Davos: The unfinished business

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has been held in the snowy Swiss village of Davos for nearly a half-century with its theme of attempting to "improve the state of the world". It's attended by the world's elites. Chinese delegations have been participating since 1979, the beginning days of reform and opening-up. Chinese delegates, mostly passive listeners then, have morphed from being the objects of curiosity to active participants whose pronouncements are eagerly awaited.

From 8,000 kilometers away, it seems to me that this year's WEF, unlike those of recent years, was generally fuller of question marks, pessimism and uncertainties. Will globalization continue or become what the Economist magazine has just called "slowbalization"? How will the US-China trade conflict be resolved? What kind of Brexit will there be? Will Venezuela implode? Will the selfish forces of nationalism continue to trample those of international cooperation?

One reason for the gloom was that many world leaders who normally attend stayed away preoccupied by domestic concerns. There was hope that President Trump would attend and negotiate with the Chinese delegation during the truce in the trade conflict but he canceled the entire government delegation's trip due to his partial shutdown of the US government. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered his boss's America first, world last message via satellite. The newly inaugurated Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro also addressed the event.

One exception to the gloomy forecast was the eagerly awaited speech by Chinese Vice-President Wang Qishan. Wang's remarks, and his post-speech discussion with WEF Founder Klaus Schwab, reaffirmed China's "all-in" participation and leadership in globalization first announced at the same venue by President Xi Jinping two years earlier. Wang presented a spirited defense of globalization and rebuked Trump's policies, warning that the international order was under assault from "unilateralism, protectionism and populism."

Wang said that China's economic growth rate "will continue and be sustainable" and even though the latest 6.6 percent growth rate is the lowest since 1990 that it was "not low at all" but represented the fact that China was now focusing on the quality and sustainability of growth, rather than mere quantity. This should come as no surprise since China is on track to deliver on Xi's promise to achieve "a moderately prosperous society in all respects" by next year.

Wang also said that "what we need to do is make the pie bigger while looking for ways to share it in a more equitable way. … The last thing we should do is to stop making the pie and just engage in a futile debate on how to divide it."

A vivid example showing a real world application "to make the pie bigger" was also described in Davos by Jack Ma, co-founder and chairman of Alibaba, and Rwanda President Paul Kagame. In December, Alibaba launched a platform called Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) that helps small businesses and entrepreneurs build globalized businesses. Anyone with a product and a phone can do global business. The inaugural hub in Rwanda will expand to all Africa and then beyond with a target of 60 million businesses in the next three decades.

Rwandan farmers are already selling coffee directly through eWTP, which facilitates tariff-free trade for transactions of less than $1 million. Increasing efficiency by cutting out middlemen, coffee is now being sold to Chinese customers, and farmers are getting $12 per kilogram, a dramatic 33 percent increase from before.

Davos 2019 is now history amid many question marks and uncertainties. What is absolutely clear however is that much work remains to be done if the world is to achieve a win-win outcome.

Harvey Dzodin is senior fellow at the think tank Center for China and Globalization, and is a former legal advisor in the Carter Administration.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.