 Good morning everyone. Good to see you and thank you for joining this excellent panel at the start of our growth summit. We are very conscious about the importance of growth this year because it is really very important situation we are in when this comes to reviving inclusive and sustainable global growth. Our economists and we also have seen the economists in IMF and the World Bank also predicting 2.8 to 3% global growth this year. That's a lot lower than we have been used to in the last decades. In fact we have to go all the way back to 1990 to see growth numbers at this level. So the economic backdrop that we are faced with is challenging but compared to the geopolitical backdrop that we faced with maybe even a bit less challenging. The geopolitical backdrop is also causing us concerns and is also influencing the economic situation. What we really need to avoid is that this is lost decade when it comes to growth. We need to revive growth but that also has to be done in a very smart way because we have inflationary pressure that we haven't seen in a long time so that has to be dealt with. Would you also know that this is affecting developing countries in the emerging economies quite seriously? We know that capital is now flowing to the large economies and how do we face and what kind of policies do we apply both in developed and developing world? What are the structural changes? What kind of supply side economics could we apply and how can we use trade as a tool in reviving growth? I would say that there will be no revival and a real of the economy, global economy and a recovery without the trade and investment recovery. We have an all-star panel to deal with these topics. Let me then introduce them and we'll come back to them. Of course with questions. First on my right hand side we have Minister Bandar Aikorayafef, Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources from Saudi Arabia, G20 Economy. We have then Minister from Bangladesh, Tipu Munshi, Minister of Commerce from Bangladesh. Welcome. We then have Rasya Khan, Head of Research, Chief Economist for Africa and Middle East, Standard Chartered Bank. Then we have Shandri Banerjee, Director General of the Confederation of Indian Industry and we have one of the successful industrialists, strong voice from the business sector, Boudre Okai, President and CEO of Kala Holding. Welcome. Let's give them an applause. Even with that kind of grim outlook that I was sharing, we should then try in the panel to change maybe the side cast a little bit and coming to you, Minister, we know that Saudi Arabia is a fast growing economy. We know that Saudi Arabia is the most populous of the GCC country and a real important player in also the whole MENA region and maybe increasingly so. When I was in Saudi Arabia recently and we met and also met with the crumprints, he strongly underlined that the future of Saudi Arabia is really about how one can create growth and investments. We would love to hear, of course, your answers to how to revive growth but also we know that the Middle East, the MENA region is the least integrated of all the global regions when it comes to trade. I know with the new situation in GCC that it's again cooperating much better. What are the prospects for increased integration? Over to you, Minister. Welcome to Geneva. Thank you and thank you for inviting me for this important session. I think it's needless to say that growth is a key component of every country's development. I mean, coming from private sector, it was for us clear in the private sector that the concentration of manufacturing, for example, of trade is not a sustainable. And one of the things that you just mentioned, the fact that our region is one of the least of integration is a result of how the overall trade, I would say, set up that has been developed as a result of God and then later on the World Trade Organization. And therefore, we are actually, we are seeing these challenges that are today with global trade and definitely what have happened as a result of COVID and disruption is just another demonstration of how fragile the global community is when it comes to global trade. Now we see also political tension and the war in Ukraine and so on. So definitely it's important to ensure that the global community have the right policies, the right direction to be able to build long-term investments that are integrated with the different industries on one hand, but also geographical location on the other hand. If we look at our growth in Saudi Arabia that has been fueled by our oil resources has been very impressive, but what we are doing in our Vision 2030 is really looking at how we can make this growth, impressive growth is actually selectively targeting different sectors that are going to be key in a global environment, unlocking value, adding value to our natural resources, our also geographical location. So Saudi Arabia, since the launch of the Vision, have made it clear that it is going to be a country that is connected with the global community when it comes to trade, when it comes to manufacturing, when it comes to resources, oil and gas, mineral resources and logistical, a very important logistical hub. We have seen that we have shown that the growth we have made, although definitely very impressive in terms of numbers, but the quality of the growth went to the right sectors, making sure that we connect. Now back to the question, what we are doing today, at least I would definitely talk about the agenda I'm responsible for, when we started looking at mining as a sector to be unlocked in Saudi Arabia, we made sure that we unlocked the sector, but at the same time make sure that it is linked with an added value vision. That's why we had the Ministry of Industry connected with mining. The way we are planning our mining resources and mining law is also incentivizing investors to go downstream. Definitely these investments will not only satisfy our local demand, but they are there to satisfy the region and the global community that is in very serious need towards the future of minerals. We have created the platform what we call Future Mineral Form, which today attacks more than 60 countries, trying to work together to see how this industry can be integrated, how different countries can play different roles to ensure the efficiency of supply and sustainable growth in that sector. Regionally and more regionally probably in the Gulf, for the first time in almost 17 years, we revamped the common industrial investment law that is going to integrate the different regions, the different countries in the Gulf. Also we have a unified overarching industrial strategy that is also bringing all GCC countries to see how they can cooperate with each other, how can they complement each other. It can be in manufacturing, it can be logistic, it can be in human capital, it can be in natural resources. This is a very serious discussion. We are having, for example, from our part and then we have the larger region that we see Africa, Middle East and Central Asia being an important player for the future of minerals and again that's also part of the Future Mineral Form. This region has more than 35 percent of global reserves. Unfortunately it's very fragmented, it's untapped, there's a lot of political issues, there's a lot of need for restructuring in different countries to allow this investment to take place. So as a conclusion I think our vision is all about economic diversity. It's all about really positioning Saudi Arabia to be an important player in the global trade, global resources of energy, minerals and so on. Well thank you very much Minister. I was also privileged to have your presentation of your mineral strategy when I was there. We also see that Saudi Arabia is now taking much clearer steps in saying that if you want to do business in Saudi Arabia you also have to have your regional headquarters here and you have also the launch of Riyadh Air so there's a lot of things happening. I was thinking, Rasia Khan, since you're also the chief economist of the standard Chartered Bank for this region, for Africa and the Middle East, based on the fragmentation, the challenges that I touched on in the introduction that we need to revive growth, how is your outlook economically for Africa and the Middle East? Well there's no doubting that there is at this point in time a fairly divergent outlook. The Middle East, especially the oil producing countries of the GCC have been able to reap the rewards of higher oil prices, they have recovered very well since the shocks of 2015. However the real story for many Middle Eastern economies is really around the diversification effort. What we've seen since that late 2014-2015 oil price shock is an accelerated embrace of diversification, of reform, that will hopefully allow the region to be that much more resilient through future hydrocarbon price volatility and we see this in terms of labor force inclusion, female participation in the labor force, we see it in terms of the effort to build inter-regional infrastructure. That remains an important theme everywhere as well as making banking systems that much more resilient to the oil cycles that we had seen in the past. Now for Africa we know that we are seeing a very different outlook at this point in time. The tightening of global liquidity, the capital flight from many emerging and frontier markets, a great deal of challenge. It's not clear where the financing for a lot of the closer regional integration is going to be coming from. At the same time there is great political will to make the Africa continental free trade agreement much more of a reality. It seems ambitious at first sight. We all know that of any developing region Africa had the least amount of inter-regional trade, very little trade complementarity, and the infrastructure that did exist really was there to serve the export of commodities mostly from Africa to the rest of the world. So the question we all need to be asking ourselves is how in a world where financing is going to be that much more difficult to come by, where there are big concerns about the more vulnerable economies and the external debt positions of those economies, where everyone is thinking how do you mobilize long-term financing for infrastructure? How do you build on the trade gains that can really help prosperity in this region? Many of you in this room will know that there's been a lot written about Africa's own vulnerability to global fragmentation of trade. Africa was the big beneficiary of the rise of China post-2001, the demand for its commodities. Now there's concern that if we are seeing a fragmentation of global trade, regions like Africa trading a lot with the EU, still one of the largest trading partners for the region, receiving a lot of FDI from the EU and other Western economies, but seeing a lot of trade with China, how are they going to be put at risk? If I were to summarize very quickly, I'd say the outlook for the Middle East is ultimately encouraging because of the embrace of reform, but for Africa too, the political willingness to realize those trade gains promised by the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement. It's early days, there's a lot of work to be done, many challenges still, but the political will to realize this could be a significant driver of growth. Short question, follow-up. How worried are you about some of these special African countries defaulting because of the high debt ratio? And we see that capital is no moving to some of the more developed economies because of the high interest rates. We know that there are countries now really, really vulnerable. They don't have a lot of liquidity. We know that Pakistan has been under pressure. We know that also other African countries. So how worried are you about this? And how to also agree on a deal related to, for example, a haircut? Would we in this fragmented world see, for example, China and the US agreeing on a deal to support one of, for example, African countries? So that's an excellent question. And at this point in time, markets is thinking, at some point we're going to get the Fed easing. They're pricing in quite a lot of easing still to come. Does that lend itself to more accommodative global financing conditions? Should we assume that the capital flows come back to emerging markets, that the interest will be there? Probably not for the time being, which means for much of the region locked out of international capital markets. The focus really needs to be on the mitigants that can be put in place. A lot of discussion from the international financial institutions of accelerating the amount of concessional financing in some instances grants to countries that have very low debt carrying capacity. But also this great need where countries do run into trouble with liquidity issues primarily. It starts off as a liquidity crisis, not a solvency crisis. Is there a way to prevent that from tipping over into a solvency crisis? And if it is, if there's no alternative to countries other than to seek a debt restructuring, the question we're still grappling with, is it possible to do this faster? Is it possible to reach more for global consensus, to get debt restructurings done in a much faster way, greater predictability, a restoration of growth even sooner? We all know that everyone would benefit if this were the ultimate outcome. The difficulty of course is in getting there. And in a more globally fragmented world where other geopolitical considerations run the risk of taking over, that could be an issue. Thank you very much. Very interesting. Let's then move to Bangladesh and Minister of Commerce. Looking at the last growth numbers, I looked them up last night. Bangladesh is still doing pretty well. I think we're expecting more than 6% growth this year, at least more than 5%, and I think 6% for 2024. Bangladesh has a huge export market in Europe and in the US. That's your most important export market. And most of you import. The biggest country when it comes to importing for Bangladesh is China. And then you have also a big neighbor to your west being India. So who are you maneuvering in an area where India meets China? And you also have the complex geoeconomic and geopolitical landscape that you're faced with. Thank you, gentlemen. Inviting me here. You see, we have now lost 15 years. The growth in Bangladesh is tremendous. We almost more than 6% is around 7% growth. It was every year, but last two years, I mean, the COVID and other problem just slowed down. But now we expect in this year also, as you mentioned that today, 6% our expectation, and I think we can achieve that. You know, our 84, 83, 84% of our export is ready made garments. The destination of the ready made garments to USA and mostly European countries. Thank you. No doubt. So, and as you mentioned that this supplies mostly 60% of our supply chain comes from, I mean, from China. That's true also. Last two years, we suffered a lot for that supply was really. So now we have a different plan. We shall have to plan in different ways. You see the original things. India is our neighbor, no doubt. But we have seven sisters in Indian side with around Bangladesh and West Bengal is one, another state of India. So that's also quite big. So we are planning to reorganize all these things bringing them into in the in the growth time in the business basket also with developing the relationship and all these things. And we are trying to diversify our, I mean, we have the RMG sector, but we want to improve our other sectors also what we are doing now, especially you see if you say the ICT sector is doing trying to achieve that, I mean, target what we are now planning to go. And also you know that this is your political scenario, a lot of investments also coming to Bangladesh. They are those who are changing their place, I mean, from China to relocating these things. So we are trying to catch that thing also. So Bangladesh is ready for that thing. And we have suffered the supply thing. So we are thinking this substitute of that how to phase that thing also. And if you if you see the export now some other items are also coming up quite in a good way. So I believe that China supply we shall we are rethinking how to how to we shall have to find morning we cannot change all these things. But we shall have to find some other way that not to depend on that's true also the depending on China it was we have suffered a lot. So and we said that the local economy is doing good. We are inviting the foreign direct investment more than 100 economic zone is there to clear that a lot of investments are coming. So hopefully all these things if really happens dependency on others will be less and our export basket will be more so far I believe. Thank you. No, thank you. And it's impressive economic results. I've been several times in Bangladesh my myself and have seen the difference in 20 years. It's incredible. And also thank you for underlining the importance of diversification. Then going to India, your big neighbor in the West know the most populous country in the world 1.4 billion people. Also the fastest growing of the large economies of the world. So many are talking about India's year India's decade on top of Asia's century. And this year Mr Banerjee also have the G20 and we know that CII the confederation of Indian industry that you're heading is playing a major role also in the preparations for the G20. But I'm wondering how do you see the role of Indian business in Indian economic and structural changes moving forward to continue the growth and also the Indian industry and business role globally. Because I think you also have ambitious ambitious outlook outside India. Right. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks. Yes, it's indeed exciting times in India and we are as you rightly said in the presidency of G20 and as an institution we are actually now spearheading the B20 part of it and therefore I find your question relevant from that from that prison. And we are looking at a when we really look at the next 25 years in India and we achieve 100 years of our independence in 2047. We are looking at a 40 trillion economy by then at least from our side and that and where business of course both industry manufacturing and services have a huge role to play. And through that one of the things that we have been able to really achieve in India over the last few years have been a very coordinated consultation approach between the public and the business. And it is not just in a federal country and democracy like India it's not only the federal government but also the state governments which India in many ways are like 35 million years and therefore there are so you see the way we have worked we have moved to the second phases of reforms. We've seen reforms which are really like say digitization is one example that if you take it's touched millions of people people you talked about 1.4 billion people actually it is touched the people in the in the last village of India. So and that's where we see the opportunities of demand the opportunities of growth the opportunities of even sharing with the world and that gives me a segue to talk about the B20 process and which is contributing to the G20 where we are taking businesses together to move when we're talking about global value chains and to see how we develop even regional networks within within within the systems you will be working in a if you really look at in eight of India's 10 largest trading partners are from the from the region. So and trade will be one of the one of the biggest you know engines for growth and and we are really looking at we are seeing the type of foreign direct investments that are coming into India which is also led by a lot by business and Indian businesses today even mid-sized companies who are being able to even set up or acquire in U.S. or in India. So Indian investments even abroad becoming very strong which is really contributing to these global chains that I talked about. Second we think I think business has a huge role and we are working with our neighbors with our other regional networks we have been collaborating very strongly from the business side on areas like I2U2 or the India Indo-Pacific in a very very strong way and we are seeing huge results coming out of it. You see the way we are getting into FTAs that with UAE has been a phenomenal sort of an outcome that we have had well with Australia the UAE one was signed in 89 days the Australia was signed fast and we are really looking at other free trade agreements and with even if you really look at the eastern part of our side the east when we talked about our luke east policy we have trade agreements both in regions or in with countries in a very strong way. So the other point which where we see business leading a very strong role and because you mentioned 1.4 billion is is all about people so regional network of our when we talk about regional trade when we talk about global trade I think we need to also look at look at the future of jobs and you've come out with a fantastic report on future of jobs and you look at future of jobs we see how we can really make the any growth to be sort of job oriented growth and there comes a role of business in terms of looking at the future of jobs which are emerging that future and how we can sort of upskill our people look at those killings which are required which will give give jobs to to them in in our country and even people how can we can have cross-border mobility how we can have mutual recognition of of our qualifications even our new education policy if you see are allowing foreign universities much easier segue into India to come and develop and therefore even get into and recognizing vocational training to be a part of the syllabus in in in in in in in secondary schools so I think the role of business is pretty defined when we really look at how it can contribute it to India becoming a sort of developed country if I can say and even move up as I talked about a target of 35 to 40 trillion I see a growth rate in India not less than six percent definitely the coming year we have been seven percent we will end up with seven percent plus in this financial year and I see a potential of India actually growing at a much greater greater space with more of it's becoming easier to do business with India we are seeing stronger infrastructure development and there also business plays a lot of role all of this leading to much and contributing to the world and I think what we will be able to do is to see how we can share our own successes I talked about the digital stack story of India which can actually one of our legacy issues that we are really like trying to work with and I was so happy that my colleague panelist spoke about Africa because one of the things that we are really looking through the B-20 prison is to how we can get the world attention and world economically integrate with Africa so I think business has a major role to play and with our policymakers and with the regional cooperation we can take that forward thank you very much CB I visited last fall and you hosted a dinner in New Delhi and that was when there was a low point here in Europe when it came to optimism or lack of optimism I said it was like very good for me to arrive in Delhi and was at that dinner it was only optimism so it was good to feel optimism again but things are looking also a little bit better in this part of of the world we were supposed to freeze in the winter we were supposed to see inflation getting all out of control and also see major reallocation of industries we are having these challenges still but not the freezing one though but we are dealing with it and that's I think a good segue into Balder Okiai present and Sea of Kale Holding Kale Holding Kale Industries I think you represent your 17 different companies you have production in Turkey but also in several other countries you're a big industry conglomerate and you're still doing well but who have you maneuvered through all these crises Ukraine crisis the energy crisis challenges with the lira what what has your been how do you see the outlook now also if you look at at trade and how are you maneuvering thank you and I think that this summit discussing is very timely about growth and looking forward from here to the world how it can be revamped so this is in a time of uncertainty as discussed in the previous panel so it's a very visionary for the forum to put out such issues I think there are some realities that we need to focus on moving forward especially we need to discuss more among governments and businesses as India achieved and we should engage more in these discussions in order to establish a system of of thought on how the global system and globalization should be rewired for a better inclusivity for all nations and regions so as well as boosting regional trade and cooperation in existing fragmented world this is not easy as said before there are limitations there are regulations obviously increased increase in security and and uncertainty and all these happens as said before in the previous channel that in a less conceptual way but we are living through when we we are surfing on the global economy so these things are not easy and also it's it's very difficult to understand as discussed before there are powerful political dynamics derived resulting in driving force for also populist let's say movements and policies in different countries so this all this context makes very difficult for businesses to make decisions I think if you think after covid and living in an area as you mentioned close to war since three four years we as businesses in the region we were deeply affected so we had to overcome every regulation every global challenge and also all the macro developments that are happening worldwide which are happening among major powers and resulting in a shift in value chain so for us is really overwhelming situation but I think we think about regional cooperation we must have concrete plans and policies to maximize advantages in global change so as businesses we like to look more into integration to the global system we want to increase competitiveness while you know with the return in export and also we want to create higher value add by using opportunities of the opportunity window in technology and advancement etc in front of us but this is not easy in a fragmented and uncertain business environment so I believe in in our part of the world we were really directly impacted so we are working in two different areas one is the building materials and the other one is the aerospace business so one is very well regulated the other one is much B2C so we have been directly impacted by geopolitical drift and tensions mainly in our aerospace businesses and also for the COVID travel and bans and restrictions we had to face many problems for example some part of the world we were lucky to work during the COVID bans so we had to we had the opportunity to increase our exports but due to the trade and insecurity and problems within the economies for example we are facing right now together with India is anti-dumping tax from EU so during the for example war we are affected a lot because in the building materials we had the materials coming from Ukraine especially a precious clay that we are buying everywhere from the world from Spain Italy they are buying there so it was a you know problem in the supply chain so we had to find new ways of producing the same quality mainly relying on our R&D and human resources you know possibilities that we had our hands so this is another issue of course the pressures on climate crisis and adaptation for the businesses is another problem as Mrs. Razia said you know the financial institutions and all the financial outlook is not favorable for businesses so far so but we have for the business continuity we have to invest so to do that in a difficult financial economic system is really difficult for us so we were one of the biggest supplier of F-35 programs in Turkey so we entered the program in 2005 and since 15 years we were a part of that and we were producing 700 parts for the airplane and on the first airplane there were our parts so we were very well known manufacturer vis-a-vis the defense in aerospace industry but of course we were good ties with our suppliers but this shifts in the powers and the insecurity so affected us of course coupled with the decision taken by our government also so we work out of the program so we had to find new ways of integrating ourselves in the different programs obviously civil engineering was aviation was one of them but during covid that got a hit so we had to find other projects other let's say ways of working in the industry of course these g2g programs are very difficult to handle especially in this context of the world that we are living in but we need to continuously adapt ourselves as businesses obviously in the region when we talk about regional cooperation of course we want to increase as turkey regional cooperation and we believe that we have a good industrial base and we can help countries in the region but of course previously we had some also regional problems among different countries now things are a little bit better and lifted so hopefully we can do more working you know with these countries and this is challenging for businesses so we'll see what will be in the in the next 10 next decade so how we can adapt thank you well thank you thank you very much and and it's very impressive how your company has dealt with all the challenges and also have prospered we are in a situation that we have two minutes left and I was hoping to take questions and I was also hoping to come back to the panelists I would say if each panelist can answer two of my questions in one minute each we'll have a chance to close with the panelists I think the opening plenary starts at 11 but then we have to do one minute so I was thinking based on this discussion and the global outlook what keeps you up at night and what is the biggest hope for the year to come so let me then start with Russia come it's always good to go to an economist what keeps you up at night and what is the most hopeful thing when you look at the coming year the growth outlook is probably the thing that keeps me up most at night we know that it's been a tough time the inflation shocks and developed markets especially the persistence of inflation but the hope is that with enough resolve to try to explore other drivers of growth and this is precisely the intro regionalization that is so important that has really gone largely untapped that could be the big opportunity this is how we keep global growth going excellent excellent content and one minute cb can you match that but yes the worry is we you know we talked about trade and I'm I'm very keen that the efforts that we had put in into a you know an open multilateral sort of trading order I think that should not be shaken and we should see to it and that sometimes gives me a fright as to when we talk about regional cooperation are we moving away from multilateral which we should not and we should have a strong multilateral what gives me hope is because we have many good stories and you heard some great stories from the panel today so it's just not going to the world economic order I think we are seeing emerging areas of growth in Asia we have many many good stories so I think that gives hope that we are seeing a very strong if I can say emergence of economic sort of stability in many parts of the globe through regional collaborations and cooperation you know our country now that we have the power of working force and the policy of the government our honorable prime minister brought this our country up to this level so now we are thinking how to expand how to diversify our production how to get new product also so all we are working in that aspect and beside that you see we I have now new markets also now our country is now in such in such a position the new investments are coming so I hope that this in the future is good and we want to expand that market regional and global market so hopefully everything will go in the next year's thank you very much thank you and madame okay I yeah my conclusion would be we need to focus on not only the potential but also limitations regional trade and cooperation can achieve if the context of cooperation is not set right so companies therefore from our own experience should rely first on their capabilities and resilience built with the view on the favorite unfavorable conditions occurring internally and international but also look forward to create possibilities to be more integrated into the global system so opening up new geographies as discussed in the morning like Africa and new countries so are very important and we as business we have to try to be more part of the global system and to be a more resilient and good business partner for for a new for a new cooperation in the region thank you very much so the famous last words minister goes to you anything keeps you up at night and what keeps you up the mistake very little things keep me up at night but I think what's what's for us most important is really how to continue the the successful growth that we have been able to achieve since the launch of our revision 2030 I mean moving from a GDP of 640 billion to 1.1 trillion you know making success in all of the different parameters of efficiency in doing business ranking from 48 to 24 in in complexity and diversity in the lpi how we have moved so I think that the race today the challenge today in in the country is how to continue the continuous growth luckily the foundation that has been built in the last six years is there really the fuel that is taking us for the future we have seen many of the targets that we are we were aspiring to achieve by 2030 have already some of them is showing great progress in in difficult areas you know especially on the social side education and training and skilling in human capital development is is key but also in areas where we need a lot of a lot of prerequisites like regulation infrastructure and so on so export growth has been tremendous in the last few years from 200 billion dollars to more than 440 and so on so making sure that the pace is is strong enough luckily you know the global the global also outlook of energy is definitely going to help the country accelerate and move faster bringing the resources from the natural resources to to a more solid and sustainable growth and finally I think one of the things that we are always always focusing on is how to ensure that our human capital development is on the right track is also being being advanced in a manner that allows our future generation to be well ready for future jobs and finally the RDI structure which is research innovation and is also in place to ensure that as we progress in growing our sectors taking technologies from abroad but also being ready for doing our own technology and and growth thank you very much listening to the panels summing up here I my conclusion is that this panel really sleeps well because they're very optimistic I heard more about the positive prospects and opportunities than the challenges and thank you for that I think we need it also at the start of this summit that is about growth and jobs I think even in a world order I would say we're between world orders we don't know what's around the corner it's always a bit of instability when there is no clarity but there's also opportunities if you are willing to make sure that you do structural changes that you also look at the supply side and also as mentioned that we still have big opportunities but also challenges when it comes to skills and skills gap as you saw in our report 473 million people are in a skills gap even if you some countries do have lack of labor it's almost a half a billion people that are not employed due to this skills gap so a big applause to a great panel and you're all cordially invited to the opening that's happening on the other building just walk out there and then it's in the Eiger and it starts at 11 thank you