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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 Jan. - 2 Feb. 2000 Issue No. 466
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Avoiding slippery slopes
By Gamil Ibrahim in Davos, Dina Ezzat in CairoThe first top-level gathering of the 21st century opens today in Davos, Switzerland, as some 30 government leaders and 3,000 political, civil society, business and academic leaders gather for the World Economic Forum -- New Beginnings: Making a Difference -- which will run until 1 February .
Economic globalisation, which the Forum has advocated for the past 10 years but which provoked a backlash at last month's conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Seattle, will figure prominently in discussions.
Klaus Schwab, the Forum's founder and president, conceded that the time is not ripe for making progress at the Forum towards greater trade liberalisation. He warned that governments were bound to lose some power in the process of globalisation. "It is my firm belief that it is not business that should step in place of governments," he said. "What we need is close cooperation between government, business and civil society to meet the challenges."
But these statements, and others by Forum officials, are not enough to defuse the anger of governments and groups opposed to globalisation.
WTO President Mike Moore also concedes that the time is not opportune for a new round of talks on trade liberalisation because many states are not ready to soften positions already publicised in Seattle.
Davos follows Seattle, but precedes the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Bangkok, Thailand, on 12-19 February. The UNCTAD theme will be "equitable sharing of the benefits of globalisation".
Davos was the birth-place of the call for Middle East/North Africa conferences on regional economic cooperation, stalled by the hawkish policies of former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
The Egyptian delegation to the Forum, led by Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, will argue that talks on regional cooperation can be resumed provided bilateral peace negotiations continue. Egypt has said that it is ready to host the next MENA conference later this year if there are no hurdles in the way of the peace talks. "Our position remains the same," Moussa said. "Progress has to be made and sustained for Egypt to host this MENA conference."
The Davos discussions will open a few days before the resumption of multilateral talks on Middle Eastern issues on 1 February in Moscow.
"There would be no point talking about multilateral perceptions if we are going to have serious problems again on the bilateral fronts," Moussa said.
Amid unprecedented security for fear of Seattle like protests, US President Bill Clinton will pay a flying visit to Davos. He will arrive on Saturday, the first ever visit by a US president to the summit. In the biggest security operation in Davos's 30-year history, the Swiss army has been called to help local police seal off the ski resort.
Meanwhile local authorities rejected a request to stage an anti-globalisation protest on Saturday, the day Clinton is in town, allowing one only on the following day. But the protesters have appealed the decision.
Davos has in the past been the setting for historic events, including key moments in the Middle East peace process and South Africa's abandonment of apartheid. But it appeared increasingly unlikely this week that the meeting would be the setting for a hoped-for mini-summit between Clinton, Yasser Arafat and Ehud Barak. Barak's office said on Monday that the Israeli leader is considering cancelling his trip.
A special session on Egypt, chaired by Moussa with Richard Grasso, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, acting as moderator, will deal with "implementing a business driven agenda".
The session -- which will be addressed by Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade Youssef Boutros Ghali -- is on 29 January.
Moussa and Ghali will also address another session, on boosting investment opportunities in Egypt, on 31 January. Both ministers will extoll to participants the potential of the Egyptian economy, Cairo's liberalisation policies and the prospects for a peace settlement in the region.
(see: interview with Klaus Schwab; opinion by: Ismail Serageldin, Kemal Dervis, Abdel-Shakur Shaalan, Mohamed El-Erian & Mohamed Metwalli )
