New Economy Forum to focus on private sector's role in addressing global challenges

The first ever New Economy Forum kicked off here on Tuesday to lay out private sector-led solutions to the current challenges created by a world economy in transition.

The focal points of the forum include global governance, trade, technology, urbanization, finance and capital market, climate change and inclusion, as the transition is featured by challenges such as postwar institutions are struggling to adapt to the rising new economy, the world is facing a risk of fragmenting into completing trade blocs, artificial intelligence threatens to decrease a large proportion of exiting jobs and supercities are being formed due to the new economy.

The forum is aimed at stimulating a productive, fact-driven dialogue in an effort to promote deeper understanding and develop actionable solutions on the issues and to address the challenges brought by the rising new economies that could not be resolved only by governmental means.

By identifying the emerging issues that governments have been unable or unwilling to address, the forum commits to steps that will ensure global stability and growth by "spurring new partnership that bringing government and business together," according to Michael Bloomberg, the founder of the forum.

During his opening remarks, Bloomberg said that although economic growth in emerging economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America improved lives of billions, the trend also created new challenges in existing trade, capital markets and intellectual property.

He said the forum is all about to build a more peaceful and prosperous future of the world by harnessing the power of private sector to help address the challenges, adding that the private sector has a critical role to play in addressing the challenges by ensuring benefits of growing economy could be spread, equipping people with skills to succeed in a changing economy and equal opportunities for women and other groups, as well as reducing carbon emission.

The two-day forum gathered 400 prominent political and business leaders and will cover key topics including "remaking global trade," "managing the supply chain threat," "the future of global manufacturing," "energy challenges in the new economies," "managing the next financial shock," "financing the new economy," "supercities in the 21st Century" and "the geopolitics of markets."

According to the forum, the next round of the new economy forum is scheduled to be held in Beijing in November next year by Bloomberg and the Chinese Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Michael Bloomberg, the founder of the New Economy Forum, delivers the opening remarks at the forum in Singapore on Nov. 6, 2018. The first ever New Economy Forum kicked off here on Tuesday to lay out private sector-led solutions to the current challenges created by a world economy in transition.