World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

Welcome to the first day of the 2017 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting from Davos, Switzerland.

3,000 leaders from government, business, academia and civil society are gathered here to help find solutions to the world's biggest challenges.

The theme of this year's meeting is Responsive and Responsible Leadership, and World Economic Forum Founder and Executive Chairman, Professor Klaus Schwab, explains what that means in this essay on the five priorities for leaders in 2017.

You can find the full Davos 2017 programme here, and you can watch many of the sessions live, in the video player at the top of this page.

And stay with us here on our live blog where we'll be bringing you highlights and commentary from this year’s Annual Meeting between now and Friday.

As day one gets underway, here are a few reports from around the world.

“In sharp contrast to the gloomy prospects of the world economy and international relations, Beijing remains committed to globalization. And Xi's presence at the Davos meeting is a reflection of China's determination to press ahead with the multilateral economic system.” The China Daily on what to look out for in President Xi Jinping's speech this morning.

Globalization hasn't fixed the gap between rich and poor, CEOs say - CNBC.

World Economic Forum begins with call for responsible governments - Hindustan Times.

The five Co-Chairs of Davos 2017 have explained what's at the top of the agenda as the meeting gets underway, and what participants hope to achieve after a turbulent 2016.

The Co-Chairs are:

In an essay for Agenda, our blog platform, Meg Whitman makes a call for optimism amid a daunting wave of technological change, arguing that technology could help us crack our toughest problems.

Meanwhile, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy explores the role of artists in speaking truth to power. He documentary, A Girl in the River, prompted Pakistan's government to toughen legislation against honour killings,

Here's everything you need to know about Davos 2017, and here's the Chairman's Briefing from Professor Klaus Schwab.

Fewer than 10% of the world’s public companies account for 80% of all profits, according to the McKinsey Global Institute. Firms with more than $1 billion in annual revenue account for nearly 60% of total global revenues and 65% of market capitalisation. The quest for size is producing a global bull market in mergers and acquisitions.

This session aims to explore what operating at this scale means for competition, collaboration and innovation.

Populism and big business

We now live in an age where everything we do has come into question, says Martin Sorrell. Is ‘big business’ now a bad word? It really depends on how we are defining it, he says. However, lack of trust in big business is an issue.

Consumers and smaller businesses are falling behind, and competition between larger and better resourced companies is increasing, he says.

Business has seen a big shift over the last decade, revealing the benefits of globalization but also the tensions, according to Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam.

People celebrated big business in the past, says Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, but things have changed over the last decade.

It’s not that the big companies are doing bad things, he says - there is transparency, hard work and innovation, but there is now a winner takes all approach. Creating more than one Facebook or Google, or attempting to compete, seems like an impossible task.

Dow Chemical Chairman Andrew N. Liveris says "inclusive capitalism" is branded as an elitist term, but everyone benefits if companies like ours grow, he says. With Donald Trump taking power, the goal will now be to make manufacturing jobs competitive in the US.

Philanthropy

"We must separate corporate philanthropy from individual philanthropy", suggests Sunil Bharti Mittal.

We are now in a society, where if you do things for society you will have better brand loyalty, better sales and be viewed more favourably, he says. Gone are the days of brute force for large corporations.

Small business

"Leveraging the benefits of scale and size are crucial, but small businesses create jobs" says Martin Sorrell.

Ruth Porat agrees, but believes the question should be how can we use technology to bring small businesses online?

Innovation

Big companies must constantly reinvent themselves and innovate - but they must also move at an affordable pace, says Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and CEO of The Dow Chemical Company.

Ruth Porat, CFO of Google parent company Alphabet believes that we need to push people to take risks and push the frontiers. "Success is just as much about what you do, as what you stop doing." Competition is fierce, and you need to remain focused on that.

Against the context of a backlash against globalization, Donald Trump’s pending inauguration and an anticipated statement on Brexit, the Co-Chairs of Davos 2017 give an opening press conference.

Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, says: “The election didn’t go the way I wanted, but we have got to give our new President the benefit of the doubt. He has the opportunity to prove that he can demonstrate responsive and responsible leadership.”

Elaborating on the theme of Davos, she says that business leaders needed to re-skill workers for the waves of transformation in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. “Tecnology is disrupting every single industry and every job. The pace of change will only accelerate.”

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Children International and former PM of Denmark, says: “This year’s headline (Responsive and Responsible leadership) makes a lot of sense following 2016. What does it mean? Responsive means that you have to listen to the people that you don’t necessarily agree with. Responsible means putting a longer term view in everything you do. What I’m hoping to be part of is to remind world leaders... not to put the financial or short-term first, but put everything within framework of the Sustainable Development Goals."

Brian Moynihan, CEO of the Bank of America, gives his take on what this meant in a business context.

“We have to grow, no excuse, but you have to do it the right way,” he says. “The growth that has to take place has to focus on all participants, it has to include everybody, it has to deal with the ups and downs of market-based forces.” Growth had to avoid excessive risk and be environmentally sustainable, he said, as well as being “sustainable in building safety nets around the world to make sure all citizens are dealt with fairly.”

Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips, also speaks of the need to counter short-termism. “Companies have a role to play with a longer-term vision,” he says. “If we all put our companies to work in a responsive and responsible way, we will make a better society.” He also warns about a skewed approach to the debate on globalization. “We should not only look at the West, in Asia billions of people have improved their lifestyle in recent years, although there are challenges.” In the context of this week’s political events, he says: “I believe in dialogue…I would worry about disruptive measures and new-found nationalism closing borders.”

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, an Oscar-winning documentary maker, highlights the importance of defending your values in testing times. “I find that the language of hate often trumps the language of inclusiveness. This is the time to speak up. This is not the time to stay quiet and hope,” she says. She also describes the role of the arts in building vibrant economies.

“Arts and culture are transforming economies around the world, not only in providing jobs and regeneration, but also in GDP… Not only does (culture) create empathy, not only does it bring people together, but for me we need a conversation around how business leaders and governments can invest in arts and culture, not just because they have to but because it makes business sense.”

Want more? You can watch the full session here.

After the financial crisis and slow recovery, the challenge for finance is to create a resilient, accessible financial system that people trust. How can this be achieved? What role should regulation play in the world of finance and how extensive should it be? How will technology influence the way financial services are delivered and used?

These are some of the questions the panel of financial services experts focuses on in this session.

Creating a new balance

Governments and financial regulators are still coming to terms with the fallout of the banking crisis, looking for the right mix of regulation, fiscal and monetary policies that will bring balance back into the international banking system.

Anne Richards, CEO of M&G Investments, says a key realisation has been that fiscal and monetary policies need to complement one another.

This is a particular challenge given that regulations tend to look at the system from a national perspective while banks are largely international in scope, she says.

Regulators need to keep pace

Adding to what governments and central banks can do, Mario Greco, CEO of Zurich Insurance Group, homes in on the role regulators play.

Regulators have tightened the framework banks, insurers and other financial service providers operate within, but, emphasises Greco: “Regulation has not helped get Europe out of the economic crisis and bring about an aligned system.”

He adds that regulators also need to differentiate between banks and other financial service providers, rather than imposing the same solvency rules on insurance companies as they do on banks, when the two work quite differently in this context.

John Cryan, CEO of Deutsche Bank in Germany, adds that regulation is becoming more and more granular, which means that traditional financial institutions become increasingly restricted in their own product innovation.

Making the most of fintech innovation

Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff says the growing transformation of the financial sector through technology has profound implications with new, unregulated fintech companies competing head-on with traditional banks.

“I have a feeling that the regulators are probably way behind what is going on.”

The biggest exponents of this are the emerging markets, with India and China leading the way, according to David M. Rubenstein, CEO, The Carlyle Group.

In these markets there is a distinct trend toward bypassing traditional finance and going to new providers, he says. Kenneth Rogoff references China’s internet lending as one example of this.

John Cryan cautions that fintech companies often highlight that they can take a lot of ‘friction’ out of finance, and that this also means taking profit out of the system.

Data and finance

Ken Rogoff sees the digital trend bringing about a move to a central bank digital currency sooner than expected.

Digitalisation across the financial system raises questions of security for all who participate in it. Anne Richard of M&G sees a trend in data regulation and financial regulation converging. However, there is no framework get to accommodate this future need.

Too big to fail?

The final part of the discussion centres on what went wrong in the banking crisis and how the sector has changed since.

John Cryan also highlights: “We didn’t apply common sense. Banks are overmanaged now, but we do apply common sense.” He is also in favour of the stress testing of financial institutions that was brought in in the wake of the crisis.

Kenneth Rogoff is concerned that, in spite of this, the financial ecosystem is still very unstable. If the European Central Bank was to unwind right now - for example by selling its Spanish and Italian bonds - he fears that the Eurozone would collapse. But his fear is not shared by other panelists.

In welcoming remarks, Doris Leuthard, the Swiss President, says: "In many regions of the word nationalism and protectionism are gaining the upper hand. I observe these developments with concern because they challenge the cohesion of the global community and make collaboration more difficult.”

783 million people can’t access clean water and 2.5 billion don’t have access to adequate sanitation. It's why Matt Damon and Gary White set up water.org, to help find solutions for universal fresh water and sanitation access.

Coming up at 1200 GMT, we have a conversation with Matt and Gary, exploring the concept of "water credit", which is their solution to the problem, putting microfinance tools to work in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector.

Ahead of the session, prepare yourself with this article Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, wrote for our Agenda blog on the importance of valuing water.

We're nearly a decade on from the financial crisis, and there are no real signs of a return to conventional monetary policies. Interest rates remain at unprecedentedly low levels - negative, in some cases - and the European Central Bank is still printing money through its programme of quantitative easing.

But policies are beginning to diverge, with the US Federal Reserve taking the first tentative steps to increase rates.

What are we likely to see next? Can the world's central banks can navigate a safe return to normal monetary policies?

In this session, Thomas J Jordan, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, says that divergence is not such a bad thing, because the normalisation of monetary policy in the US means the US economy is on track. “Central bank moves will be gradual, so any disruption will be limited,” he says.

However, recently appointed advisor to the incoming US President-Elect Donald Trump, Anthony Scaramucci, says that, in his personal opinion, while the Fed will continue to raise rates in 2017, this doesn’t mean that the US is in a period of normalisation.

Carmen M. Reinhart of the Harvard Kennedy School of Government agrees, saying that despite Trump’s plans for fiscal stimulus, the strong dollar and high leverage in the US will mean a more moderate pace of normalisation.

But one of the key issues coming up, according to David Rubenstein, is how a largely Obama-appointed Fed is going to work with a largely Republican government.

Anthony Scaramucci dismisses concerns, saying that the most important thing is that the Fed is independent and will remain so.

Confidence in central banks

Axel A. Weber, Chairman of the Board of Directors, UBS AG, is happy to see more fiscal and structural policies coming to the fore: “Ten years after the crisis our economies have strengthened, we need a different policy mix going forward,” he says. “Central banks have gone beyond their traditional remits, fiscal and structural policies are broader political responsibilities.”

Anthony Scaramucci goes on to say that, whilst the global elite all got through the crisis, it’s the common person that has really struggled, and this is where the focus on US policy will be. “What do we have in terms of policy? We have monetary, fiscal, maybe private enterprise intervention. The top 3% of the world have pushed back to where they were in 2007, the remaining people are struggling. If we want to make the world more successful, we have to as a collective group of people come up with the right policies, maybe that’s infrastructure, maybe that’s simplified tax.”

Indeed, Trump’s policy announcements signal a shift from a reliance on monetary policy to one of fiscal and structural stimulus, argues Axel Weber, UBS Chairman of the Board of Directors, which is a good thing, he says.

The strong dollar

David Rubenstein argues that the strong dollar could have a real impact outside of the US, particularly on those corporates and sovereigns leveraged in dollars.

Carmen agrees, saying that it could lead to higher incidence of public and private defaults in emerging markets.

If the trend continues, there will have to be intervention, adds Rubenstein.

Anthony Scaramucci won’t be drawn on whether this will happen, but says that if the US has better than expected growth, it will lift the global economy even in the face of a strong dollar. A rising currency will also have a domestic impact, he adds.

However, Axel Weber says that there will be an inherent correction in the dollar within the next 18 months, and that there is perhaps only around a 10% rise left to play out: “I hope that we’re not going back to a world of intervention,” he says, “that would be back to a bad modus of international operation”

A global perspective

Li Daokui of Tsinghua University cautioned that US policy had to include a global view, because the impacts of the currency strengthening were felt everywhere.

“The US Fed is still talking about preventing inflation, but they forget that there is strong feedback from their monetary policy on other countries,” he says. “And that will feedback into the US economy.”

Li’s biggest concern is the immediate future, he adds. “There will be two shocks: the inauguration will send a message to world that the US economy will be stimulated, and the US Fed hike. The two things combined will cause sharp appreciation among currencies.”

In summary

To conclude the session, each member of the panel sums up their main view on what's next for monetary policy:

David Rubenstein: “We can’t depend on monetary policy completely to solve everything. We have to do more in fiscal policy and structural changes before the economy will get better.

Li Daokui reiterates his view that policy considerations have to be global: “My main point is be careful of international feedbacks. The US dollar is more important that you think, the global economy will have more impact on the US than you think.”

Carmen M. Reinhart wants to add another dimension, that of restructuring public and private debt, which “will enhance the transmission mechanism of monetary policy to be able to create new credit.”

Anthony Scaramucci repeats the view that Trump’s policies focus on those that are the engines of growth in the US economy.

Thomas J Jordan says that “There has to be a focus on structural reforms, monetary policy should focus on more medium term.”

Axel Weber concludes the session saying the biggest concern for the rest of the decade, and one barely touched upon, was navigating political uncertainties. “European disintegration, populism, whereas policy was the saviour after 2008, it may be the disturbance of many of the potential economic developments ahead.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has delivered the Opening Plenary of our Annual Meeting in Davos.

His address marks the first time the Chinese head of state has attended Davos.

783 million people can’t access clean water and 2.5 billion don’t have access to adequate sanitation. It's why Matt Damon and Gary White set up water.org, to help find solutions for universal fresh water and sanitation access.

In this session, the founders explore the concept of "water credit", which is their solution to the problem - putting microfinance tools to work in the water, sanitation and hygiene sector.

The problem

Matt Damon highlights that looking at the magnitude of the crisis was the motivation for the creation of the organisation.

“Every 90 seconds a child is dying from lack of access to clean water and sanitation,” he tells the panel. Outcomes for women and girls are also affected by this lack of access.

Believing that the solution is already there, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Water.org Gary White suggested that “the problem contains its own solution.”

“The costs of providing clean water and sanitation is only the sum of around $4 billion,” says Gary White, while the poor are paying 7-10 times more per litre than the middle class. Instead of going to loan sharks to build toilets, he believes we can improve this access through "water credit".

Water credit

By opening up access to loans, people without access to water can fund projects through local microfinance institutions, explains Gary White.

Gary White believes that attitudes must move away from charity being the solution. Private capital and institutional investors are a continuation of his organisation.

“What we have done is jump-start the market, to correct the failures and so that institutions can respond,” he says. But there will be a requirement for other institutional investors.

Government partnerships

Matt Damon suggests that in order to solve the problem as a whole, “you need governments providing the infrastructure for us to work together.”

“We’ve had meetings with the Reserve Bank of India, and how we can support them in providing water, and this has resulted in water and sanitation now falling under priority,” says Gary White.

Looking to the future

“Millennials and young people are tuned into these issues,” says Matt Damon, and the aim for the future is to look towards long-term goals and innovation.

By using 10% of the profits from water.org, they aim to reinvest in smaller innovations and try and create more long-standing solutions.

Donald Trump's adviser Anthony Scaramucci gives an insight into the upcoming administration’s policy priorities in this session.

Delving directly into the most controversial issues surrounding the new administration, moderator and Member of the Managing Board at the World Economic Forum, Philipp Rösler, asks Anthony Scaramucci what he thinks the Sino-US relationship will look like come Friday, particularly with regard to trade.

“We have common cause,” assures Anthony. “We have to have a strong bilateral relationship. I also believe that the US and the new administration does not want to have a trade war, all we want is a process of free and fair trade.”

Scaramucci then outlines how every trade deal since the Marshall plan was asymmetrical to the US, allowing goods and services to flow freely into it, but embargoing its own exports. While this worked well to support other economies, it is no longer working for the US. “All we are asking for now is to create more symmetry in these trade agreements. The effect of trade agreements over the last fifty years has been to hollow out US manufacturing, which has hurt the middle class and crippled the working class.”

The inauguration speech

Friday’s speech will be very Reaganesque, says Scaramucci.

“Many people in the global community were concerned about Ronald Reagan and eight short years later they realised he was a man of peace and compassion. He led to a more peaceful world, the same thing will happen to Trump,” he states.

We may get upset about his tweeting, argues Scaramucci, but he loves people, he’s a compassionate and generous man.

Change of heart

Scaramucci has not always been a Trump fan. He initially refused to join the Trump campaign, but once Trump’s nomination was secure, agreed to join him. Scaramucci also cites the blue collar origins of his father and the aspirations that his family had to do better as reasons why he was swayed to join Trump. He also adds the fact that, in today’s world, his father’s wages would be down 45% in real terms. “There is a strain on working class families and it is way more difficult for those families to be aspirational,” he says.

When he experienced success Anthony then lost touch with his roots, he explains, and really only regained it while prowling the halls of Trump rallies, speaking to his supporters. “They told me how Trump was promising to get jobs back in their neighbourhood. These are the people I grew up with. Trump got this, I didn’t.”

Anthony briefly mentions the highs and lows of being in the Trump campaign, but says that “there is only one big negative for me, I don’t know when the guy sleeps! It’s impossible to outwork him.”

Decoding Trump

The mistake we are all making is to take Donald Trump literally, says Scaramucci. His voters, on the other hand, know to take his words symbolically. In addition, what his supporters most like about him is that he communicates directly to them: “He comes out of the top of mainstream media and talks to them through his own social media or through his speeches,” says Anthony.

Scaramucci adds that Trump does not feel the need to moderate his words; he will speak the same way to the global media as he would to a friend in a bar, and this has been the key to his success: “Trump made a decision, in the age of micro media where we all have our own little media platform, that he is going to connect to people in that level of intimacy,” Anthony says.

We shouldn’t confuse what he says with what he means, says Scaramucci, confirming that Trump has equal amounts of respect for German Chancellor Angela Merkel as he does for Russian President Valdimir Putin, despite heavily criticising the former just this week. For all his talk on immigration, he is actually “the least racist person that I have ever met, just ask Martin Luther King III, or Jim Brown, NFL football yesterday who said Donald Trump will be the quarterback of urban renewal of inner cities of the US,” says Scaramucci.

“He’s a great leader, he can galvanize people, he respects other leaders. I’ll make a prediction he will have a phenomenal relationship with Obama, he has an egregarious nature that you will see once he is in office.”

What about NATO?

To emphasise the point about decoding Trump, Scaramucci argues that Trump does not think NATO is obsolete, despite many of the global media interpreting his comments that way, he thinks that in a world where there is no longer a Soviet bloc, it needs a radical overhaul.

“In 2017 the way NATO is currently architected should be to focus less on combatting communism and more on rejecting terrorism,” he says.

In terms of Europe, Trump does not confuse nationalism for militarism, which for historical reasons, Europe is particularly sensitive about. “In fact the opposite is true, he would be the last person to want to do that.”

On the EU, he says: “You want peace in Europe and we want it, but I think that the European leadership, the bureaucrats had better pay much closer attention to working class and middle class families. If we do that you will close the income divide, people will feel better about themselves, they will think aspirationally about their children again.”

The next four years

“I see him very differently to how you see him. Over next four years you will see him much more the way I see him,” predicts Scaramucci.

“Have some faith and some confidence that there are some very smart people looking at it, not people who think they are smarter than everyone else, but smart people that are looking to make things better.”

Did you watch Shakira live? Here's a bit of context, from last night's Crystal Awards ceremony.

In news that will resonate here in Davos, UK Prime Minister Theresa May has outlined her plans for Brexit negotiations, including pulling Britain out of the European single market. She confirmed that the final deal would be put to a parliamentary vote.

Earlier we heard from musician, UNICEF Global Ambassador and Crystal Award honouree Shakira a little earlier, on the power of early childhood education to change lives.

It's something the Grammy Award-winning singer has dedicated much of her life to promoting, setting up the Fundacion Piez Descalzos (Barefoot Foundation) - a non-profit whose mission is to make education universally accessible to all children - when she was just 18.

Participants at a session on what it means to be human in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

"If a mix of accelerating automation and trade protectionism is the defining economic climate of the moment, globalization may well be in decline, and developing nations that failed to capitalize on the past two decades of economic integration - notably those in Africa - may have missed the boat altogether."

Reuters reports on what protectionism could mean for the most vulnerable.

Once merely a fable, relegated to the pages of fiction or the reels of Hollywood movies, artificial intelligence can truly be said to have arrived. It is now everywhere, from the workplace down to the phones in our pockets. But how will this explosion in AI affect our lives? What new opportunities will arise, and what will be the cost of this new age?

This session begins with IBM CEO Ginni Rometty discussing her company’s viewpoint on AI, what she calls “principles for the cognitive era”. She explains that data has become the competitive advantage, but you simply can’t make use of it without AI.

Trusting AI

Rometty adds that, as with any new technology, we have to think about how we build trust in it. One problem is if one person feeds data into another’s AI, who then owns the conclusions it produces? You want to make sure that the insights you get with your data belong to you, she says.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella agrees, saying that we need a set of principles to govern the creation of AI. It is important, he says, to bear in mind why you are making the AI.

His company, he says, is not trying to create AI that learns like humans to replace them, but AI that would work with, or augment them.

Nadella points to several promising examples of how AI can, and is already, helping humanity. He explains how recently they had ten people speaking different languages simultaneously communicating with one another through the power of AI. He also describes how a visually impaired man is developing glasses that use AI to recognise people and even emotions in real time.

Joichi Ito, the director of the Media Lab at MIT, and an expert in the development of AI, agrees that the potential of AI to solve problems is immense, but he adds that we're not yet able to tap that full potential. It's still something of a bespoke art, he says. The engineer designs for the customer, but the customer cannot yet imagine the solution. This can prevent people applying AI to a problem, or imagining that such a solution exists.

AI and jobs

Ginni Rometty remains certain however that AI must be developed alongside those who will use it in order for humanity to gain the greatest possible benefit. Responding to the fears of many that the advent of AI could result in redundancy she is frank.

She adds however that such redundancies happened after every major technological breakthrough - literacy, steam, metalworking. The significant thing, she says, is that new jobs were created around these new technologies, requiring new skills - and it's important that we have people ready to employ them. Not white collar, or even blue collar, but what she calls “new collar". “It’s incumbent on all of us to do retraining,” she says, to ensure we fit into this new world.

Ron Gutman, founder and CEO of HealthTap agrees, pointing to the potential changes to the medical profession AI presents.

The ability to identify and deal with health problems before the symptoms even manifest will create an enormous variety of new jobs around that sector.

Nadella is quick to point out however that this golden future has not yet arrived and we must work to ensure it arrives. We don’t have great growth today, he says, we need a technological breakthrough, we need AI.

Musician and UNICEF Global Ambassador Shakira has dedicated much of her life to promoting the power of early childhood education to change lives. She set up the Fundacion Piez Descalzos (Barefoot Foundation) - a non-profit whose mission is to make education universally accessible to all children - when she was just 18.

Having been presented with the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award for her humanitarian work, the Grammy Award-winning singer talks about why she has dedicated so much of her time to helping promote early childhood education – and why more of us should care about this issue.

Early childhood education matters

She starts off by saying that she hopes that the award is a reflection that the importance of early childhood education is more widely recognised globally.

She goes on to explain that the idea of her foundation was born when her parents took her to a park where orphaned children were living and sleeping rough. This image, she says, has stayed with her.

Against the odds

She recounts that when she set up her foundation, there were a lot of obstacles, of which many remain.

“Sometimes we encounter a tremendous lack of infrastructure. No potable water in many cases, no electricity, no paved roads, so it definitely means that we have to work twice as hard to offer a quality education.”

Not only that, but many of the children concerned are affected by violence or have no parents.

Colombia's recent history has shaped her

Shakira says that coming from Colombia - a country at war when she was born - has shaped her personality and world views.

“I grew up in a very violent country, and now all Colombians more than ever are hopeful that our kids and the newer generations and generations to come will be able to live in a peaceful environment where they can flourish.”

To achieve this, she stresses, what’s needed above all is commitment from all sections of society to give equal opportunities to the poor.

Ensuring access to education

Speaking about the disruption our world is facing - existing economic models being transformed, population growth, technology, wars - she is concerned about the impact that this will have on children’s opportunities and access to education.

Avoiding this is down to personal initiative: Shakira insists on the power of the individual when it comes to affecting how the world develops.

“I just hope that my children are aware of the power they can have as human beings in the new world that we’re building.”

The role of technology

Technology has a big part to play in this context, Shakira concludes, as there are now more opportunities than ever to make the issue of early childhood development front of mind by sharing information and literature, especially on social channels.

“You don’t have to be a celebrity to create change. Thanks to social media, everyone has a platform and a voice.”

The annual cost of bribery amounts to $2 trillion according to recent research, equivalent to roughly 2% of GDP - and that's just the economic cost of one form of corruption. The overall costs - economic and social - of all types of graft are much larger but nearly impossible to measure accurately.

Introducing this issue briefing, Oliver Cann, Head of Media Content at the World Economic Forum, said the Panama Papers were crucial in bringing the issue of corruption to the top of the agenda.

Mark Pieth, Chairman of the Basel Institute of Governance, says this showed us that “the organised criminals of this world stash away their money, but the issue is why do we tolerate it?”

“I have seen hundreds of cases of organised crime in companies, mostly using offshore constructions,” he says.

Scale of the problem

Joseph Stiglitz suggests that organised crime demonstrates the darker side of globalization. In overcoming the shadow economy and this kind of corruption, there is a lack of global transparency in financial markets.

He suggests that maintaining transparency is crucial, and agrees with Mark Pieth that drawing up a set of recommendations would be beneficial for companies.

Stiglitz believes that if we are to make globalization work, we have to have a commitment to root out havens of secrecy. He believes the problem does not just lie with offshore centres, but also onshore centres, and that "corruption has to be attacked globally."

The business cost

Margery Kraus, founder and Chairman of APCO Worldwide suggests that, for business, "there is a huge cost" associated with corruption.

For millennials, "corruption is an inhibitor on their future", says Margery Kraus. "We must not rely on compliance, but instead build this into the system, to create and operate ethical behaviours."

“Today’s young workers want to work for ethical companies, who are doing the right thing. The ones who adopt these practices will attract the best employees," she says.

Risk and compliance

Even with the best of intentions, often it can be difficult to oversee every single thing, Margery Kraus says. “People must see an example of when something goes wrong, and it’s definitive. Then the next person will learn from that.”

Joseph Stiglitz suggests that we must work out methods to improve transparency and improve the methods of returning money to those who have lost it.

The solution?

When pushed for a solution in the future, he suggests that the only way to truly combat financial corruption would be a complete overhaul of the system.

"I believe very strongly that for a country like the United States we could and should move to a digital currency and get rid of currency," he says. "This would give you the ability to trace this kind of corruption. There are important issues of privacy, cyber-security, but it would certainly have big advantages on knowing

One very important legacy of the outgoing administration, says John Kerry, outgoing Secretary of State, in this session is that, not only does it leave a US with the strongest economy in the world by far but it has made more efforts on the global stage than ever before.

He goes on to list what he sees as its key achievements: a peace plan for Yemen, the Paris Agreement, stopping Ebola and working with Russia to create the Iran nuclear agreement.

Iran was a particular achievement, he adds, given that the US and Iran hadn’t engaged in dialogue for 35 years. “We forged a relationship, we built trust in a place where it's difficult to do and the rest is history,” he says.

Diplomacy in reverse?

The reasons we are where we are is because we put engagement before rushing into war, he says.

What many people worry about, however, suggests moderator Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times, is that many of the achievements could be thrown in reverse by the new administration - the Iran agreement for example.

But in the event that the US did renege on the agreement, Kerry says the US will have injured its own credibility and will hurt its own administration.

Kerry on Europe

Kerry says the EU is the most successful assembly of countries ever seen, citing the way it has brought up its standard of living, strengthened its security and brought about amazing progress.

Those upset at the current state of affairs were blaming the wrong thing, he adds.

Technological advances would only continue, he adds, saying “I can’t wait to see how the incoming administration deals with AI.”

Is the two state solution over?

No, says Kerry emphatically, explaining that, in almost all his conversations with Israel he has reiterated that their actions on settlements are affecting the ability to make peace:

“If you keep building in the corridors you no longer have a contiguous Palestinian state,” he says, cautioning that “you cannot be a unitary state and be democratic and Jewish at the same time. What is happening today is a recipe for permanent insurgency, for permanent conflict.”

His advice to a successor?

The US is blessed with a powerful economy and military might, says Kerry, and consequently has a responsibility towards the world, but that responsibility has to be exercised with sensitivity and judgement.

It's dangerous to play on the lowest common denominator, he continues. “When economies are having a hard time and there is fear and anxiety in the workplace, enhanced by religious extremism and exploitation of ethnicity and sectarianism – you wind up with really bad outcomes. The last century in Europe is the greatest testimony to that reality,” he explains.

“I think the world we’re in right now is more understandable than people are making it, all the anxieties of workplace legitimate." But:

Failing states

One of the biggest challenges facing the world is dealing with the failing states of the world, says Kerry, those with bad governance and corruption. “The degree to which you see young people in country after country being deprived of a legitimate sense of possibility in a world where they see what everyone else has and what they don’t have - that to me is the great challenge,” he says.

He concludes that there are enormous virtues to what is happening in the world, but that we have to make sure it is flowing up and down the food chain in a fair way.

The new administration will start with the benefit of a strong economy and the sound diplomacy of the last eight years, he says. "I’m sure we’ve made mistakes, but our intent and purpose has always been the best the highest set of possibilities.”

“I see Trump very differently than maybe you guys see him,” Anthony Scaramucci told participants in Davos.

A full transcript of President Xi's speech to the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos.

The possibilities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are immense, with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3D-printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy storage and quantum computing potentially transforming almost every aspect of our lives.

But what’s needed from the public and private sectors to ensure the Fourth Industrial Revolution benefits everyone? This panel aims to answer this question.

Leadership and the 4IR

Ngaire Woods, Dean of the Blavatnik School of Government, believes that people in the United Kingdom and U.S. have “risen up” because of a lack of faith in their leaders, not least because of the uncertainties introduced by rapid technological change.

"Our technology is advancing at a rate that we can’t even comprehend," says Marc Benioff of Salesforce. “We must ask how it will help the average working man for the future.”

Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries, is convinced that 4IR technologies will be inclusive and benefit all. They are an equaliser, particularly for countries such as India, he suggests.

The importance of education

Advances in technology make education crucial for today's workers, says General Motors Chairman Mary Barra.

"People need to be taught these skills,” says Vishal Sikka. Innovation and entrepreneurship can be taught, and he believes that “we are not doing enough” in this regard.

Exploring new models of education will be a fundamental part of this adaptation, suggests Marc Benioff.

Access to technology

While advances in artificial intelligence are staggering, says Vishal Sikka, CEO of Infosys, they can also become a divisive problem. He believes a “deep commitment to bridging the technology displacement gap” will be important for the future.

China is set to overtake the US soon as an outward investor, as its investments grow at 20% per year. The experts in this session explore how Chinese companies’ global investments are transforming industries and markets around the world.

Investing in emerging economies

One major focus for China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) has been developing economies, including Latin America.

As Alicia Bárcena Ibarra, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, explains, while regional trade with China has expanded significantly, "we want more.”

She highlights that trade largely covers only five products, all of which are commodities, and that there is an opportunity for greater collaboration across areas such as energy, infrastructure and agriculture. The latter, in particular, represents a great opportunity in terms of ensuring food security for China, Ibarra points out. She adds: “We can build a strategic partnership with China.”

However, she also explains that there is still a great need to foster mutual understanding between China and the countries in the regions in which China is investing. Some markets need to better understand the reasons for - and benefits of - Chinese investment.

“The day President Xi arrived in Chile was the same day Donald Trump announced he wouldn’t sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership. China is now the second largest trade partner for Latin America - maybe this will change soon,” she says.

Building the New Silk Road

One of the key drivers of China's overseas investments is the New Silk Road project - also known as "One Belt, One Road" - to develop two new trade corridors, which aims to lift the value of cross-border trade to $2.5 trillion within a decade.

Li Xiaopeng, Vice-Chairman and Group President of China Merchants Group, shares some of the approaches taken by China as part of the New Silk Road initiative, including the so-called "PPC model", which sees development of new industrial areas starting with a port, around which an industrial zone and a city are established.

The benefits from the New Silk Road project for the region are mutual, with all parties sharing experience through their partnership, explains Li Xiaopeng.

Room for development

Nouriel Roubini, a business professor at New York University, points out that there needs to be greater reciprocity in order to maintain a balance of investments between the US and Europe on the one hand and China on the other.

The session concludes on expectations for 2017, with Zhang Yi-Chen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, CITIC Capital Holdings Limited, emphasising that, on the whole, overall foreign investment will be lower than in 2016. He also stresses the need for companies seeking to expand in China in future to find strong local partners to work with, citing McDonald’s and KFC as examples.

The first day of Davos 2017 is drawing to a close, but there's plenty more coming up tomorrow. Here are some of the key sessions to follow on Wednesday:

0800 GMT - Squeezed and Angry: How to Fix the Middle-Class Crisis

0930 GMT - Special Address by Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States

1000 GMT - A Compact for Responsible Business Leadership

1000 GMT - Politics of Fear or Rebellion of the Forgotten?

1300 GMT - A Positive Narrative for the Global Community

1445 GMT - Fixing Europe's Disunion

1700 GMT - The Great American Divide

1715 GMT - An Insight, An Idea with Jack Ma