Day two of the World Economic Forum summit in Davos saw German chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe address delegates.
Bono was the first celebrity to appear onstage on Wednesday, speaking on a panel about sustainability.
Mental health featured heavily on the agenda, with Prince William, New Zealand’s leader Jacinda Ardern and HSBC boss John Flint, discussing the issue.
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As day two of the World Economic Forum summit in Davos gets started, Bono has made an appearance, speaking to finance experts including IMF boss Christine Lagarde about funding for sustainability. While the amount needed to finance the Sustainable Development Goals is in the trillions, pledges from financial institutions amounts to just $400bn, leaving a substantial gap. This disparity between talk and action highlights one of the problems many people have with the WEF summit.
Bono acknowledges that capitalism can lift people out of poverty, but also says that it’s a “wild beast”. “If it is not tamed it can chew up a lot of people.”
He says listening to his children gives him a sense that the generation coming is “not held hostage to ideology” - but they’re looking to business leaders and rock singers to choose to be “firefighters, not arsonists” in the development process.
Christine Lagarde says corruption in development will put investors off. She also notes that the development funding gap is so vast there is no way it can be plugged without businesses being a part of it.Coming up this morning is a panel discussion on women in the workplace, featuring Janet Foutty, CEO and chair of Deloitte US, Cloudflare co-founder Michelle Zlatyn and Katja Iversen, president and CEO of gender equality advocacy group Women Deliver. They will be joined by LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue and Jonas Prising, chair and chief executive of Manpower Group.
The panel will look at how technology, specifically AI and automation, will change industries like services and administration, which have traditionally been dominated by women, and how women can adapt to a new working world.
International trade secretary Liam Fox is in Davos today, and plans to use his two-day trip to Switzerland to meet with ministers from around the world to discuss trade deals in the post-Brexit world. Mr Fox is a prominent Brexiteer, and on Wednesday told the BBC that delaying Brexit would be worse than a no-deal Brexit.
“You need to think about the political consequences as well as the short-term economic consequences,” he said.
“There is no doubt that leaving with a deal and minimising disruption both to the UK and our EU trading partners is in our best interest.
“But I think the most calamitous outcome would be for Parliament, having promised to respect the result of the referendum, to turn around and say it wouldn't.”
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is onstage now at Davos, after arriving by train earlier today.
He’s drawing attention to Japan’s success in increasing the number of women in work.
More from Liam Fox - when asked what the odds of a Brexit deal are, he told CNBC that he “would have a better chance of predicting the lottery”.
He also says progress on trade agreements is going well, although he adds: “Some countries are still saying to us, they don’t want to put the work in to making these preparations, because they believe there will be a deal. My advice is that your businesses will never criticise you for being over prepared, but they will certainly criticise you for being underprepared, therefore, put in the extra work.”
Shinzo Abe says data is the key to driving the global economy forwards - it will be the “great gap buster”.
“It will bring about a new reality for humanity. Our cities will be made much more liveable for all sorts of people, from all walks of life,” he says.
Free flow of data is paramount, Shinzo says - there must be no borders for industrial and non-personal data, although there should be protection in place for personal information.
"I call on all of you ... to rebuild trust towards the system for international trade. That should be a system that is fair, transparent, and effective in protecting intellectual property rights and also in such areas as e-commerce and government procurement."
A tariff war between China and the US threatens to hamper global economic growth. China's economy grew 6.9 per cent last year - its slowest pace since 1990.
The Independent’s chief business commentator, James Moore, doesn’t hold out much hope for Liam Fox’s chances of winning over new trade partners at Davos.
“The timing of the trip could hardly have been worse. It came a day after arch Brexiteer Sir James Dyson unveiled plans to ship the gizmo maker’s corporate HQ to Singapore.
“Meanwhile, P&O replaced the British flag with that of Cyprus for its ships’ registration bringing an end to nearly two centuries of history, Sony confirmed plans to move its European HQ from London to Amsterdam, Pets at Home and Dixons Carphone outlined stockpiling measures to protect them from the kicking Mr Fox and his chums seem bent on delivering.”
Alibaba founder Jack Ma is answering questions at Davos now - he says his experience as a teacher helped Alibaba, which follows a principle of helping other people.
The other key to the company’s success is embracing change, and seeing it as an opportunity.
“These are the things I think leaders have to do. Make other people better, and embrace chance,” he says.
He also advises millennials to try and stick with their first job for three years. Too many people these days switch roles very quickly, he says, and that “can be a disaster”.
Ma says he hated being a teacher, but he promised a college professor that he would stay for six years, which allowed him to discover the good points of the job.
ICYMI - earlier today, Bono told Davos detractors that capitalism is not immoral.
“Capitalism is not immoral – it’s amoral. It requires our instruction,” he said. “Capitalism has taken more people out of poverty than any other ‘ism’. But it is a wild beast that, if not tamed, can chew up a lot of people along the way.
“We have to have some humility about what we can achieve in the private sector but if we can unlock it it’s amazing what you can pull off.”
Angela Merkel is speaking now, in defense of globalisation. She says leaders should remember their national interest but keep in mind that other people will have their own national interests.
She says the main challenges facing Germany at the moment are the energy transition, as they leave nuclear and coal power behind, speeding up the process of digitalisation, and demographic change due to increased immigration.
On the subject of Brexit, Merkel says she is working towards a continued good trading relationship with the UK.
“All of my efforts are going into making sure this is happening in a well ordered manner,” she says.
Perhaps Liam Fox should make a conversation with Merkel a priority.
Merkel also says she will defend the current international system against populist challenges.
“We have to stand up against them,” she says.
“I will come out strongly in favour of a multilateral order, not ending with the EU, but one that gives good answers to challenges of tomorrow.”
Coming up this afternoon there are panel discussions on mental health, the economic outlook for Europe and what lies in Japan’s future.
Al Gore will also be speaking about tapping into the ‘ocean economy’ while protecting the oceans from environmental damage, which is a subject close to his heart.
China’s vice president Wang Qishan has extended an olive branch to the US, saying that “confrontation harms the interests of both sides”.
There will be little further chance to reconcile the two nations, as the US delegation cancelled its trip to Davos over the ongoing shutdown.
The panel on mental health is underway, discussing the economic as well as the human cost of mental illness.
Prince William says it was difficult to find celebrities to support the Heads Together campaign he launched with his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, in the early stages, due to the stigma around mental illness.
