The 41st Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum is scheduled to start on Wedneday, January 26 in Davos, Switzerland. I am to moderate the workshop entitled “Nordic Competitiveness” on Saturday, January 29. This year’s theme is Shared Norms for the New Reality and one of the regions featured is the Nordic countries.
While Europe in general has struggled with various problems in recent years, Nordic countries such as Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden, are consistently ranked high in the Global Competitiveness Ranking and have had fewer problems than other European countries. What are the reasons behind it? What actions have the governments, private sectors etc. have taken? These are the issues we plan to explore.
On Friday, January 28,there will be a panel by the political leaders of the Nordic countries. Our workshop on Saturday is the follow-up on the plenary panel to identify the strengths of the Nordic countries and to explore whether and how they can be applied to other regions.
As I teach Competitiveness course now and also made a key note speech at the Innovation Lecture in the Netherlands, I am very interested in the topic itself and feel very honored to be given the opportunity to moderate the workshop. Though it means teleconferencing to discuss details and exchange of notes via e-mail for preparation, I feel this is a great opportunity for me to find out more about the Nordic countries.
