, Regulations) has been explaining recent trends, and evaluating the current situation in terms of opportunities/threats to International Business, and tensions between stakeholders. According to Friedman, “The core meaning [of globalization] reflects a change in scale and in site. The term refers to movement, diffusion and expansion from a local level and with local implications, to levels and implications that are worldwide, or, more usually, that transcend national borders in some way.” Culture, one of the Globalizations forces, according to ... is “the shared philosophy, ideology, values, assumptions, beliefs, expectations, and attitudes that knit an organization together.” When the discussions come to the term Globalization and what is called Culture Globalization it has becomes apparent that these concepts need several structural changes in different areas of society. Besides, it is obvious that the effect changes the structure of people normative and the society values, whether it comes from religious perspectives or a traditional background. In addition, the structural modifications may be a bad experience and a hard thing to get for those people who are helpless in preventing the destruction of their culture and economic prospects. One of the positive sides of globalization is the faster and easier transportation of people and goods which helps in increasing trade between countries. Besides, global media will affect the cultures of people around the world rather than focus on one country. “As the cultural barriers reduce, the global village dream becomes more realistic” Associated with globalization, information revolution and advancement in modern scientific technological areas, the world got closer, more integrated, and interconnected. This facilitated and accelerated the movement of people and products, capital, information and services, apart from contributing to the transmission of beliefs and cultures. The proliferation of Hollywood movies, including animations, which depicts violence has caused the spread of violence. The emergence of ultra-rich life styles in neighbourhoods, especially under heavy guard, encouraged the uprise of elite groups, at the expense of the poor and middle class people. These developments make culture merge with the new globalization culture, especially so far it relates children who are reamed in the backdrop of brands and images of western style The dominance of consumer culture and the marginalization of other cultures resulted in the blurring of cultural identities of people. To solidify trade ties between the countries and to help the largest amount of consumption of goods countries vied with each other for opening of global markets and for free movement of goods. Promoting investments in developing countries and the emergence of technology in these nations encourage large corporate to launch business operation there due to availability of cheap labour and provision of facilities. Thus they have stimulated developing countries to undertake structural reforms in different systems to raise their competitiveness in global markets through the intensification of rivalry. Developing countries thus began a process of focusing on national products and improving quality by reducing costs. World Economic Forum, Davos 2010: 2. Provide a brief (150-200 words) summary IN YOUR OWN WORDS about WEF and Davos 2010. Davos Attendees primary agenda is to discuss and identify new ideas and solutions to find easy ways to deal with economic issues and to help each other to get over this hard time in the business world. During the meeting more than 2000 people can network with each other with the objective of building and healing the economy of the world. Besides, they also come up with decisions that may lead to big projects to improve the world state of economy and reduce the negative impacts on international market. The annual meeting of the World Economic Forum says that the global economy, having experienced its worst crisis ever since the Great Depression in the thirties, is recovering unevenly in different countries and regions. Most of the participants in the meeting believe that the recovery is led by fast-growing emerging markets such as China and India, which can leave the United States and European countries behind. Dominique Strauss - Kahn, who heads the International Monetary Fund, warns that although the recovery is taking place in a better place than expected, it is still fragile. He urges governments to continue to care devising exit strategies from various stimulus packages that have been applied in the face of global crisis. While there is broad consensus to reorganize the world financial system better, different participants on the type of changes should be taken into consideration and evaluated. 3. Then critically assess the contribution of ‘Davos 2010’ to the first part of your report, indicating other initiatives which may also have an effect. The aspect of culture has not been given adequate attention in Davos, especially in the context of what situation the world faced from an economic recession, financial problems and failures of banks and giant companies. The conference has discussed several initiatives as Climate Change, education, Health Systems etc. From the attendees’ point of view, globalization is a goal to achieve but people who respect their culture will fight globalization and have another opinion. They look at globalization as a destroyer and maybe they cannot feel any changes in their life style but they will call themselves as member of the movements of anti-globalization. Since 40 years ago, the World Economic Forum has aimed to host many effective economic policies in different nations to come up with answers and solutions for the world problems and to support the concept of exchange benefits. ............................................................................................................................... Recommendations: Effort should be made to undertake necessary reforms: Kalislahat administrative, political, educational, and include the reform of administrative slackness in the organs of the state and raising the level of qualification and training to raise the efficiency of the workforce to meet the challenges of globalization. Besides, the creation of local technological scientific base should be an item of high priority, and political reforms needs to be carried out to deepen democracy, social justice and the rule of law. Strengthening regional solidarity among developing countries to enhance the power of the States to face the challenges of globalization together, is another strategy. So far it relates to the positive aspects of globalization it can be said that nations which do not deal with the negative aspects cannot benefit from the positive aspects of globalization. The following aspects need to be considered: Associated with globalization, information revolution and modern scientific and technological revolution, have made the world closer and more integrated and interconnected. This facilitated the acceleration of the movement of people and products, capital, information and services, and contributed to the transmission of beliefs and cultures. Globalization has renewed the confidence in science and technology and made it possible for speedy exchange confirmed that our era is the era of science and scientific innovation as there is an invention or discovery every two minutes. To strengthen trade ties between countries and to help larger volumes of consumption of goods, global markets have opened up and the movement of goods became fast paced. Promoting investments in developing countries and the entry of technology to to these nations facilitated the interest cheap labour and provision of facilities this has stimulated economic growth in developing countries to undertake structural reforms in different systems to raise their competitiveness in global markets. Developing countries promoted their national products by improving quality and reducing costs. Some pitfalls in the process are: -Multilateral coordination of financial reforms and rebalancing of the global economy will be difficult to achieve. - Private and public sector cooperates will complete with one another to overcome the current financial crisis and states will have to enact legislation to save people’s wealth. Following measures will help in obviating the problems: - Support educational and charitable institutions to guide and direct people to understand the need for coexistence with others and to keep the pride in their culture. - Resolve conflicts and differences, whether ethnic or national, to remove these obstacles that stand in the path of major investments. - Focus on the effects on the environment and future of the world in two ways: environment, economic. - Governments should be supervising big banks and giant companies in the event of the market becoming unstable, to protect the world from other financial crisis. Read More