Economies face 'globalisation of problems'

Dubai: Those who think the global crisis is over should think twice.

"The crisis isn't over," said Lord Malloch-Brown, senior adviser to Global Redesign Initiative (GRI) — a move by the World Economic Forum to help leaders redesign the global structure to become better prepared to face financial shocks.

Welcoming his fellow delegates, Malloch-Brown said the global thinkers and leaders need to network closely and develop public-private partnerships to seek solutions to the global problems and need to rise to the occasion.

"Failure after failure to rise to the occasion," he said, has landed the world in its current situation.

"None of these major problems is national in nature," he said, they are global, be it about failing states, September 11 to the economic crisis. The world is more interlinked and globalised.

However, time after time, the world has been facing "globalisation of problems," including gaps in governance, he said.

"We are seeing linkages between problems.

"The governments must understand the problems from the bottom up. Most problems could be solved through public-private partnerships," he said.

"We must develop and strengthen networking ... build contacts and take a General Assembly approach, if you like."

Richard Samans, managing director of the World Economic Forum, said there is a sense that the world was not well served and global leaders had been suffering from complacency.

The right questions

He urged his fellow members to come up with some suggestions for the next World Economic Forum to be held in Davos in January, that will help global leaders to come up with better solutions for the world's problems.

"There is a sense that the world was not well served ... crises crept up due to complacency by world leaders," he said.

"The crisis has served a very important lesson ... the cost of complacency has been terribly high. There have been structural weaknesses in the global financial system," he said and asked his fellow members of the Global Agenda Council to come up with solid recommendations to fix these problems.

He asked the members of the GRI to develop new ideas based on what is desirable, what is achievable in a new report to be published in April 2010.

"The GRI Report in April next year will give new ideas to government leaders and multistake holders and perhaps bring them closer and in direct contact to the solutions."

Samans said his organisation has held discussions with global leaders on the future course of action.

"They are comfortable with what we are doing here. They understand the complementary role we play."