"It would be sheer folly to let faith in this system be shaken by the financial and economic crises and to backslide on tariff reductions and other key aspects of trade policy, or to undertake ill-founded and counterproductive regulatory interventions in markets." David E. Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography, Harvard School of Public Health, USA

Wherever there are markets, market players - whether the government, business or the consumer - will always be looking for new drivers of economic development and growth. But it is difficult to put forward a "unified theory" of how to achieve growth - different circumstances demand the pulling of different levers. Yet much of the world has come to accept a set of guiding principles - that trade drives growth, for example - as good policy. The financial crisis and its impact on the real economy have not led many people, if any, to conclude that the free-market system is somehow fatally flawed and should be discarded. On the contrary, as the discussions of the Global Agenda Councils in this group made clear, there is widespread acknowledgement that the basic operating fundamentals of the market system have produced phenomenal improvements in living standards around the world and remain sound.

The bottom-line principles of economic development and growth that emerged from the deliberations of the Councils are:

•	Where possible, competitive markets are the most effective means of resource allocation.
•	Entrepreneurial activity, technological progress and the accumulation of physical and human capital make extraordinary contributions to economic growth.
•	As the Commission on Growth and Development chaired by Nobel laureate Michael Spence found, no country has successfully developed without trade.
•	Government works best when it focuses on the financing or provision of infrastructure and other public goods, the efficient correction of market failures and the maintenance of a humane, but incentive-driven, social safety net.

The Councils in this group, said Rapporteur David E. Bloom, Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography, Harvard School of Public Health, USA, in his report in the closing plenary in Dubai, concluded that "it would be sheer folly to let faith in this system be shaken by the financial and economic crises and to backslide on tariff reductions and other key aspects of trade policy, or to undertake ill-founded and counterproductive regulatory interventions in markets."

There is certainly reason for better oversight and regulation of the financial sector to rein in the recent excesses but doing so must not be at the expense of value creation which needs stimulating. "How can industries help solve these problems?" asked Edward B. Roberts, Founder and Chairman of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center, USA. "Let's make sure not to suppress the people who have created jobs for centuries [or their solutions]."

Experts and thought leaders in Dubai opposed statistical blackouts, or cutbacks on data collection that might be expected due to tighter government budgets or the desire to avoid communicating bad news. Instead, they called for greater transparency and more rational decision-making that requires more and better statistics, not excuses for getting by with less.

International migration was another key issue that concerned Council members. Until a few months ago, many Summit participants would have readily accepted that the world should develop a principled system for governing the movement of people across borders. Although the economic and demographic pressures for migration are substantial, there are fewer than 200 million people living in countries other than the one in which they were born. This represents less than 3% of the world's population, suggesting that freer mobility may be an especially potent way to realize further gains from globalization. It would at least boost remittances, which have become such an important driver of growth in many countries.

But as the deliberations in Dubai made clear, in the context of an unfolding global financial crisis, an increasingly complicated set of political, social and economic winner-loser calculations would have to be considered. With the prospect of increased unemployment in many economies, this is not the right time to take on the thorny issue of international migration. Instead, experts might better use this time of economic turbulence to quietly work out the architecture of a global system of international migration to be ready when the stars are more favourably aligned.

Councils focusing on Economic Development and Growth

Global Agenda Council on: •  Benchmarking Progress in Society •  Demographic Shifts •  Economic Growth and Development •  Financial Empowerment •  The Gender Gap •  Migration •  Philanthropy and Social Investing •  The Skills Gap •  Social Entrepreneurship •  Trade Facilitation

The same goes for national retirement policies, which have been remarkably stagnant in the face of a twodecade increase in global life expectancy in just the past 50 years and a demographic shift that has the global population aged 60 and over increasing from 670 million to 2 billion between now and 2050. Retirement incentives that peak at age 65 no longer make sense in a world in which life expectancy has risen so sharply, skills gaps have widened and even tighter labour markets are on the horizon. But, as with migration policy, the room for addressing this issue by raising the retirement age has narrowed significantly in light of the spreading crisis.

The final set of messages from the Global Agenda Councils relating to economic development and growth has to do with strategies for going on the offensive against costly inefficiencies and missing markets. These include policies of human capital investment that are more inclusive of women and minorities. They also include policies that promote gender- and race-blind rates of return on those investments. They include encouraging social entrepreneurs to identify high-impact health, education and poverty-reduction initiatives that can turn into viable commercial ventures that are efficient, scaleable and sustainable.

And finally, there is the need to review inadequate business models and reform antiquated regulations that undermine the use of new information technologies such as mobile telephony. New banking models and novel technologies have substantial unrealized potential for drawing the bottom billions into the mainstream of the financial sector so they too can enjoy the benefits of modern credit, savings and insurance. Access to those products would enable people to save for lean times, conduct consumer transactions more easily, gain access to better healthcare and education for their children, and start businesses and grow them. The goal: to foster an inclusive financial system that broadens the economic base and diversifies risks.

Councils focusing on Economic Development and Growth