“Don’t stop supporting us”: Ukraine as a guest star for the return of the Davos forum

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At the end of the morning, the World Economic Forum in Davos which opens this Monday in Switzerland will be marked by the speech of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He will be the first head of state to intervene before this closed club of the big bosses and leaders of the planet. He should take advantage of this new platform to urge the world to provide more aid, both financial and military, and perhaps renew kyiv’s application to join the EU.

After a two-year hiatus due to Covid, this World Economic Forum (WEF) will obviously be marked by the war in Ukraine but also by the risks weighing on the global economic recovery due to this conflict: inflation, food shortages, surge in energy prices, rising interest rates…

“Our first thoughts go to the war in Ukraine”, assured the founder of the WEF, Klaus Schwab, presenting the program of this meeting intervening in what he described as “political, economic and social circumstances (…) without precedent “.

This year, the WEF has excluded this year the Russians, who usually represent a large contingent of participants. The “Russian house” of previous editions will give way to a “Russian war crimes house” where various support events will be organized with Ukrainian personalities who will be present in large numbers. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba or Mayor of kyiv Vitali Klitschko should be present.

“Our main request to the world here is: don’t stop supporting Ukraine”, explained to the press Ivanna Klympush, one of the Ukrainian parliamentarians who made the trip to Davos, calling for ensuring that the Russia “cannot wage a new war against anyone in the region”. For Anastasia Radina, another Ukrainian parliamentarian, the supply of arms should also be at the center of the demands. “We need weapons more than anything else,” she said, adding: “Weapons like NATO’s are what help us win the war ( …) and ensure that the lives of civilians are saved for generations to come”.

A shaken global economy

Beyond geopolitics, this war in Ukraine is also shaking the world economy, which was just beginning to recover from the shock of the pandemic. There are many fears with the return of inflation, food shortages, rising energy prices…

In a report published just before the opening of this Davos Forum, the NGO Oxfam says it expects 263 million people to fall into extreme poverty this year, or one million every 33 hours. A rhythm that the NGO compares with the creation of a new billionaire every 30 hours during the pandemic. “Billionaires are arriving in Davos to celebrate an incredible surge in their fortunes,” said Gabriela Bucher, an Oxfam official, in a statement. “At the same time, decades of progress on extreme poverty are being reversed, with millions of people facing the impossible rising cost of simply staying alive.”

“We need to address these issues in Davos, and the global food crisis requires our immediate attention,” said Klaus Schwab.

Do not give in to protectionism, according to the IMF

For its part, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recognizes a “potential confluence of calamities”. However, the IMF will insist on defending globalization and urging countries not to give in to the temptation of protectionism.

“As policymakers and business leaders head to Davos, the global economy faces perhaps its biggest test since World War II,” said International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. , and the number 2 of the institution, Gita Gopinath, in a blog that they co-author with the director of strategy, Ceyla Pazarbasioglu. “There is a greatly increased risk of geo-economic fragmentation,” these officials point out. “Over the past three decades, flows of capital, goods, services and people have transformed our world, aided by the diffusion of new technologies,” they write. “These forces of integration have boosted productivity and living standards, tripling the size of the global economy and lifting 1.3 billion people out of extreme poverty,” he added.

The IMF notes that since the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, some 30 countries have restricted trade in food, energy and other essential raw materials. However, according to the IMF, lowering trade barriers would alleviate shortages and lower the prices of food and other products. The IMF also recommends that countries and companies diversify their imports to guarantee their supply “and preserve the enormous advantages of global integration for companies”.

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