From 19 to 23 january, the world economic forum was held in davos, switzerland, in 2026. The theme of this annual session is “the spirit of dialogue”, with the aim of calling on the international community to rebuild trust through constructive exchanges in a complex and fluid international situation and to jointly address global challenges。
The annual meeting of the world economic forum is a discussionGlobal economyTrends and important platforms for cooperative development are well known as “global economic winds”. At present, the world is facing many uncertainties and uncertainties, and global economic growth is weak. What is the global economic alternative under many risk challenges
The risk of global devastation continues unabated
According to the world economic forum official network, the discussions at the current session revolved around five key global challenges: cooperation in a competitive world, unleashing a new engine of growth, investing in people, applying innovation responsibly and creating prosperity within the earth's carrying capacity。
It was known that nearly 3,000 representatives from different fields from more than 130 countries and regions around the world had participated in the annual meeting. “the largest davos forum in history is surrounded by global turmoil. "the bbc reported that。
On the eve of the opening of the annual session, the world economic forum issued a series of reports in which it noted that multilateralism was currently facing a strong reversal and that the patterns and circumstances of global cooperation were changing. While the world economic outlook has improved slightly, uncertainty remains. The global economy continues to be affected by such factors as asset revaluation, debt accumulation, geo-economic restructuring and risks associated with the application of artificial intelligence technologies。
The global risk report 2026, published by the world economic forum, further noted that geo-economic rivalry had become the primary risk in 2026, followed by inter-state armed conflict, extreme weather, social polarization and false and false information. The report shows that the current risks of global devastation are increasing, which is a source of concern for the world。
“dialogue in an age of uncertainty.” the saudi newspaper al-arab news recently reported a series of urgent issuesGeopoliticsThe challenge has become a major theme of the 2026 annual meeting of the world economic forum, from the russian-uu conflict to the growing tension in the middle east, where multiple conflict points have heightened concerns about the escalation of tension on a larger scale。
As the president of the world economic forum, borg brendé, said earlier, the most worrying thing today is that the escalation of large-scale wars could stifle global economic growth。
In an interview with the paper, zhang jianping, deputy director of the academic council of the institute of international trade economics, department of commerce, analysed three main risks to the global economy: the first is the proliferation of anti-globalization thinking and actions, the rise of protectionism, populism, economic globalization and regional economic integration, and the growing disarray of global economic governance, particularly the frequent “recessions” of the united states, which has led to a disordered global dimension of trade governance, investment governance, financial governance and the continued emergence of shocks to global value chain collaboration. The third is the high incidence of geopolitical conflicts, as well as the serious threat posed to global commodity supply and global market stability by a series of events such as the russian-ukrainian conflict, the palestinian-israeli conflict, the united states raid on venezuela and the recent tensions around greenland。
“at the present time, the intensification of confrontation at the global level, the lack of dialogue and the significant rise in tariff and non-tariff barriers are important contexts that differ from those of the previous years at the annual meeting of the world economic forum in 2026.” liu ying, a researcher at the chinese people's university's institute of finance in zhongyang, has pointed out to this newspaper that as the world's century-old changes accelerateInternational cooperationThere have been profound and complex changes in the pattern of competition, with multiple risks, such as geopolitical conflicts, geo-economic confrontations, social polarization and extreme weather, inter alia, the imposition of so-called “reciprocal tariffs” by the united states on many countries around the world, the promotion of so-called “nearshore outsourcing” of “friend-shore” outsourcing, or even its further localization, artificially severing the supply chain of global production, leading to a slowdown in global trade growth, a global system of division of labour and a weakening of the functioning of the multilateral trading system. Weak global economic growth and narrow policy space have led to a medium- and long-term dilemma of low growth, high debt and weak investment。
Constructive dialogue as a key factor in promoting cooperation
In recent days, the united nations world economic situation and prospects 2026 report noted that the global economy had shown some resilience in a complex environment, but that trade tensions, fiscal pressures and uncertainty had increased and continued to affect medium- and long-term growth prospects. The report projects a global economic growth rate of 2. 7 per cent in 2026, down from 2. 8 per cent in 2025。
The secretary-general of the united nations, gutierrez, stated that the global economy was at a critical time of multiple challenges and that strengthening multilateral cooperation and preserving a rules-based multilateral trading system were essential to stabilizing the global economy and promoting sustainable development。
According to su qingyei, a researcher at the institute of world economics and politics of the chinese academy of social sciences, the outlook for the global economy is uncertain. While technological breakthroughs, such as artificial intelligence, have a catalytic effect, unforeseeable uncertainties are likely to increase, thereby affecting the pace of global economic growth。
Dialogue and cooperation are particularly important in the face of risks and challenges: “in the view of the world economic forum, dialogue is not a luxury but a necessity”. Brendé stated that in a world of division and increased competition, ensuring dialogue was crucial, as it was the beginning of a virtuous process that would help to advance the world。
The recent release of the world economic forum's global cooperation barometer 2026 shows that, despite the continuing negative winds of multilateralism, global cooperation has shown some resilience. The report states that small, flexible alliances can act on the basis of common interests and achieve pragmatic goals, and cooperation continues. The report emphasizes that, in a more complex and uncertain geopolitical environment, open and constructive dialogue is a key factor in identifying potential avenues for cooperation that can advance the common good。
“as geopolitical conflicts intensify, geo-economic conflicts intensify, and as an important engine of global economic growth, international trade is at risk of `closure' and international investment is in contraction. Against this background, there is an urgent need for the countries of the world to resolve their problems through dialogue rather than confrontation.” liu ying believes that the way forward for the global economy lies not in your losing the zero-sum game that i have won, but in strengthening dialogue among the major powers and between the north and the south to build consensus and seek ways to cooperate, in the short term to prevent the spillover of conflict, to promote mutual understanding of technologies, rules and so on, and to improve the international multilateral governance architecture in the long term。
“in 2026, the global economy faced many uncertainties and pressures such as market volatility, requiring efforts by countries to overcome negative shocks to globalization, preserve the multilateral trading system, sustain economic globalization and international regional cooperation and deepen collaboration in global supply chains and value chains. Only through the full realization of countries' different comparative advantages and development potential can global trade in goods, trade in services and global economic growth be steadily advanced.” zhang jianping noted that the world economic forum played an important role in supporting global economic cooperation and sustainable development as an important platform for bringing together global heads of government, senior political officials, business leaders and think tanks。
China provides a “stable anchor” for the global economy
As the world's second largest economy, china's role in areas such as global economic governance, green development and digital innovation received sustained attention from the international community during the current annual session。
In his view, china's frontier science and technology sector is growing at an accelerated rate and enterprises are doubling their investment in this area. These new technologies are expected to bring tremendous productivity gains and growth opportunities in the coming years. “this is why we were more pessimistic about global economic growth a year ago, and are now more optimistic. China is an important contributor to this process.”
On the eve of the opening of the 2026 annual meeting of the world economic forum, the spokesman for the ministry of foreign affairs of china stated that china looked forward to working with all participants to strengthen dialogue, forge consensus on cooperation, implement genuine multilateralism, build an open world economy, promote more inclusive, inclusive and resilient global development and inject more stability and positive energy into the world economy。
As noted by zhang, china attaches great importance to and supports the world economic forum. It has not only established a good cooperation mechanism with the forum, but has also taken full advantage of this platform to promote the implementation of china's four major global initiatives, while supporting wto reform in the right direction, promoting economic globalization and regional economic integration. “in the context of the world economic forum, china's international influence continues to rise, making more chinese voices heard in the global development process.”
More recently, the national statistical office of china published the economic performance of china in 2025. In 2025, china's economic development was on a new course of excellence, and it is expected that the objectives will be met successfully. China's gross domestic product (GDP) of $140,1879. 9 billion was initially accounted for, making the first leap to a new level of $1. 4 trillion, an increase of 5. 0 per cent in constant prices over the previous year。
Su qingyi stated that china had provided a “stable anchor” for the global economy. In particular, china's domestic demand expansion strategy had helped to expand imports and provided opportunities for other countries. At the same time, china's sustained expansion of openness has helped to reverse the wave of globalization. The growing attention of the international community to china's voice has also helped to convey the voice of open cooperation and to inject as much certainty as possible into the global economy。
“china is pursuing a more proactive macroeconomic policy, including a more proactive fiscal policy and a moderate monetary policy, which will take advantage of the super-large market advantage, release the industrial upgrading dividend and increase economic resilience through policy synergies. Today, both from the perspective of market demand and in innovative areas such as artificial intelligence and the digital economy, china plays a positive role in the recovery and growth of the global economy, playing important roles such as ballast rock, stabilizers and sources of growth.” more importantly, liu ying believes that china is committed to serving as a provider of global public goods, promoting connectivity, sharing development and governance experiences, and injecting valuable stability and positive energy into the global economy through high-quality co-building of the “one way forward” and other multilateral international cooperation mechanisms。
