Sunday 28 September



Annual Meeting of the New Champions closes

During the closing remarks of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting of the New Champions, Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum, argued that the unfolding crisis presents a tremendous challenge to the existing financial order. “This is probably the first transformational crisis of our globalized age,” said Schwab. “Many things will change.” While several of the world’s leading businesses in recent weeks have disappeared, new corporations will emerge from around the world to take the lead.

In a World Economic Brainstorming poll conducted prior to the closing remarks, participants pointed to the current crisis as the greatest threat to global growth of the next twelve months. Old and new stakeholders need to work together to meet this common challenge, argued Robert Greenhill, Managing Director and Chief Business Officer, World Economic Forum. “A very important part of this forum is bringing together the present and the future,” said Greenhill. And the Forum’s Second Global Growth @ Risk Report 2008 holds that risk is exacerbated by focusing only on the current crisis and not planning to move beyond it.