 Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome here in the room as well as on the live stream. Thank you for joining us for this press conference at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum from Davos. The question we want to answer here with this expert panel is, how can we finance the sustainable development goals? The sustainable development goals are a very ambitious agenda, and they will require financing and new models of financing to be put into place. Let me introduce my excellent panel. I'm starting in the middle with Christia Freeland. She's the Minister of International Trade of Canada and used to be a young global leader of the World Economic Forum, if I may mention that. I'm afraid it's true. On the far end of the panel, we're joined by Pravin Gordon, who's the Finance Minister of South Africa. And to my immediate left, we're joined by Bertrand Bardre, the Chief Financial Officer of the World Bank Group. Bertrand, I'll start with you. Thank you very much. What initiatives can help funding the SDGs, especially in emerging markets? What do you think are the models that could work best? Well, a few general comments, and I'm going to be specific. I think last year we'd potentially become a historic year. I think 2015, we've signed a lot of agreements, and it's great to sign agreements, but this would become really historic if these agreements become, in a way, another reality. And we should not minimize the fact that it's difficult. So we agree from a financing perspective in Addis Ababa, in particular the document that the World Bank and the IMF and other institutions signed together called from billions to trillions. We just show the challenge. I mean, the SDGs are extremely ambitious, audacious to a certain extent, and we all know we are in need of trillions of dollars every year. And this is not provided by ODA, ODA, $135 billion. So how do we get from this $135 billion to the trillions? And that's really exactly the issue that we have to end off today. Part of this will require strong domestic resource mobilization, mobilization also of domestic savings, but also a strong cooperation between public and private. And here again, I think we are at the heart of the mission of the forum, as well as at the heart of the mission of institutions like the World Bank Group. I don't know any of the SDGs which cannot, which can be achieved without public and private cooperation. There is no SDG which is 100% public, there is no SDG which is 100% private. In all cases, we have to make this work. And here we are facing two big challenges at the beginning of this year. One which is a structural one. Public-private is difficult, and we should not ignore that. It cannot just become a nice song and say, yeah, let's do public-private, let's do public-private. It's not a silver bullet. So we have to recognize both the opportunity, and I think it's a huge opportunity, but also the challenge. And I think that's why recognizing the challenge that we can make it work. And I think the various initiatives taken by a number of players must start with that. Where do people come from? How can they work together? So that's really the first challenge. The second challenge is we also should not underestimate the difficult economic and financial circumstances at the beginning of this year. I think everybody in Davos is talking about that. The world is a little bit under threat these days. And so the risk when the pressure is there is at both for a CEO in a company as well as for a minister in the government to be more focused on his own domestic or corporate agenda. And with the temptation to say, oh, the SDG, that was great, but it's a little bit of a luxury. No, it's not a luxury, it's crucial. And we have to make sure that we keep the track. So this being said, so we are taking a number of initiatives. Let me add light, at least one which I think is extremely important, which is the Sustainable Development Investment Partnership, which has been launched actually in Davos a year ago. So it's getting traction. We have 20 governments and investors actually joining forces so that we can provide 100 billion of financing to infrastructure projects which are absolutely in necessity and which are not financed yet. So we are putting people together and discussing real projects, bringing governments and investors and say, okay, what are the conditions to that to get the financing right? What do we expect from governments and what do governments expect from investors? So we have to be concrete. It's one of the many initiatives of that kind. I think it's extremely exemplary and we have to work on that. So that's really what I would push. I mean, the environment is challenging. We cannot afford not to finance and operationalize SDG. We have to be as concrete as possible and we have to move forward. I think we are at the heart of the mission of the World Economic Forum. It's public-private cooperation which is the name of the game. Thank you, Bertrand. Christian, Bertrand mentioned the public sector and what the public sector must do. You represent the public sector in Canada. What is the Canadian perspective on the issue and what is your government doing to address these issues? Okay. Well, first of all, thank you very much. It's a pleasure and an honor to be here. I am really, it's going to sound as if Bertrand and I rehearsed our points, but I'm going to strongly echo his two key things. And so, you know, the first one, this point that we can only achieve sustainable development goals which are really ambitious. This is a really big, audacious and important goal. It is achievable. I mean, look at what's happened with the Millennium Development Goals. It's important to set big targets and then to have the confidence that we can break them down and actually get there. But it is not going to happen through public finance alone. You need to have a really smart leveraging of the private sector, as Steph Hall said, and I would also add of the philanthropic sector. And I think right now, both in the private sector and in the philanthropic sector, you have something very interesting happening, which is a real desire in the private sector to have purpose-driven investing, to have investing which is about making the world a better place as well as running a successful business. And in the philanthropic sector, I think a real interest in partnering with private initiatives. So I think, you know, Bertrand has emphasized the magnitude of the challenge. I agree with him, but there is also, I think, real enthusiasm around it. The second point that I want to highlight that he's made is this is a tough time in the world. And we need to particularly, I think, think about how, at a time of great turbulence in the global economy, really doubling down on support for emerging markets. It may sound contrarian, but it's absolutely the right thing to do. And so Bertrand called on us to have some specific concrete pragmatic initiatives. And I am pleased to announce, and this is the first time we're announcing it, that we have all come together, Canada, with support from the private sector, with support from the OECD, with support from the World Economic Forum, with support from the World Bank, to launch a brand new platform. It is called Convergence, and this is a platform that is designed to bring together public, private, and philanthropic sectors to give them more transparency about what each other are doing, and to give them a simplified route of vetting projects to invest together in emerging markets projects. It's called Convergence, it is one of a kind, it's the first one ever. It will be, we're launching it and announcing it today. It will go online because we still need to get some regulatory approvals. Thank you Switzerland, we have regulatory approval from Switzerland already. We still need to get the others. It will go live with some live projects in the second quarter of this year. The government of Canada is contributing $23.5 million to it. I'm very proud that it is going to be hosted in the riding, in the district that I represent, in the great city of Toronto, at a wonderful innovation facility called Mars. We are here today, Bertrand told me that as a Canadian, I have to speak in French too, so I'm going to say a few words in French, also for our journalists. We are here today to celebrate the launch of Convergence, the first private investment platform in the world that connects private and public sector investors to opportunities to do in emerging market markets. Based in Toronto, Convergence will be the first private investment platform in the world. It will connect private and public sector investors to concrete opportunities to finance mixed in emerging markets and markets. So please check out Convergence. You can visit it in Toronto. I would love to welcome you there, but it's going to be an online platform so people around the world can use it. And I think it's going to be a very important initiative in the world of blended finance. Thank you very much, Christia. Mr. Gordon, the emerging markets were mentioned by both speakers so far. As the Finance Minister of South Africa, what's your perspective on the question of how can we finance the SDGs? Thank you for inviting me to be here. Let me share a few things. Firstly, let me congratulate our colleague from Canada on the initiative. Bringing those three sectors together is always extremely useful to provide, A, a common set of objectives and B, the synergies that are required to operate. I want to also agree with Bertrand that over the last 10, 15 years, there's a significant gap between the kind of commitments and agreements signed on the one hand, particularly between developed and developing countries and the developing world. So there are very few developed countries which are sticking to the G8 target Gleneagles, for example, of 0.7, I think, percent of their GDP being contributed to ODA. Understandable reasons in some circumstances, but it's useful to remind ourselves. I think the UK was one exception to that kind of commitment. And equally, defining the SDGs is certainly, I agree, a historic milestone because what we've learned from the MDGs, setting targets, but more importantly, measuring and reporting publicly about targets does provide an incentive for everybody to try their best. And now in our own country, we do that quite significantly. I think the bottom line is that we can't leave some 2 billion people. I think that's a well-paying calculation. As the bottom 40% that is in extreme poverty or similar to extreme poverty, and we can't call ourselves a globalized world if that kind of divide continues to replicate itself in one way or another. On the financing side, in the first instance, each government needs to look at its own financial allocations and ensure that they have the right balance. And I think we've got some of it in South Africa between meeting economic and other targets in terms of budget expenditure and making sure that the social wage and adequate social safety nets and the participation of people, inclusively in economies and particularly the way in which cities are designed. Again, partly a South African problem, partly a global problem as well, takes into account the fact that this kind of inclusivity is quite crucial. Secondly, at a local level, as part of that budgeting exercise, you've got to get the right tax compliance going. So local resource mobilization is something that the G20 has been talking about for five years or four years. I think it's a Toronto meeting that started it in some ways some years ago. And business elites and other elites who have wealth in each of these countries and globally as well need a significant mindset shift that emulates the kind of philanthropic work being done by some. And I think there are larger numbers of people that need to be mobilized in the service of meeting the SDGs. On the corporate side, apart from the kind of partnerships that we want to develop, we've got to take a frank and serious look at certainly at a forum like this, WEF, on tax compliance amongst multinational corporations. I think both the OECD and the G20 have been over the last few years talking about base erosion and profit shifting, nice euphemism. But the bottom line is that there's massive tax evasion that's going on in the country or rather in the world and within countries. And that fiscal responsibility should constitute part of the contribution that corporates make in each country, whether you're multinational or national doesn't really matter. Because the minute you are taking out more than you actually deserve to in terms of the law of a country, you are diminishing that country's fiscal capabilities to actually design policies that meet the requirements of the poor. Again, on the developed country side, I think it's going to be a constant narrative, as my colleagues have pointed out, how do you balance national and local needs with global needs and spread the resources adequately and without diminishing the spirit that underlay ODAs. Although ODAs themselves will probably need to be reviewed, I'm sure some of that is happening, to begin to address structural changes in developing countries, not just if you like a welfare approach which makes a few patches covered up here and there and doesn't make a structural difference that actually results in that country or that region pursuing a different kind of development part that on its own could cure some of the problems and meet the SDG requirements. If we don't do these things, and that's the last point, inequality will continue to increase, social strife will increase, as we can see in many parts of the world. The mistrust between the general public and politicians and banking and other elites will also increase as well as it is currently, and this is a valuable opportunity, I think, for all sectors to cooperate and begin to do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you very much. Let me ask a follow-up question. You're both from the public sector, you're from an international organization, the corporate sector was mentioned. I spent most of my life in the private sector. Okay, okay. So now you're putting yourself in danger because the question is directed at you in that sense. Do you have the feeling that the private sector and you know that many business leaders are here in Davos have the same level of awareness as you have with the initiatives you're doing with convergence, you mentioned? I think the level of understanding is probably more diverse within the business committee that it is within the public sector. It's been really the bread and butter of many international and national public organization to discuss all of this last year. We have a number of representatives from the business sector here. They are probably the tip of the iceberg. The people who come here and discuss that. And I think we have to do more to mainstream this. So it's going to be in every country to discuss what does SDG imply for my country, at home, and with my partners, etc. Again, the SDG are not for tomorrow. We have 15 years. We're going to start fast. But I do agree. This is really something where we need to explain that it's going to be extremely crucial for any business to have an SDG strategy. If I may be provocative, I mean, 15 years ago everybody said you have to have a China strategy. So everybody built a China strategy. I think today we should have an SDG strategy. And again, people are focused on climate, but they have all the other 16 objectives. So that's what we need to push for the coming years. Every corporate strategy should encompass an SDG strategy, and not just a nice strawberry of the cake, but something that is really part of the strategy of the organization. Thank you. Grissier, you want to add to that? Sure. I mean, I think that's a great idea, Beth Cohen. We'll have to look on that. Look, I do think that two things are happening in the private sector. One is people who work in the private sector are people. And I think that there is a dawning feeling, maybe particularly among younger people, but among all people, of wanting to feel that they are doing work which has meaning and which is making the world a better place. I think people really care about that more and more. And including people who work in the private sector. And so I think there is actually widespread sentiment that I would like my company and I would like in my job to be doing something which is helping to improve the world. What can be harder is to make the connection between that personal desire and how concretely you can do something, which is why I think what Beth Cohen began with and this initiative that we've announced are so important that now is the time to break it down into the practical steps. And the second positive thing I would say is I do think that there is a widespread recognition in the private sector that you need to go where the global growth is and where the global people are. And that very much is the emerging market. So I think that there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic, but it's not going to happen by itself and there needs to be concerted focus. And I think, you know, I think government, the public sector has a real role in facilitating this and leading it, working together with institutions like the World Bank. Thank you. Minister, you want to add to that? I just want to pick up on the last point, which is an interesting point given the current negativity towards emerging markets that we see at the moment on the one hand. And on the other hand, as I said, I can't remember within this press conference of the previous one, but the trillions of dollars that are held in cash in different parts of the world at the moment, waiting for a moment of confidence on the one hand in the global environment and perhaps in some country environments and waiting to make an investment. And the third factor, which was a debate over the last few years, what Chan would remember as well, as I'm sure my colleague would, is between short-term so-called investing and long-term investing. If we are to capitalize as a globe on the billions of people that you find in emerging markets and see them as a potential market, as potential areas of innovation and R&D and as both suppliers and consumers of goods of one kind or another, then there should be a medium-term strategy amongst businesses to actually take a longer-term view than what the immediate yields might be. And to survive crises like the present and uncertainties like the present around the globe and in emerging markets and in commodity producers in a way in which you do not damage the potential growth of each country. What's happening at the moment is that we're destroying growth potential in these countries. We'll take another decade to recover after that actually happens and limit those countries' possibilities to undertake the kind of fiscal measures necessary to attend to their own country problems. So we need to take a wider view of some of these issues and start encouraging the business sector, as I said, to take a longer-term structural view of what needs to be done in different parts of the world. Thank you very much. At this point, I open the floor for questions. Can I see a show of hands if there are any questions? Yes, the lady in the back please. If you could state your name and organization. Thanks, Sasha Nauta, the economist. I have a question for Ms. Freeland. Convergence sounds great. Can you make it a bit more concrete? So what sort of projects are we going to see out there? You mentioned vetting them. How are you going to vet them and who vets them? And finally, and you've all touched upon this a little bit, so if anybody wants to chime in please do, how are you listening to the needs of the private sector in terms of actually structuring finance? Because whilst I agree with your point that perhaps the younger generation in the private sector wants to do good, they don't want to do it if it costs them anything. Thank you. Okay, well that is a great question and sitting a couple of rows ahead of you is my Chief of Staff, Brian Clough. And if you give him your card, we will send you probably more information about Convergence than you will care to read. And I invite you to come visit us in Toronto. So this is really, this is a brand new fresh announcement. We're telling the world that we're investing in this right now. It's going to go live, we hope, around April. And as I said, still seeking regulatory approval. We have the Swiss regulatory approval already. We have more than 30 public and private partners already. And I think part of the reason that this is happening at Mars in Toronto is it already exists and we're building it as a hub of sort of inclusive capitalism and social investing. So it's surrounded by a lot of both private investors and not for profits that are focusing on developing this space. And we think that this is very much an international platform, but we think that some of the ideas for projects will come from there. We would love to show you and talk to you early on once the first projects go live. I can't tell you about them because they aren't going live until April. But the idea is that this will be a sort of matchmaking where people can put forward their projects, where there will be a standard, quite electronic system of and set of criteria for vetting and where they can meet interested partners from both the private and the philanthropic sectors from around the world. Our hope is that there will be the value of the projects over the next five years that will be listed on convergence will be $10 billion. And I know who some of our private partners are, but I'm not sure if I'm allowed to read out their names. So I'm going to get Brian to check with our officials. But there's some quite significant financial players, international ones, and we'll check and find out for you for the end of today if we can give you their names. But I think it will give you more confidence in the value of what we're doing. And I know Beth Khan has been working on this. Maybe you want to talk about it a bit. Yeah, I mean, just also to answer on your question and connect this with your question on listening to the private sector. And I think it's a crucial question. We are not supposed to speak for the private sector. We are supposed to speak with the private sector. And it means in particular, I'm sharing the GAC of the World Economic Forum Sustainable Development. And what we want to do is in this GAC is really establish true examples, a certain number of key principles of best practice that make public and private cooperation work. And one of the key principle is let's discuss before things are done, not just do something with the public and I'd say, oh my God, we miss a million, let's call the private sector. And the poor guys are supposed to foot the bill and they were not participating in the design, in the project, et cetera, and it's not working. So I think we have really to start engaging upfront. That's exactly what's behind this platform where people talk to each other. That's what is behind the SDIP, which I mentioned, which was sponsored by the Swedish and US aid agency, but with a number of banks, investors, et cetera, so to discuss upfront. That was also what we've put with the World Bank, with the Global Infrastructure Facility, where we have around the table governments putting money, all the development banks and 35 investors to discuss the projects before they are becoming projects. So that you structure this upfront. It's a big cultural shift because people are not working this way. And so I think we have to be extremely insistent and we have to be modest enough to make sure that whether the Global Infrastructure Facility, the SDIP, or convergence, we must be ready to cross correct. We might make mistake. It's not frozen forever. And I think we have to be modest. And if the private sector say, okay, that was a great idea, but we miss that point or that point, we have to be modest enough to say, okay, let's change it. But it's a challenge. It's a cultural challenge for organizations like the World Bank, for organizations like governments, et cetera, because we are not used to do that. But I think this is absolutely necessary if we really want this to work. If not, you will divorce again and you will have the usual suspicion where the private sector will say, oh, the public sector, we don't trust them. These guys are slow. They are corrupt. Or they are not up to their words or whatever. You heard this many times. And then the public sector say, oh, you know, this private sector guy, we can't work with them because they want to take the reward without taking the risk. And back to step one. So we have moved a lot last year. And so we have to maintain the momentum and be adult enough to have this conversation. Yeah, I just want to add and reinforce to what Bethan said that, you know, part of the idea of convergence, and I think this is actually a kind of bigger idea about how we need to do these projects, is that it's meant to be a platform where different co-investors can talk about how they're going to structure the project. And different private investors who are thinking about a project, you know, that you can see this, the projects will be presented and both private public, not both, it's in triplicate. So private public and philanthropic investors can see it. They can signal that they're interested, both to the project proponent, but also to each other. And can talk about how they want to structure it. And their convergence will offer you some tools on what are possible financial structuring options. And I also really want to emphasize this iterative process because, you know, I'm a new minister, as my South African colleague kindly pointed out, and something I launched. I'm also brand new, but from an old position. And I think that this is the way that government, not just in development projects, but government has to start working. I launched a 50 million dollar export initiative a couple of weeks ago. And one of the ideas behind it was we're launching it. We're trying to have a very fast timeframe in approving projects to support Canadian small and medium-sized companies exporting. And we're saying in 25 days we'll let you know yes or no. But part of the idea also is we're going to constantly reevaluate the program based on the applications that we're getting. And that is a new way of government to work, but it's the way the economy today works. And I think we all have to be open to a little bit of iteration in the public sector too. Thank you very much. If I can just add one thing, while I understand, I'm not sure if I caught your phrase correctly, do good but not at their cost. If I did, I think people like Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and others are providing, and we have a gentleman called Patrice Motseppe in South Africa, who's also a billionaire and is not quite at the same level, but whose philanthropy is quite transparent and welcome. But Pope Francis, I think, has been recently making a number of comments which basically say that all sectors of society need to change their mindsets. That factors like greed, self-interest, or centeredness is not going to give us the different tension-free world that we want where there's more even development across the world. And the benefits of even development, I don't think I've been properly quantified, if you like, as my colleague was saying earlier on. Because new markets, new opportunities, new demand will be created, it will turn the world into a very different place. But it also requires a change in mindset, where one can mix business objectives with values, which is I think what Pope Francis is targeting at when he addresses different audiences. Thank you. Thank you very much. And mindful of the time, we're closing this press conference. Thank you very much for joining. Thank you for watching. And a special thank you to all my panelists. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you.