WEF: Leaders warn against complacency, call for job creation

The global economy may be in a better shape after its worst-ever crisis but it is no time to relax, and governments as well as business leaders must persist with job creation, income and gender diversification as also to meet aspirations of the youth to keep up the growth momentum.

This is the message from over 1,600 business leaders, around 50 government heads and over a 1,000 leaders from other walks of life, who had congregated at this Swiss Alpine ski resort for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

The meeting, which began on January 22 and ended today, saw countries like Russia, Indonesia, South Africa and Malaysia making a strong pitch for attracting investments worth trillions of dollars, while China emerged as a major growth story.

On the other hand, India which had a strong presence at the event with more than 150 business leaders, four union ministers and many others, saw issues related to corruption and policy logjam being mentioned on quite a few occasions.

Indian leaders asserted, however, that the country was moving ahead with its reform agenda, has a strong growth potential and the issue of corruption was a worldwide phenomenon and no country should be singled out for that.

As the five-day meeting came to an end with a mountain soiree continuing till early this morning, world's top economic leaders said it is no time to relax and much more work is still left to be done by governments and corporates in different countries to keep the growth momentum and revive the economy.

The International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde asked the countries across the globe and their leaders to follow a 'do not relax' principle and not let any complacency to come into their efforts.

"I will pursue with 'do not relax' principle. The forecast is for a very fragile recovery in 2013 and that is why I will emphasise on do not relax," Lagarde said.

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