LONDON, May 31 (IPS) – At this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos which ended last week, the attention of the world financial and economic world was drawn by the battle in Ukraine where President Volodimir Zelensky used his address to call for “the complete withdrawal of foreign businesses from the Russian market”, although 380 largest multinational companies still operating in Russia.
Many companies are still present in Russia was sitting in the stands while Zelensky spoke including HSBC still operating for existing customers and Credit Suisse scaling back without signaling it would pull out of Russia due to the invasion. This is especially worrisome given the leaked data in Suisse Secrets on how Credit Suisse oiled the wheels of many tycoons before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Banks in Davos have the ability to hold multiple assets 6,163 Russian individuals and entities sanctioned despite anti-money laundering efforts to track down these funds hidden behind shell companies. This money, in turn, is typically kept in the accounts of banks that participate in the annual Davos meetings, and their assets may never even be disclosed due to a lack of banking and financial transparency laws. tighter row.
Ironically, even talking about these secret accounts and the leaks associated with them is an offense in Davos under Switzerland’s draconian bank secrecy laws, so stating This issue may result in arrest and fines. Credit Suisse only commits to “stop new business in Russia while meaningfully cutting exposure rates by up to 56%. “The imbalance is glaring, and there is no council at Davos to address this vexing issue.
Alarmingly, this signals a business-as-usual approach of many leading companies represented in Davos, which not only fails to tackle the Russian oligarchs, but also ignores the problem of offshore funds. externally held by powerful individuals and politicians from the Global South.
Disclosure, event only 52 people on the official list come from Africaout of a total of more than 1,500 participants revealed. Winnie Byanyima, director of UN AIDS, is one of them. She calls for vaccine inequality and asked delegates to “stop pushing Africa behind the queue in terms of vaccine access” and called patent protection laws a form of institutional racism in a time of pandemic. global pandemics such as COVID-19.
The debt crisis should also be on Davos’ agenda, as it was before the opening of Davos on May 19. we have seen Sri Lanka fall into a balance of payments and debt crisis when their 30-day grace period to make debt payments to creditors has expired. Fees are mainly formed by private creditors largest group of single creditors to Sri Lankamany of them again like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs were sitting in the audience at Davos, unwilling to commit to debt restructuring for the debts of private creditors.
Some of these issues have been picked out by years Global risk reportwhere the key global risks identified over the next two years include extreme weather and livelihood crises, followed by the risk of not addressing climate change. Debt ranks 8th in terms of risknot something that is picked out by many respondents to the annual survey – of which 63% are men and 41% are from the business sector, the majority are represented by Europeans with 44% of all respondents from region, only 6% from South Asia.
Why then does the media focus on a meeting in Davos that doesn’t make any sense? It’s an icon of our times, and a place where corporate elites come together and give their opinion of the world – and where some critics can voice their opinions. of them about how unsuccessful it is each year. With the growing crises we are facing and the role big business has to take on, this is clearly not enough.
Matti Kohonen is the director of the Financial Transparency Alliance and previously worked at Christian Aid as a Lead Private Sector Advisor, working to ensure that the private sector is a responsible and accountable party. responsibility in global development.
IPS UN Office
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