“What the WEF provides for us is a forum and an opportunity for those of us in business and in government, for those of us who believe in a civil society where we learn from one another and move forward,” said Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia, Canada and the Rapporteur summit. “It gives us an opportunity to build on examples of success from the past, and to make sure that we outline a strategy for the future that will reinforce our mutual objectives and goals regardless of where we live around the world.”

Fiscally, Asia is in trouble. The export-lead Asian economies are largely dependent on the US market. After the 1997 financial crisis, Asian economies were able to recover largely due to the booming American economy, and not through much needed structural reforms. But as Simon S.C. Tay, an Associate Professor from the National University of Singapore, said, this repair mechanism has all but disappeared. No longer can Asian countries depend on the US market as a driver of the industrializing export based system. Without necessary reforms, the Asian economies will be hard fetched to bounce back so quickly post-September 11.

And this could spell trouble for political stability. “It is essential to see that our conception of security in the region is a comprehensive security that depends on the government being able to deliver forms of growth and basically of hope for people to come up from a very low base,” said Tat. “I hope that China, the one country that so far seems to be out of the fray of economic downturn, and Japan might after some reforms be able to lead the region back in some sort of domestic growth in Asia.”

Restoring stability, eliminating terrorism and stimulating economic growth all share a common element—each one requires the undertaking of an aggressive anti-poverty campaign. Participants agreed that the international community must take an active role in such a campaign. Such a strategy includes providing all developing countries with equitable market access, meeting United Nations targets for official development assistance (ODA), and improving domestic infrastructure, said Shamshad Ahmad, Permanent Rep resentative of Pakistan to the United Nations. ODA has been set at 0.7 percent of gross domestic product, but with the exception of five countries, most countries, he said, do not even approach half the target rate.

Ahmad challenged the world community to work together to contribute to the development of infrastructure in the developing countries in order to make “the environment in the developing countries receptive and conducive for private capital ... [because] we all know that private capital flows only in the direction of profit.”

But Tay stressed the importance of international cooperation in designing mechanisms to bring to justice the perpetrators of the attacks of September 11. “To go after the criminals you have to do something about the poor who might lend support or sympathy, but that doesn’t mean you have to solve all the world’s poverty problems before you go after the criminals. I think this is a real test of our ability to think in a-symmetrical terms,” he said.

Prolonged US lead strikes in Afghanistan threaten to undermine the political and economic stability of the region. While the Asian countries have officially expressed their support for the US, there are growing domestic tensions within some countries with large Muslim populations that threaten the stability of their governments. “We are now entering an era where the defining factor is whether we are going to face terrorism together or not. It is not only against America, it is against humanity, it is against civilization, and against international order,” said Jusuf Wanandi, member of the Board of Trustees and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta, Indonesia. “And that is why I think we have to be with the Americans.” But at the same time, he said, it is important for the US to continue to be flexible about the different roles each country can play in the war against terrorism, so not to insight domestic instability.

The domestic tensions have arisen perhaps because of the US efforts to show that this is a war against terrorism and not the Islamic faith have not been entirely effective. “If you speak to some of the demonstrators in the street, the message has not gotten through to them,” said Tay. “And in some ways, the propaganda machine on the Osama bin Laden side is working quite efficiently.”

Ahmad expressed Pakistan’s concern that a prolonged military operation in Afghanistan could result in the flood of 1.5 million Afghan refugees into Pakistan, and this influx, added to the already 2.5 million residing within the boarders, could serve to de-stabilize the country. In the case of such an event, he called on the support of the international community. “There is an adverse effect on our economy and on our trade and in terms of social economic situation,” he said. “So all these problems are a serious burden for Pakistan and we hope that the international community, the world community and the business community will join together to reduce our economic burden.”

Also present at the discussion was Manuel Araneta Roxas, Secretary of Trade and Industry of the Philippines. He reminded the audience of the unwavering support that the Philippines pledged to the US lead coalition against terrorism, and said that the main challenge for the world now is “how do the developed countries and how do we ourselves keep on board and how do we provide reasons for others to likewise stay so.”