Dambisa Moyo

In this keynote, Dambisa Moyo will address the structural and tactical implications of global macroeconomic trends. Presently, companies are challenged to create solid, sustained economic growth. Additionally, they are to continue to meaningfully put a dent in poverty across the world. How do we boost growth in the developing world—home to 90 percent of the world’s population where 70 percent of the population is less than 25 years old—as a period of unprecedented economic expansion begins to slow in some places and regress in others?

As the population in China advances economically, the Chinese government has made a strategic and concerted effort to secure natural resources that can be used in its domestic industries. These moves have consequences for the global community, in part because international conflicts over resources commonly turn violent. Increasingly, China wields market power and sets global commodity prices. Dambisa Moyo will explain the three-pronged strategy that forms China’s systematic and deliberate campaign for global resources in the context of decreasing demand and falling commodity prices. China’s aggressive approach places her in a unique position, particularly across the world’s emerging economies, and has far-reaching implications for economic growth and trade in the future.

At a time of rapid technological advancements and innovation, the risks and opportunities are immense, and the responses from corporations and public policy are crucial to economic growth. On the one hand, technological shifts hold promise to transform livelihoods by enhancing the efficiency and ease of information transfer, connectivity and communication. Yet, there remain legitimate concerns on the net effects of technological advances—particularly in respect to whether and how automation will disrupt and erode (low skilled) jobs—the hallmark of emerging markets. For every gadget that enables us to process data and information faster and more cheaply, there is a burgeoning social and public policy challenge of rising unemployment that has dire consequences for growth and could engender significant costs for society by reducing employment. Technological advances present a rapidly growing social and public policy challenge for every country, across all sectors.