Executives at the annual meeting of the global elite in
Davos, Switzerland, said growth needs to be “inclusive” or the world will
experience more of the unrest seen recently in Tunisia and Egypt.
Chanda Kochhar, chief executive of India's ICICI bank, said
the challenge was “can we create enough basic facilities” such as schools,
roads and housing to ensure growth really benefits everyone.
Jacob Wallenberg, who sits on the board of The Coca-Cola
Co., said his company was working to ensure safe water supplies to communities
where it operates. Coca-Cola has in the past been accused of exploiting wells
for its soft drinks production at the expense of the local population.
Non-governmental groups have been lobbying business leaders
in Davos to be more responsible or face greater regulation.
“The time for voluntary standards for businesses in relation
to meeting human rights obligations is over,” the head of Amnesty
International, Salil Shetty, told The Associated Press earlier in the week “We
now need to have mandatory standards,” he said, adding that business leaders
risk reaping the same grass roots anger as politicians if they don't become
better corporate citizens. “It might not look practical, but don't wait for
what happened in Tunisia to happen to you.” The rising cost of food, which has
been named as one of the reasons for anti-government protests in Asia and the
Middle East recently, was cited as a concern by many of the forum's 2,500
attendees this year.
China Ocean Shipping's CEO Wei Jiafu said food price rises
could eventually force up the cost of other commodities and lead to politically
risky inflation around the world.
Wallenberg, of Coca-Cola, told the few leaders who remained
for Sunday's closing sessions that the time for deliberating about the state of
the world was over.
