100 days since the first COVID-19 case was reported have marked a significant transformation that the world has experienced. Unplanned and still unpredictable change touched every single aspect of global economic, political and social reality. During a week-long International Digital Summit (June 15-19) experts in business, education, health and international relations representing 20 countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America were discussing the lessons learned during these 100 days of pandemic and providing recommendations to shape the new norm. The first event talk was made by Dr. Sergey Brilev, the President of the Global Energy Association, who give a speech on the future of sustainable development given the emerging trends of the energy sector.
Professor Jagdish Khatri, ex-director & chairholder UNESCO network chair from Mandsaur University (India), highlighted the importance of defining value systems that underlie decision making frameworks at local, national and global levels, saying that the first step to take is to take a closer look at the problems that were brought to the light and make sure that we chose constructive collaboration and solidarity as key priorities. “Direction is more important than the speed,” - he says - “I would suggest to use the BRICS principles, BRICS meaning Building Responsive Inclusive and Creative Societies .”
Many other speakers were talking about BRICS countries and multilateral cooperation that seems the optimal scenario for regional and global cooperation: Michael Schumann, the president of the German Foreign Trade Association (BWA) stated that aside for China and African countries that Chancellor Merkel mentioned as the ones Germany should “turn to”, it should also take a closer look at India and re-establish relations with Russia, as sanctions and other restrictive policies do not benefit anyone neither in short term, nor in the long run. He also mentioned, that Germany needs to develop its own independent security architecture stepping away from USA and NATO military “protectorate”. Demonization of Russia and its leadership was discussed by Swiss-German entrepreneur and researcher, PhD candidate working on the issues of propaganda in the Western media and biased coverage of Russia and the USA, Mirijam Zwingli, who said that creation of “enemy images” and spread of fear and panic might be used by media to justify tremendous military expenses of tax payers money. Stephan Osenkopp, journalist and think tank researcher from Germany, confirmed this assumption by saying that “enemy image” and blame games are a political instrument well known in the world history and are also promoted by the global financial elite. In his view, neither G7, nor G8 format suggested by Trump recently, would be a relevant platform for global decision making. Future lies in the field of constructive strategic cooperation, and the Western world should, he says, make sure that aside for coronavirus it eliminates the virus that creates an illusion that it has the right for global geopolitical dominance. Professor Zoran Vitorovich, President of Swiss Charity Organizations ASMS and Editor in chief of Global Process Journal (www.gpjournal.org) suggests preventive diplomacy, based on open and honest dialogue as well as skilled and wise actors, as instruments for change implementation at the global governance level. Andrey Gorokhov, political scientist from Russia and editor-in-chief of the scientific journal "Russian Political Science". chairman of the “Laboratory of Humanitarian Projects” has elaborated on the importance of science diplomacy in the new digital reality. Stefan Keuter, member of German parliament (Bundestag) has explicitly elaborated on measures taken by the government as a reaction to the pandemic, and emphasized that market and business should remain protected from possible government takeover related to financial aid.
Dr. h. c. Fouad ALGhaffari (Yemen), Government Advisor for Human Rights and the President of ALBRICS Youth Parliament in Yemen has also elaborated on the progress of Yemen - BRICS relations during his welcome speech at the Political Panel on the Global COVID-19 Summit. Henrique Domingues, former Former Execute Secretary at OCLAE (Continental and Caribbean Organization of Latin American Students), has vividly elaborated on the current situation in Brazil and its political and economic dependency on the USA, mentioning that increase of regional cooperation within BRICS and with South American states could make the country and its economy more resilient. Same ideas were voiced by Marco Enríquez-Ominami, ex-candidate to the presidency of Chile Republic, philosopher and leader of the Grupo de Puebla that unites 35 socialist latinamerican leaders of 13 countries 7 ex presidents of LATAM region. According to him, the 3 important ingredients needed to overcome the crisis are: strong institutions, strong leaders and trust: interpersonal and trust to the leadership, as well as intense LATAM cooperation in the areas of trade, security and energy. Yamil Quispe, co-founder of the Pacifica project from Argentina, presented the idea of increasing cooperation between LATAM countries, Russia, China and African countries as well as focusing on strategic infrastructure and energy.
Issues that were brought to the light during the pandemic in Africa were discussed by Ivorian politician Nathalie Yamb, Gabonese educator and politician Laurence Ndong and Professor of the University of Mozambique and AFRIC think tank President Jose Matemulane, who spoke about natural economy as the way out to sovereignty in the Post-Covid future. The speakers agreed, that despite the huge potential Africa has in terms of creativity, resources, technology, tourism and agricultural potential, it can hardly benefit from it as at the moment the pressure and dependency of its elites from France and other ex-colonial powers is still strong. Reform of the CFA franc existing in 13 countries of West and Central Africa has to be implemented in a way in which it would imply financial and political sovereignty, she said. “African countries should be able to choose partners for trade and cooperation freely, based on their rational reasoning,” - Nathalie Yamb says. Laurence Ndong also mentioned that coronavirus lockdowns exposed to the public the systematic problems of governance in many African states and there is no other way but resolving those issues.
Yulia Afanaseva, political scientist and consultant from Russia, elaborated on the role of horizontal networking and civic initiatives at the local and global level, that has demonstrated growing capacities to provide solutions for problems that government can not resolve due to lack of resources, competences, and, in some cases, political will. Public Health and Advocacy Advisor Ali Ahmed Al-Mudhwahi from Yemen gave a presentation on COVID-19 Regulatory Response and Compliance Impact, while Dr Amitava Mukherjee, Former Head at UN Centre for Poverty Alleviation in India, has discussed the impact of the pandemic on social development. Dr Amitava addressed the social issues that have become critical during the pandemic. The problems that have been piling up became much bigger, while fear and pschycosis added to that has led to extreme cases. Stress created by pandemic has led to decrease of health not just among the ones infected, but their friends and family too. Dr Amitava highlighted the importance of focusing on social development and social resources during such severe crises.
Change in business and economics were discussed at the “Change Management, Business Adaptability and Emotional Resilience” panel. The discussion started with a talk presented by Nikolay Kazantsev (Russia - UK), a researcher from the University of Manchester. He shared his conclusions on the digital economy in the area of smart manufacturing business models involving Smaller and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and COVID-19 impact on supply chains. Nikolay presented his vision of the future of digital technologies and robotisation that can make various business and production processes easier to carry out.
Marija Janjusevic, a member of Serbian Parliament, president of Environment Council of Dveri movement has talked about the social impact of COVID-19 in the future, highlighting the importance of family and community values as well as the necessity to avoid fear and panic by any means. She raised important questions related to possible artificial/human-made origins of the virus as well as addressed the threat of internet shut blackout. Keys to resolving the crisis are humanity and empathy, she underlined. Dragana Trifkovich, director of the Center for Geopolitical Studies based in Belgrade, added more details regarded the social and political situation in Serbia. Marco Filipe (Italy), an expert crisis manager and CBRNe SME in Multinational and International settings, has provided first-hand opinion and impressions about the pandemic outbreak and response in Italy sharing the lessons learnt and concerns raised during spring 2020 in Italy.
Vaiva Adomaityte (UK), Global change expert, specialising in Government reforms and transformation programmes reflected on business and Governments ability to adapt and respond to change as big as COVID-19. Discussing in more details how all aspects of societal levels are interconnected and depend on each other. Vaiva highlighted the significant gap in the government’s ability to make prompt decisions in an agile and changing environment.
Summi Taneja, an active social entrepreneur from India, based in Berlin, German, whoworked in various global business projects and during the Coivd-19 pandemic, was a volunteer with an organization to spread the awareness message. Aside for sharing this experience, Summi has elaborated on how the pandemic affected global business and economy. Nabeel Abdalla Al Kaeath, head of Akkad Organization for Cultural Exchange between Iraq and Russia, speaking from Iraq about E-learning and challenges in Iraq and the Arab Countries and highlighting the importance of digital technologies in education.
Dhwani Jain, social entrepreneur has discussed the social impact of COVID-19 and the way ahead. She has been recognised as the ‘Global Change Maker’ and titled as Dhasu Womaniya by Niti Aayog powered Women Entrepreneurship Platform and has been awarded the “Leader Award” for displaying exemplary leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. The critical point Dhwani made was about digitalisation as a path to awareness and knowledge - access should be provided to everyone. The key lesson of pandemic she mentioned was about reestablishing coexisting with nature, addressing issues that became even more striking than before related to the poor, the elderly, the “invisible”, the females and their everyday struggles. People should live in harmony with themselves and nature, says Dhwani, and stand for each other, dropping religious and other stereotypes.
At the final part of the event Volker Tschapke, the President of honour of the Prussian Society and a consultant of BWA, shared his impressions about the summit and illustrated the importance of dreaming and dreaming big in order to be making things happen.
Purnima Anand, an international socio economic analysist and president of the BRICS international forum, who authored the idea of hosting the summit, provided her vision and impressions, again underlining that constructive cooperation is the best way out of the crisis. Purnima concludes: “Pandemic has brought up the best and the worst of the humanity: fortitude and fear, solidarity and suspicion, rapport and determination. This pandemic has exposed all the contradictions of our modern world”. Purnima believes cooperation is the best way forward that would help us achieve balance within communities, in international relations, and with the nature.
Covid-19: Global Impact Digital Summit Organizing committee is an international team representing BRICS International Forum (India), ADMIS Consultancy (UK), BWA (Germany), Association for Free Research and international Cooperation (Mozambique), Center for Social and Cultural Initiatives (Russia), International Business Acceleration Centre (Russia), Center for Geopolitical Studies (Serbia).
More information can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/ADMIS.consultancy/
Speech videos available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW8Vf96OGutcDH9d1Pxqbmw