Davos (Switzerland), January 26, 2004 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The World Economic Forum ended yesterday (25) , and, at least in terms of the weather, the debates concluded exactly the way the biggest meeting of capitalists on the planet began, under piles of snow. In the sphere of ideas, however, the five days were prodigious. Almost everything was discussed, from child labor and injustices between rich and poor to terrorism and sending European troops to Iraq. The importance of the Davos and Porto Alegre agendas as projects for the world's population was also cited.
In general, one could note a clear disparity of interests among Forum participants. Europeans wanted to discuss the depreciation of the American dollar and its economic effects on their region, and they scoffed at U.S. anti-terrorist pretensions. Americans, in turn, spoke only about how to step up the war on international terrorism and ignored the issue of controlling deficits in government accounts.
Agricultural countries insisted on the end of protectionism and the elimination of rich countries' subsidies to export products. The Islamic world protested against what is, in its version, Washington's interventionist foreign policy. Entrepreneurs were interested in doing business and learning more about the "Chinese miracle," which last year alone registered an 8.5% growth in its Gross Domestic Product. For their part, religious leaders wanted to understand how globalization has interfered with the religious map.
REAL WORLD
Parallel to the main event, there was a flourishing of social issues that, acording to the president of the Ethos Institute of Brazil, Young Silva, are gradually gaining space on the Davos agenda. The director general of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Juan Somavia, for example, emphasized that employment policies must be assigned first priority, because, in their absence, unemployed, impoverished parents will continue to sell their children and feed prostitution, drug trafficking, despair, and hunger.
INFLATION VS. PEOPLE
One of the most curious ideas, however, came from Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning professor of Economics from Columbia University, in the United States. According to him, Ministers of Finance from around the world are thinking too much about inflation and forgetting people. "The principal members of international institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are economists who are attached to number, not to workers."
The Nigerian Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, finished off: "We must think more about each citizen's living conditions."
BRAZIL
For Brazil, according to the Minister of Development, Luiz Fernando Furlan, and the president of the Central Bank, Henrique Meirelles, the Forum was more than a space for exchanging experiences. It offered a real opportunity and a privileged stage for explaining to entrepreneurs from around the world that the country is stronger than it was last year and is prepared to receive investments that generate employment. "Brazil is being viewed with great respect," Meirelles pointed out.
Besides this, talks began again about the World Trade Organization, which, at the last ministerial meeting in the Mexican city of Cancun, in September, got nowhere, and they promise to accelerate in coming months, dealing mainly with matters of interest to Brazil, such as the regulation of rules for agriculture. (DAS)
