Klaus Schwab, the head of the World Economic Forum, introduced their 2022 meeting in Davos, Switzerland with a speech calling for the elites to change the world using stakeholder capitalism.."The future is not just happening. The future is built by us, by a powerful community as you here in this room," he said..Schwab, who founded the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 1971, said the audience had the means to improve the state of the world, but only if they met two conditions.."The first one is that we act all as stakeholders of larger communities. That we serve not only self-interest but we serve the community. That's what we call stakeholder responsibility. And second, that we collaborate," he said..Stakeholder capitalism, which Schwab has spoken about extensively, is a form of capitalism in which companies seek long-term value creation by taking into account the needs of all their stakeholders and society at large. .Schwab spoke highly of his over 15,000 active "Global Shapers," which are WEF selected youth who are "driving dialogue, action and change globally" in over 500 cities around the world.."If I'm depressed, which I'm rarely are, I would go to one of the shapers to recharge my energy," Schwab said with a smile..On the issues of rising inflation, COVID-19, climate change, world hunger, Schwab said the challenges could not be met by governments, businesses or civil society acting alone.."We need collaborative efforts... global cooperation," he said, adding that resilience needed to be created to prepare for "a new virus, possibly, or other risks which we have on the global agenda.".Schwab called Russia's invasion of Ukraine a "turning point in history," and said the war would "reshape our political and economic landscape in the coming years.".Speaking from a video call, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a major effort to rebuild his country, and invited international companies that have sanctioned and moved away from Russia to set up shop in his country..Zelesnky also promised that the corrupt oligarchs in his country would be rooted out, and that Ukraine would become an attractive place for international businesses once the war ended..According to the itinerary, the five-day meeting in Davos will include panels such as 'Future-Proofing Health Systems,' 'The Outlook for Inflation,' 'averting a Global Food Crisis,' 'Central Bank Digital Currencies,' 'Preparing for the Next Pandemic,' and 'Rebuilding Societal Trust.'.Nearly 2,500 leaders from politics, business, civil society and media are participating in the WEF's annual meeting, including Canada's Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne.
