It is an honor to welcome you to the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos. With us are 3,000 participants from 130 countries, including a record level of political leaders, more than 400 political leaders, 65 heads of state and government, and 850 global CEOs and chairs. And in addition, we have the Young Global Leaders, the Shapers, the Social Entrepreneurs, academics, 10 Nobel laureates, also labor leaders and faith leaders. That makes us a unique multicultural village in Davos. And these are historic numbers for our annual meeting. We are convening at such a consequential moment for the world, when geopolitical developments are fast-moving, when longstanding trade and economic architectures are being redrawn, and when technological forces are reshaping our industries and societies. We are standing at the start of a new reality, the contours of which are still to be defined. But hopefully it is not the jungle growing back. That is why also the deliberations and dialogues we make here in Davos will shape what comes next. Countries and companies are finding new ways to work with one another, finding the way like water to advance common agendas even in more uncertain times. Last year when we met in Davos, there was a fear that we would be facing a decade of slow growth like we had in the 1970s. Even with a very difficult geopolitical backdrop, maybe the most difficult one since 1945, we are seeing sustained economic growth. The IMF numbers that came showed 3.3% expected economic growth this year. And we are also seeing that trade is growing, not 5-6% as in the past but still growing 3%. When you read the media you feel that things are contracting, but even more important, why are we less concerned about a decade of slow growth moving forward? It is because of the new technologies. Last year, $1.5 trillion US was invested in the new technologies. And if we get it right, the new technologies can be the new driver of growth for decades to come. So maybe we can see decades where we see increased growth and we can deal then also with the debt level that is the highest since 1945. The foundation of moving forward has to build on cooperation and dialogue. It is the only way to identify shared interests and chart pathways forward together. This is why the theme of this year's annual meeting is the spirit of dialogue. It is really my hope that the week ahead and the year ahead will chart collaborative pathways forward for business and government and shape a more prosperous and secure era. I'm now pleased to introduce the co-chair of the World Economic Forum and chair and CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink. Welcome, Larry.
Good morning everyone, and it's a great welcome to be a part of this annual meeting at the World Economic Forum, which is the strongest session that we're going to be ever having in our 56-year history. This week, as Klaus suggested, 850 CEOs and chairs are here. 65 heads of state representing governments representing actually 40% of the world's population. And alongside we have some of the world's most innovative entrepreneurs, some of the world's most innovative startups, and we have some of the most impactful civil society and NGO representatives. In fact, we believe that outside the United Nations, this is the largest gathering of global leadership of the post-COVID period of time. So, thank you for being a part of that. But now we have a harder question to ask all of us. What do we need to do about it? And will anyone outside this room care what we're doing here? Because if we're honest, for many people, this meeting feels out of step with the moment. We hear all about the elites. And how does that play out in an age of populism? How does an established institution make a difference in an era of deep institutional mistrust? And there's some truth to the critique. I believe in this forum for a long time. I certainly wouldn't be leading this if I didn't believe that we can change and make the world better. But it's also obvious that the world now places far less trust in us to help shape what comes next. If the World Economic Forum is going to be useful going forward, it has to regain that trust and there are some very obvious ways that we can improve for ourselves and hopefully for the world. We need to make sure that we widen who gets a voice in these conversations over the coming week. We have to be a lot more transparent and more engaged with people who don't feel represented in rooms like this. And because this is the World Economic Forum, to be more precise about what does it mean about economic success, prosperity just isn't the growth in the aggregate. It's not just GDP. It can't be measured by GDP or market caps of companies. It has to be judged by many people who see it, who can touch it, can feel it, and can build their own future on it. That, in my view, is the strongest critique of the last economic era. Since the fall of the Berlin wall, more wealth has been created than in any time prior in human history. But in advanced economies, that wealth has accrued to a far narrower share of people than any healthy society can ultimately sustain. Now, we're in the era of AI, which we're going to talk about a lot in this week. And are we going to replay the same pattern? Early gains are flowing to the owners of models, owners of data, and owners of infrastructure. The open question, what happens to everyone else? If AI does to white collar workers what globalization did to blue collar workers, we need to confront that today directly. It is not about the future. The future is now. Not with abstractions about the jobs of tomorrow, but with a credible plan for broad participation in these gains. This is going to be the test. Capitalism can evolve to turn more people into owners of growth instead of spectators watching it happen. And that kind of change is truly hard, especially in a world of competing ideologies and assumptions about how the system should work. Which brings me to the second way Davos can change: who gets invited to these conversations. This forum cannot be an echo chamber and we should want panels where everyone doesn't always agree. We need panels where we can have true conversations. Maybe some overt disagreements, but through that we can have a deeper conversation and then we can have maybe deeper understanding of each other's views. You can already see the shift in who is here this year. That doesn't mean the goal of everyone to leave having convinced themselves that they're right. The objective over the week is not an agreement. It's understanding. It's sitting with people who disagree with you, taking their arguments seriously, their viewpoints seriously, and being willing to admit they might be right or they might have something that helps you evolve your opinions better. And there's a deeper challenge. Many of the people most affected by what we talk about here will never come to this conference. That's the central tension of this forum. Davos is an elite gathering trying to shape a world that belongs to everyone. That is why this year's theme is the spirit of dialogue because dialogue is the only way a room like this can earn the legitimacy to shape ideas for people who aren't in the room. And besides, the world needs some more good faith conversations with people who don't typically talk to one another. I think that most people, at least intellectually, know that finding a common ground with a stranger is a hopeful thing. It restores your faith in humanity a bit. But how often does it actually happen? Hopefully a little more happens now, but how often can we make it happen? Because dialogue, especially the listening half of dialogue, is what the World Economic Forum needs in going forward. We need more of it. For 56 years, the World Economic Forum has been synonymous with Davos. And that's likely to remain true for a long while. But you should also see the World Economic Forum start doing something new, showing up and listening in places where the modern world is actually being built. Davos, yes, but also places like Detroit and Dublin or cities like Jakarta or Buenos Aires. We need the mountain to visit everyone, to be a part of everyone's life. So in fact that's why I agreed to take on this role after Klaus Schwab, whose more than a half century of work together with an extraordinary dedicated group of men and women at the World Economic Forum made this gathering possible. There was an opportunity to make this forum more transparent and I thought this was the best way to rebuild trust when people can see in the room about the debates, about the participation, and about the conversations and maybe a lot more understanding. That approach may fail in other gatherings. And this one it's going to work because for all the caricatures of this forum, the people who come here, the people I know aren't here to congratulate themselves, aren't here to pat themselves on the back. They're not here to protect their own comforts. The people I know are here for something bigger than themselves, bigger than their organizations that they represent. I believe economic progress should be shared. All of us at the forum believe that economic success should be shared and we believe institutions like the World Economic Forum still matters in making things happen. So let's remember this during the week about real conversations. Let us all commit to listen, to learn, to understand. And if we could all do that, we will all be better for that. Thank you.
And now my co-chair.
Thank you, Larry, for that very powerful message at the opening of our annual meeting. Now it is my pleasure to introduce our other co-chair, André Hoffmann, and I would also like to use this opportunity to thank both of the co-chairs for their leadership during the last three quarters of a year. André Hoffmann, you know André, many of you, he's our co-chair but also the vice chair of Roche. So, André Hoffmann.
