At its 45th Annual Meeting in Switzerland, the World Economic Forum (WEF) discusses responsibilities within the “new global context”. For three days, over 2500 politicians and managers are holding meetings to deal with topics such as climate change, Euro issues, wealth inequality and terror. A recently published report by Oxfam, which says among other that the wealthiest percent of the world population owns more than 50 percent of the world’s wealth, additionally fuels the inequality debate.

According to the WEF, the main topics of the meeting include the future of the internet, the impact of climate change and the funding of infrastructure projects; but also subjects concerning growing inequality, the collapse of the oil price and the danger of terrorist attacks by religious extremists. The Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang, the American Secretary of State Kerry, the German Chancellor Merkel and the French President Hollande are among those who will attend the meeting in Davos this year.

The EU Commission is also represented

The EU Commission is also well represented in Davos, among other by the First Vice President Frans Timmermans, the High Representative Federica Mogherini as well as by Commissioners Günther Oettinger and Cecilia Malmström. They will present the Commission's priorities and strategies in respect of jobs and growth and talk about global challenges such as poverty, climate and energy.

Oxfam: Fight against inequality

Just in time to coincide with the meeting of the World Economic Forum, the British Welfare Organisation Oxfam has published a report on the globally unequal distribution of wealth. According to this report, in 2016 one percent of the entire world’s population will have accumulated more wealth than the remaining 99 percent combined. In 2009, 44 percent of wealth was owned by the top 1 percent of the population; in 2016, this one percent will own 50 percent of wealth worldwide, whilst the other half is shared unequally by the remaining 99 percent. These figures demonstrate the shocking extent of how much global inequality is rising. Another point of the report shows that worldwide the richest of the rich are hiding 21 trillion dollar in tax oases. Based on growing inequality, combating tax avoidance and tax evasion, higher taxation of capital instead of labour as well as the introduction of minimum wages have become highly explosive subjects, which get a lot of additional attention.

Further information:

Homepage World Economic Forum

Report Oxfam