Juno News - January 19, 2024


WEF wraps ＂rebuilding trust＂ elitefest in Davos


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

174.97842

Word Count

676

Sentence Count

30


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I am coming to you once more from the streets of Davos in Switzerland on day five, the fifth and
00:00:05.780 final day of the World Economic Forum's 2024 annual meeting. Now the conference has concluded
00:00:12.300 and as you can see behind me here it is a complete ghost town in Davos especially compared to the
00:00:17.640 hustle and bustle of the previous week. Over the course of the morning we saw the final sessions
00:00:23.440 but really all of the really important people, those big elites got out of Dodge. Many of them
00:00:28.920 have left, they've taken their helicopters out of the village of Davos and you can tell all the
00:00:33.420 really important folks had already gotten out of Dodge because police were taking down the many
00:00:37.380 barricades and barriers that adorned the street even before the conference technically ended.
00:00:42.120 Some of them have of course made their way to the ski slopes which I'm told is a key part of the
00:00:47.140 Davos experience for the rich and powerful of the world who descended on this village over the last
00:00:52.860 week. Now the theme of this year's conference was rebuilding trust. Now whether or not trust was
00:00:58.580 actually rebuilt as anyone's guess there was a lot of discussion about misinformation but not much
00:01:03.640 about what the institutions themselves have done to I think foster a lot of that mistrust and foster
00:01:09.740 a lot of those very issues that have resulted in such a dramatic decline in people having confidence
00:01:15.960 and faith in institutions. This is what WEF President Borgay-Brenda said in his closing remarks of
00:01:21.880 the conference. Rising global temperatures, a still fragile economy and the deteriorating security
00:01:30.700 landscape are challenges that are not bound by borders. They affect us all. There's no longer such a thing
00:01:40.780 as a country company or community insulated from global shocks. And when it comes to leveraging
00:01:48.700 opportunities, it is not possible to do so alone. Yet we know the foundation of cooperation, trust has been
00:01:59.420 eroding in recent years, which is why this week's meeting on rebuilding trust has been so important.
00:02:08.860 But despite this stated commitment to rebuilding trust, there was a remarkable lack of transparency
00:02:15.340 at this conference. As I mentioned earlier in the week, the World Economic Forum has not and
00:02:19.520 will not, I suspect, release its list of participants, the names and countries and affiliations of those who
00:02:25.440 have attended here. Even the list of public figures, representatives of governments from around the
00:02:30.920 world have not been disclosed except for those who appeared on the speaking agenda. We would frequently
00:02:35.400 run into people on the streets that we would have no idea were here had we not been here to take
00:02:39.800 a look at them and actually read their name tag and ask them some questions. And it was remarkable how
00:02:45.080 few questions some of these leaders wanted to answer. For example, Christine Lagarde, who is the
00:02:50.200 president of the European Central Bank, was here. I asked her a question that I know is on a lot of
00:02:54.680 people's minds about trust in financial systems, trust in the banking world, especially with digital
00:03:00.360 currency. And this is what happened. Good afternoon, ma'am. How can people have confidence in digital
00:03:04.840 currencies and government not using it as a tool of control? I'm not giving an interview. I'm not
00:03:09.400 speaking because I'm in a quiet period. This is about rebuilding trust this year. How can people
00:03:14.120 have trust in these institutions when governments wield so much control?
00:03:17.640 Mrs. Lagarde, where's the privacy of the people?
00:03:20.680 Shouldn't you be answering questions if this conference's theme is rebuilding trust, ma'am?
00:03:23.800 As I indicated there, it's hard to imagine rebuilding trust without transparency and without
00:03:30.680 these people being willing to answer questions. In any event, that is a wrap on the 2024 World Economic
00:03:37.320 Forum Annual Meeting and a wrap on our coverage of it. Thank you so much for all your support through
00:03:41.800 the week and we'll see you back in Canada. For True North from Davos, I'm Andrew Lawton.