you're watching us now have a look at the headlines for this hour russian investigators say they've solved monday's terror attack at moscow's order which claimed thirty five lives they say the suspect was a twenty year old man from russia caucasus region. with dozens killed in anti-government protests in egypt we can weeks diplomatic cables reveal that the u.s. has been plotting to overthrow the country's president for the past three years for the fall show washington had been secretly backing leading figures behind the egyptian uprising. and with americans growing disillusioned with their media's one

sided coverage some are searching for alternative sources to get their news it's the big business behind the scenes that's under fire for putting its agenda above the tree. and up next we discuss the world's financial recovery and its future with the managing director of the world economic forum in davos spotlight is next here on r.t.e. . wealthy british style it's time to. market. scandals. find out what's really happening to the global economy in cars a report on. how

again a welcome to spotlight the interview show on r.t. . and today my guest is robert green the world economic forum is in full swing and. then brings together the top politicians and financial brains from around the globe some of them there to find support others offer and together they have to do what they've been fighting for during the last couple of years find that a long way to come what does financial future help forest here's managing director of the world economic forum robert green. this year the devils forum has gathered a record breaking number of participants about fifteen hundred top managers and politicians out there to discuss recovery strategies and risks many experts see the economic crisis has given into the shift of global power centers and they're also

concerned over the risks from increased social inequality brought on by the global shift so the financial elite is looking for answers in the field still dominated by questions. hello robert thank you very much for joining us from. high. well first of all in a recent interview you said i quote vulnerability of the world economy two shocks is a higher level than we've ever seen before and quote and the world economic forum founder klaus schwab said a similar thing he said i quote the world has never been confronted with so many complex challenges at the same time yesterday and quote so how do these statements add out with official declarations of has the states claiming that the crisis is

over well the fact is the financial crisis is some of its worst symptoms are over but some of the underlying global risks are still there there's still tremendous macroeconomic imbalances there's challenges with commodity price fluctuations that record food price levels and in fact of course this horrible nexus of terrorism illegal trade and so on of which we've seen a tragic example recently of course in in moscow itself so in a sense the world has spent two trillion dollars and governments have used up many of their reserves just to deal with one challenge so in a sense the world is more vulnerable than ever because it doesn't have the reserves to deal with future shocks hence the need to come together to identify these issues and to deal with these risks before they become crises what we want to ensure is this is truly a post crisis period not simply a pre new set of crises period well what is the forum's role in tackling these

challenges. well our role is to be a convenor and a catalyst we're not in any way a decision making organization but what we do try to do is bring together the most relevant leaders from across the world and across the difference fears of society so of course we'll have key business leaders will have over thirty five heads of state but will also have key labor leaders key civil society leaders key media and . other key key thought leaders as well so we hope to bring together the combination of analysts thinkers and doers that actually equip the world to identify and deal with these challenges in a more proactive and collaborative fashion. well mr green why did the global risks two thousand and eleven research paper single out widening economic disparities as a major global risk over the next decade. well we we noted two

major over overarching trends one very much is this issue of economic disparity because if you have a growing economic disparity within a country you have reduced social cohesion and for a country just like a family to get through a crisis they need to come together they need to work together and trust one another now we've seen for example in places like screen that have high a sense of social cohesion when they went through a major financial crisis or in the early one nine hundred ninety s. they got through it quite well because they actually work together and if we look around the world as we look to confront these challenges it's important if societies are pulled together and one of the indicators of that is whether or not there is growing or less than economic disparity another big challenge at the global level though is the inadequacies of the global governance system to actually identify and address these challenges in a coordinated fashion we're seeing this with the failure of the doha round we're seeing this with the lack of a coordinated approach to food security issues so these challenges at the domestic

level with economic disparity and the international level with a lack of a coordinated approach these are actually two major risks in and of themselves but what kind of economic disparity is potentially more dangerous between or within countries. well both of them are challenging i mean we actually see at an international level in some ways a reduction of disparity levels between certain countries we've had tremendous success of course in the last fifteen or twenty years with the with the bric nations actually moving forward we're seeing economic growth of course and in russia but also in brazil india china various other bric countries so that's a great success of reducing the global economic disparity although of course there's a number of countries that are still left behind but it's within countries have seen any united states for example record levels of economic disparity that we haven't seen since the one nine hundred twenty s.

and so those can be challenging i don't think we can say one is more important in the other would say both need to be addressed in this post crisis period and is there a risk that the global financial crisis may turn into a social crisis there is a risk and that's that's one of the issues that companies are doing well. balance sheets are very strong but if you look at people's own pocketbooks or if you look at the high levels of unemployment there's still several years of pain for for many people in many of the western economies so that could turn to a social crisis and this is actually one of the reasons when we look for the shared norms for the new reality the new reality is that there are these multiple challenges we need to deal with together part of the shared norms is will we come together to deal with these challenges and i must say and that to that extent president medvedev decision to come and join with us here to ensure that russia's

voice is heard to show that in fact terrorism won't stop the international cooperation from continuing was a very powerful and positive sign so if if these social climbers says is that is really possible does that mean we should expect more of the popular revolt like the one that was in tunis you. well i guess the challenge for us all is to determine better ways of coming together to addressing risks and actually sort of working together in a collaborative way to make sure that we deal with these in a constructive proactive fashion so we can reduce such incidents. well according to your oh we're i quote our global governance systems really aren't designed to be able to identify the new risks let alone to deal with them and

quote does that mean that such global institutions as the g eight the g twenty i don't know up to the challenges. well that's one of the big issues let's take one example if you take the issue of food security and food availability you can look at it just as a food issue because in fact it's also a water issue because the climbing water basins i mean there's less water for four for a geisha but when you look at the water issue in fact it's also a fuel issue because the rising cost of fertilizer coming from petroleum or the rising cost of fuel used to pump the water for irrigation is also rising so you actually have to solve these issues in a combined fashion if you look at the international system it tends to be these silo organizations looking at individual issues not looking at them together now with a big challenge we had of course with the g. seven or g. eight was that it was primarily a western organization it didn't represent the full diversity of the world's

economy and politics the g. twenty is more representative but it's also larger and more. heterogeneous in its composition so the ability of the g twenty that should be responsive and effective is critically important we saw it work well during the crisis we haven't really seen the proof that it can work well outside of a crisis and yet that's what's essential what's essential is for global systems to work well. deal with issues before they become crises. but by making these organizations why you're by by inviting new members into them this isn't that mean that where we're constructing i need united nations outside your city. well of course the united nations essentially did you want any two has a legitimacy that no other organization can can match so a g eight or a g twenty one would hope would play a complementary role but it can play

a comprehensive role it can't be everything and in fact. each of the different organizations playing the role is important and that's why this year we'll have several discussions of the g. twenty but we'll also be having a number of issues that will be overseen in fact by the secretary general and a number of his under-secretaries who will also be here at davos as well in fact really the challenge is to have a networked approach rather than saying one organization deal with it it's all these different organizations working together in a much more coordinated and collaborative approach and that's the way companies have had to restructure themselves that's why international system has to restructure itself and what kind of economic or global economic governance is necessary do do you think well let's put it that way do you think that there are institutions that should be reformed today i mean globalization that like the g.a.a. like the un like whatever. well i think every or global organization today needs to be constantly looking at reform and refinement i think as as we just said the

moving from a g. eight towards more of a g twenty system is an is an important element of that. there's also a number of informal coalitions of partnerships around issues whether it's on food security or whether it's on health care which is extremely important as well in fact one of the most exciting developments we've seen coming out of davos in the last few years is informal coalitions. to try to improve food production in certain countries or to try to deal with the water issues and in fact one of the messages in a sense of the forum is governments have an important role to play whether cheater g twenty but other stakeholders need to be involved as well the n.g.o.s the civil society businesses universities and bringing all that group into the picture is going to be critical for us to solve some of these complex issues says robert greenhill managing director and chief business officer how the world economic forum's spotlights will be back shortly will continue this interview in less than

a minute so stay with us. well it comes to the. need to survive in space see shampoo and don't think a lot more regenerative life support seems just from our own weight special exercise equipment fight stuff life and psychological prep keeps the strain off the brain during a break. no easy update here on r.g.p. we've got the future covered. we use special non-sentient and accessory quitman. ready for replay.

you can offer one. became the gravity. shouldn't those people with goods in the premisses. want to soak. in a free flight. welcome back to spotlight i'm al gore and often just a reminder that my guest on the show today is robert robert greenhill managing director and chief business office there of the world economic forum he is joining us from dallas mr green that well you've just confirmed that that that there are global economic institutions big institutions that need

reform well can you name if if it was for you to decide if you were the head of so-called global government what would you start with what institutions and which way would you reform. clearly one of the most important new organizations is the g twenty so actually working with the g. twenty to make it even more effective is going to be very important so we'll be working very closely with the french government who is presiding over the g. twenty this year as well as other g. twenty nations in order to support moving forward on some of the key agenda items which are identified issues such as financial system reform issues such as dealing with the challenges of commodity prices and food security water security these kind of very concrete issues. as. one of the organizers of the

forum you should be a champion of global government tonight i have sort of a nasty question about global government after after the crisis had erupted in two thousand and eight there were a lot of tall about reform of global financial regulation but now it seems that the bankers have returned back to business as usual and to back to practices which actually preceded the crisis isn't it a major failure of the club of financial governance would you say well there have been a number of reforms in the financial system from everything from regulations to compensation structures but i think it's fair to say that the crisis wasn't just a crisis of the financial institutions it was a crisis of how we actually approach issues. before the crisis they were the focus was too much on short term financial results rather than looking at broader social implications of companies actions and rather than looking more into

a long term perspective so one of the conversations we'll be having in davos this year is what's the role of business and the role of business and not just providing financial returns to people who hold stairs but also addressing important social. issues as well whether it's in terms of more sustainable products and services or whether it's in terms of having a better approach their own risk management systems so they don't actually perhaps start new crises in the future so that whole question of how businesses and business leaders can play an important role in dealing with risks is going to be one of the conversations of devils this year. to greenhill some countries some edu members have been experiencing a serious debt crisis recently how efficiently has the e.u. financial authorities tackled this crisis in your opinion. well when we

look at the financial challenges today it's not simply a question of the financial system there's also now the questions of potential debt issues for certain countries there's also major trade imbalances and there's major currency fluctuations so the fact is it's not just one challenge as multiple challenges and so what is important is that she get all the different people together to identify and come up with solutions to this combination of challenges that you can't do that simply through new regulations there's no way you can come up with a big book that will deal with these issues what we really need is the right mindset and the right mindset is to get not only the key governments around the table but the key private sector actors and the key experts to actually come up with a set of principles to address these issues in a better way and i mean that's part of what we'll try to do it doubles the devils

we will be having key workshops and sessions around them a set of macroeconomic challenges because we have to make sure those challenges don't turn into future crises. will you at dallas this year will you try if not try to save the euro i mean the currency but at least try to try to have the speculations that have been very powerful recently. talks about that the euro will collapse do you believe the euro will survive these troubles well i mean two things i think one is. there are major challenges but actually with the right approach in and the rate collaborative approach many of these challenges can be addressed before they become major crises the other thing i'd like to say those who spent the last few minutes talking about the problems but actually there's tremendous opportunities in the world today ices are higher because actually incomes are higher across the world and there's more people who actually have money to buy food

and that's one of the reasons that food prices are going up the same thing with fuel prices so what we want to focus on dealing with just challenges and risks because we want to avoid crisis we also should look at them as opening doors to a whole new set of economic opportunities for people around the world i mean if we actually managed to work together so these crazy these these risks don't become crisis we could see a new period of sustained economic growth a similar to or even better than we saw in the last decade. this here is the russian president has decided to join the meeting in dallas well this is a very important sign of course but what do you think is it isn't because russia is looking for new opportunities or is it because russia is facing serious risks as you say. well like all countries there's a combination of opportunities and risks. and i think that will be part of the claw

combination of conversations here that there are tremendous opportunities in terms of a sustained economic growth with a very well educated workforce and some very innovative companies and that whole opportunity of modernization at the same time there is there's major challenges we saw the tragic terrorist situation we know there's other challenges such as we saw with the fires and the recent cold weather. but i think the message coming out and particularly from president medvedev presence here is russia is is dealing with these challenges and risks and is also ready to seize these opportunities and wants to do it in a way that's in gauged through the rest of the world in a very productive fashion so in fact what's exciting about davos this year is not only the presence of the president which is very important but also the largest and

most diverse russian delegation we've ever had and so russia's voice is going to be fully heard in a very constructive way about seizing these opportunities together as well as dealing collaboratively on dealing with some of these major shared risks. mr greenhill you mentioned you mentioned the terrorist attack which happened it's a very tragic event and also the spoiled the russia president's arrival last but do you think that the that the investment attractiveness and rush attractions in russia in terms of investment has suffered because of things like the terrorist attack the cold weather you mentioned the hot water there the something that you that you didn't mention though the things like that really influence serious investors it underlines just how we are all vulnerable it underlines the fact that in this world an act in one part of the world affects us all and therefore it's extremely important for us to come together to deal with these issues together in

fact in a risk report you just mentioned when we look at three clusters of risk we're very concerned about you talked about the global economic imbalances and the commodity challenges but another one was this nexus of illicit trade illegality and terrorism which is actually got a global tentacles and in a sense this tragic event this week just underlines how we can all be affected by it and again the fact that the president of russia chose to come here to to demonstrate leadership in a challenging time is a very powerful and positive message over ten years can you mention the main topics the main issues that the if we can call it the russian panel will be discussing and was. well they'll be a number of panels because with various aspects of russian engagement in leadership

but one in particular is russia's modernization and the whole. economic a renewal industrial rule nul and both the opportunities and the challenges associated with that is going to be one of the. major topics and then the other major topic i think is is that russia's perspective is a little black or as well because russia has an important role to play not just in terms of its own activities domestically but it's a very important there in so many global issues as well so that will be the other aspect that will be discussed here. and may be the last question we we really have time for in this in this post link with us robert please tell us. if we if we compare russia's participation in. the last two or three five years do you think

this country i mean the russian federation is becoming more important more influential. in davos specifically at the forum or not. well on a couple of different levels i think it's been very very interested very positive certainly in terms of other business and gauge and there's been a strong and growing engagement but also in terms of the political and intellectual engagement there's been a strong development having prime minister putin here two years ago was one manifestation of that having president medvedev here this year with a record russian contingent in terms of public figures but also other figures is a very important indication of how actively russia is in gauging in these key issues at the forum and we think that's extremely important because russia has a very important role to play in all these critical issues we've just been talking

about so we very much welcome their strong presence here. thank you thank you very much for being with us robert and just a reminder that my guest today on the show was robin greendale the managing director and chief business officer of the world economic forum he was joining us for that and that's it for now from all of us here if you want to have your sense spotlight i want to mind if you think i should in two weeks' time just drop me a line of al good enough at how do you hope and let's keep spotlight interactive will be back with more firsthand comments on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on arts and take care.