WEF summit ends with words of caution for world economy

The five-day World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2019 ended Friday with several leaders warning about imminent challenges faced by the global economy, including climate change, growing inequality and US-China trade tensions.

In the last plenary session on 'Global economy in transition', IMF chief Christine Lagarde listed climate change, an ageing population, jobs for youth, income inequality and the need to make the world more cooperative among the key issues needed to be dealt with.

World Bank CEO Kristalina Georgieva made a passionate plea to give more decision-making power to women.

"Think of those that may be left out or behind. And how a just transition can be successful ... For that success we ought to have more women like you (Lagarde) in the high corridors of power.

"Put these decisions in the hands of women, the moms and the grandmothers and very good things will come out of it," she said.

In his closing remarks, Borge Brende, president of WEF, said the meeting had a lot many positive outcomes, including by the WTO on e-commerce, while strong commitments were made on various pressing challenges faced by the world.

He also said the WEF would celebrate its 50th year in 2020.

The WEF also thanked all participants as also citizens, police and military personnel and the government of Switzerland.

The meeting, attended by over 3,000 global leaders, ended with a performance by a quartet of the Sphinx Virtuosi chamber orchestra, comprising young African-American and Latino musicians in the US.

The music performance was accompanied by awe-inspiring images of the Earth from space from National Geographic, which the organisers said marked it as an occasion for a renewed commitment to building a more inclusive and sustainable world.