Press Release

Published 29.01.2009 Author FSPC/WEF

Open Forum Davos 2009 opens

The Open Forum Davos opened today with a debate on the global financial crisis. The Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches and the World Economic Forum have issued invitations to seven public panels with key figures from politics, business and civil society which will last until Saturday.

“The world is in crisis. The challenge now is whether we are ready to learn lessons from this.” With these words Pastor Thomas Wipf, President of the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches (FSPC), opened the seventh Open Forum Davos. Together with André Schneider, Director of the World Economic Forum, Wipf called on the more than 400 participants in the packed hall of the Davos Alpine Mittelschule to challenge the panellists with questions and arguments.

“The stock exchanges have fallen deeply, the substance of the economy has shrunk to almost unimaginable dimensions - which raises the question whether there ever was a substance.” That is how Wipf introduced the first of the seven public panels. The question in the foreground was what lessons had to be learned from the global financial crisis. For Rudolf Strahm, former Price Supervisor for Switzerland, the answer lies in the public regulation of private business. Jean Pierre Roth, President of the Board of the Swiss National Bank, differed, and argued instead for a “rediscovery of old values”. Priority has to be given to sustainability. Peter Ulrich, Professor at the Institute of Business Ethics at the University of St Gallen, called on business for more integrity. The economy has split away from civil society. It is important to “re-civilize” business.