How can economies move past recurring disruptions? This session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 examines strategies for resilience, long‑term stability, and sustained growth amid ongoing global shocks.
Moderated by Bloomberg’s John Micklethwait, the panel argued that recurring shocks are now the norm, making resilience a core economic strategy rather than a cyclical response. Latvia’s President Edgars Rinkēvičs framed resilience as both economic and security policy: Latvia’s biggest shock was the post-Soviet transition, while today’s is “Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” prompting rapid energy and grid diversification and even 5% defense spending to reinforce investor confidence.
UN Trade and Development’s Rebeca Grynspan highlighted trade’s surprising durability in 2025—driven by “AI and digital” and regionalism—but warned of widening inequality and a “silent crisis” in sovereign debt: 3.4 billion people live in countries spending more on debt service than health and education, “defaulting on development.” Lebanon’s Amer Bisat echoed debt as a systemic risk, likening the global economy to a bicycle: “If we stop, we fall,” fearing a global downturn exposes accumulated imbalances. Ethiopia’s Finance Minister Ahmed Shide Mohamed described a comprehensive reform agenda centered on diversification, institution-building, and regional connectivity, while stressing predictable global support as “not charity, it is an investment.”
On AI, speakers balanced promise with disruption. Grynspan urged planning for “the losers,” Bisat warned against repeating trade liberalization’s neglected downsides, and Latvia emphasized innovation alongside security and cultural preservation for small languages.
Thank you very much. I'm John Micklethwait, the editor in chief of Bloomberg, and it's my job to moderate the session, which is economies beyond the shock cycle, although I think pretty much every economy is in the shock cycle at the moment. And some sessions, I think don't really need much of an introduction. I think in some parts of the world and we have some examples on the stage, the idea that your economy, your government, even indeed your entire country could be turned upside down by a shock has always been a persistent threat. And we have some countries here which have lived with that. But what's interesting about the current world is you have places that perhaps never imagined that they could suffer a shock, who now see themselves as living under the volcano, if you want, in the era of Covid era of Donald Trump. I think we can all agree virtually everyone is in a state of play when it comes to shocks. There are a few more stable countries in the world than Denmark. But I think things have been rather rough for them recently. So how do nations build economies that can endure geopolitical disruption and sustain long term progress? What do you need to do in terms of fiscal stability, human capital, digital digital innovation and so on to withstand future shocks? I'm going to introduce our four excellent panelists we have right next door to me. We have Edgars Rinkevics who is the president of Latvia. We were just discussing then we have Rebecca grynszpan, who's the secretary general of the United Nations Conference and Development, better known as Unctad. Beyond that, we have, Amr, who's the Minister of Economy and Trade of Lebanon and also a long veteran of the private sector. And finally, at the end, we have Ahmed Mohamed, who is the Minister of finance for Ethiopia. You're all very welcome, I should say. It was one piece of housekeeping to those people who are following on the streaming channels that if you are sharing about this, you should apparently use the hashtag W.F.. 26. I said to the panelists that I would begin with the same question to each of them, which the idea is we'll keep it rather brief, but there is many, many kinds of shocks that different countries can go through. But I wanted each of you, perhaps, to say what you thought the biggest shock your country had been through. Slightly different in Rebecca's case, but. And then secondly, what is the one you were most worried at the moment? And then we will start a general conversation. And I should stress this is a general conversation. So it's it's not one with long prepared speeches. President.
Thank you very much. I think that we are really coming from very different countries with very different backgrounds and experiences. But let me say that one shock that I definitely want to mention was actually the transition of Latvia from the Soviet style economic model to free market. I think that, back in the 90s, when, many reforms had to be introduced, when the way of thinking had to be changed, that was quite a profound shock, but also quite an opportunity. And then, of course, we became EU member back in 2004. And then we realized that actually the learning curve has not ended because we went through the financial crisis of 2008, 2009, in a very, very, I would say, complicated way through also very painful, reforms when it comes to the present situation. What's the shock that we are going through? Let's face it, that's, Russia's aggression against Ukraine. And actually, now, as we see the world as we knew from the end of the Cold War is ending, we are in a whatever it's called, process of rupture or process of transition. But we know that something new is emerging. And to figure out where you are as a small nation, both from security and also from economic point of view, is something that probably the decision makers back in Riga, not only in Riga, are currently trying to figure out.
Rebecca.
Well, remember that I was in government for a long time. That's true. And I was part of the team that negotiated our debt in the 80s, in the lost decade of Latin America. But I won't talk about that. I think that the major shock I have I had to deal with is the Black Sea. Yes. Initiative. You know, when trade was stopped, when the we had a to preclude our really food insecurity crisis in the world because prices were increasing incredibly in the markets. And so restoring trade for Ukraine to be able to export was really a dissolution. And we did we were able I was part of the group that negotiated that, and we were able to bring down restoring trade. We were able to bring down a food index prices in 23%. I think that every 1% increase in, in, in the food index is 10 million people below the poverty line. So 23% down really precluded an insecurity crisis in the world. Food crisis. What I fear most, you know, coming a silent crisis, that is the debt crisis. The debt crisis. Yes. 3.4 billion people are living in countries that are spending more on servicing the debt than on health and education. They don't want to default on the debt, but they are defaulting on development because nobody is helping them. You know, to have the development and the debt being paid. And so this is my major fear.
We amazing.
Thank you. It's amazing to follow Rebecca because literally I'm going to say something very similar. The traumatic experience of Lebanon. Absolutely traumatic. Devastating was a financial crisis of 2019, which came as a result of precisely a buildup of debt and an unsustainable amount of spending. That was just unsustainable. And it led to this massive explosion of debt that eventually led to what is known as a sudden stop. Nobody wanted to lend us any more. And the economy completely collapsed and collapsed in a way that is unprecedented, like 80% drop in nominal GDP, 95% drop in the currency, massive rise in unemployment and poverty. And and, I mean, it's a defining moment in the country. And we're spending the last six years trying to live through that. That traumatic experience worries me. Is a repeat of this elsewhere, right? I mean, it's sort of a piece of information that people don't focus on. Is that the prosperity that the global economy has gone through in the last is, has been a record, except for the period between Covid, which was an externally led, shock. The global economy has been growing nonstop since 2008. It's the longest recovery. That recovery has led to significant amount of excesses. There's enormous amounts of debt that is being created that is accumulating both in developing countries but also in developed countries. My nightmare is that a repeat of that story occurs as well, is that we wake up a few years from now and realize we've we've spent much more than we produced, and we get a similar kind, God forbid. Obviously the Lebanon hopefully is an extreme case, but we get a similar situation.
Mr. Mohamed, your chance both. What is the what is the shock that you have lived through that has been the worst? And what do you fear now?
Thank you very much. For the last seven years, under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, we have charted a comprehensive reform in the country, both political reform, economic reform, social reform and enhanced regional economic integration and peace building. The fundamental issue is that we have faced some shocks, definitely through this last seven years. The Covid shock was one one and the strongest and drought also, we are largely agrarian country. Drought also affects geopolitical conflict that happened between Ukraine and Russia also has has deteriorated our external sector. The debt vulnerability that we have inherited has also was challenged. So the fundamental path we have charted was this needs a comprehensive approach of building resilience. So resilience becomes at the center of economic development strategy for the country in terms of diversifying our source of growth. For example, droughts used to affect a lot in the country. We have invested a lot on agricultural sector and the the the fundamental growth in agricultural sector is significantly enhancing our food sovereignty and food security capacity of the country. The investment on on human development, investment on infrastructure connectivity and the comprehensive macroeconomic reform has also enabled to build resilience in terms of enhanced revenue mobilization capacity, improving the efficiency of public enterprises. In general, the development delivery capacity of the state has significantly improved, and we have also significantly reduced our debt risk level by. As part of our macroeconomic reform, we are negotiating successfully with our creditor countries as part of G20 common framework. The reform support by IMF, world Bank is also enabling us in terms of, successful reform support. So domestic ownership, strong leadership, diversification of source of growth has enabled Ethiopia to to reduce its risk. Vulnerability in these areas in a way also enhances significantly our resilience capacity. So comprehensive approach to institution building to economic diversification, development of social cohesion and enhanced regional solidarity in infrastructure and connectivity are enabling Ethiopia to to navigate shocks not only for itself, but also it is supporting the region in terms of connectivity and regional economic integration, which will also support other countries in addressing their vulnerabilities. Thank you.
Very quickly. Just in terms of what you worry about now, what is what is the kind of I mean, Ethiopia has gone through a great deal, but what is is there a particular thing you worry about most now?
For us, the most important issue is to sustain, deepen the comprehensive macroeconomic reform and achieve a sustainable growth path, which we are already embarking on. The geopolitical tensions. And, we the risk is global and responsibility has to be shared. There has to be, you know, the multilateralism, global solidarity, enhanced development, cooperation is very important. And transition has to be well planned. It has to be foresighted. Otherwise, some of the disruptions that is happening in terms of aid is affecting like health sector and education sector. Otherwise, Ethiopia will continue to work with our development partners while building our local capability also sustainably. Thank you.
Thank you very much. It's interesting, we had Russia here and we had two different versions of debt and the and the global economy. And then we have geopolitics and the economy on in in terms of the risks going forward. I'm intrigued, particularly with, Rebecca. And the minister is just on this issue about resilience for the for the kind of worries you have about debt. What, what what makes a difference there. Maybe you go first and then we're.
Well, first of all, we have been surprised, positively surprised about the resilience of trade and the economy in 2025. Yes. And I think that they are important structural reasons for that, not only short term, that will stay south south trade and south growth, let's put it that way. AI and digital has been very important for trade and it will continue. And regionalism. Yes. The countries are coming together and they are agreeing on trade within the rules of WTO. 72% still of trade happens within WTO rules. My problem is inequality. You know, there are countries that are really lagging behind. They don't have the instruments and they don't have the possibility to invest in the infrastructure, in the skills, and in the AI digital governance that is needed for the new world. So the concentration of the benefits is a problem. You know, we see in the aggregate good news, but when we go in the disaggregation of who is benefiting, there are countries that are being, you know, that are behind and that will make stability a problem in the future.
Can I just ask you, I was very intrigued by one thing. I thought in Lebanon, your immediate sense of a shock would be, I don't know, another Israeli invasion. More. You live in a complicated region, but you were more worried about debt.
I am, I am because at the end of the day, a small open economy like Lebanon, like most countries, including Latvia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, we're all small, small, open economies. We depend on the word depending. And so the metaphor in my mind, the image in my mind is that we're living in a world right now. I hate vulgar images. We're going to use them anyway. Like like a bicycle. If so long as we're moving, everything is fine. Like we can actually get out of the imbalances that we have. But the minute we stop, the minute the bicycle stop, we fall. Right? And the question to my mind is literally the global economy, especially small open economy, are fine. The pleasant surprise that Rebecca is talking about is happening because the global economy keeps on chugging along, doing quite well. The fear is that it stops. Right. And then and this sort of this question to me is this really raises the question where, where is it going to continue because of technology, which seems to be the case, technology seems to be an amazing driver of growth at this stage. That would be the good story that we can live with technology developing, allowing us to adjust to the trade shocks, to the changing global order that we're living in or God forbid, the trade disruptions eventually come home to roost and the bicycle stops. And if we stop, I think we have a serious problem, right? If we get, God forbid, a global recession, I think the imbalances that that will come back and haunt us. So obviously we're rooting for the former. As a as a Lebanese who depends on the rest of the world, we're we're rooting for global economy continues chugging along, doing quite well. Trade disruptions get adjusted to in a smart, good way, the way they have been in the last couple of years. My fear is that this ends with with a with a weaker global economy that will hurt us.
President Rinkevich I was.
For some countries the bicycle stopped. Yes. And that's.
I suppose, to you to continue the analogy, especially having just been to Riga. I mean, in your case, it's a case of the bicycle being knocked over by a large Russian bear. Is that the.
No bicycle is no upend. up and going well and and running. No. Look.
Do you worry about these kind of economic risks in the same way as the other three panels do panelists.
Do I think that, that's where the beauty of this panel comes that we are a bit different. Yes. Look, a couple of years ago, I would say that our biggest worry was energy dependency on Russia, both when it comes to oil and gas and electricity. What we have done just from a resilience point of view, but also from national security point of view, we actually starting from 2017, but especially after 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine for the second time, we decided that we are diversifying and not buying Russian gas and oil. And actually it went through quite well. Also last year in February, we decoupled from Russian and Belarusian electricity grid and connected to the European electricity grid. So we understand all the risks and we act accordingly. But I would also say that, definitely, we feel, some impact from the proximity of the war, from the economic point of view. Or we feel also that from the investment point of view, however, already being in the first year of, of the war, I think that this adjustment, is also there.
Does it politically make it easier is the wrong word, but. Well, it is easier in some ways. It is possible to go to Latvia and say, look, we it may cost money, but we need to get rid of our dependence on Russian oil or we need to things that would have been very complicated before the war and now much easier to sell to.
You know how much it took for the Baltic States to desynchronize from Russian and Belarusian electricity grid? 16 actually, the first idea was back in 2009, and only the Russian invasion accelerated that process quite well. The same story with, the oil dependency back in 2000, 1516, we were 100% dependent. Yes, to some extent, everyone understands that things must be done. But of course, there is a cost. But then when you see the real need, then also there is the decision. Right now also, there is another thing that, NATO countries are doing, but but Latvia has reached 5% defense spending this year well ahead of the schedule. We agreed in The Hague last year also, not only for security reasons, but also to make sure that investors understand this is NATO territory, it's safe to invest and we see some investment coming back.
I can't resist asking you. I'll do it very quickly. Greenland also NATO territory does. What's happening there? Does that does that disturb you in terms of what?
Well, look, you know, as, good friend of both the United States and Denmark, I very much hope that this issue is going to be resolved via dialogue. I was, very happy to hear President Trump saying that the option to use the forces of the table. I very much hope that we can address those concerns that the United States have through the collective defense framework within NATO. I know that ambassadors, NATO people are working on that, but definitely, I also hope that, we have had already cases, some disagreements within the alliance. If you look back to 1949, that, even if currently there seem to be a very, very harsh rhetoric, we will be able to find the agreement where Greenland is being part of Denmark is going to be part of Denmark. And the legitimate Arctic security concerns, security issues will be resolved.
My apologies to the other panelists. It's difficult not to ask at the moment.
Maybe that was for your your article.
I have. Well, tomorrow. Tomorrow I have to I have to interview Mark Ruta Minister Mohammed all the same that go back to to the world in which the president was describing that the ability to take the population with you in Ethiopia, you've had all kinds of shocks. You've had all kinds of both financial and political problems. But the sort of reforms you're talking about and you very eloquently described, how easy is it been to to persuade people in Ethiopia that you need this resilience?
It's our capability which is going to last with us. What we have learned in recent times is, the holistic capacity in all fronts, in institution building on diversification of source of growth, making public sector more efficient than to deliver. It is very important. And, Ethiopia is a big a big country in terms of population is 130 million. Huge country, fast growing economy. With the current macroeconomic reform, we are addressing the development challenges of the country. But the shocks and the risks are global and regional and it affects all of us, whether it is disease or climate or geopolitical tensions, whether it is trade disruptions, whether it is declining. Oda and global solidarity on debt sustainability agenda is all very important for us. And, thanks to our sustainable and predictable development partners. But the countries like Ethiopia, which is coming out of challenges going into sustainable development, is building big, big market for the region as well. For example, Ethiopia is a country which which is neighboring a lot of countries in the Horn of Africa, our in our major investments like infrastructure or energy generation are also supporting our countries. We are exporting energy to Kenya. We are supporting exporting energy to to to Djibouti, to Sudan, most of our transport networks are very much linked to our neighbors. Ethiopian Airline is doing a fantastic job in terms of connectivity regionally. So this is also increasing resilience at regional level as well. But since the risk is global, there has to be shared responsibility as well. And that shared responsibility has to be predictable. And when there is even a shift, there has to be a proper transition. So I think predictable global environment is very important for countries like Ethiopia in terms of successfully moving forward with our reform agenda, which is building our resilience, our capability to respond to shocks, whether it is domestic or international.
Last year you had, I think, the opposite to predictability in the sense you suddenly had massive cuts in aid, which you talked about, and you had the seesaw of tariffs and things. Is it I mean, is that the main thing you want? You just want to know what the rest of the world wants from Ethiopia.
What we want is support to our to our diversification and resilience agenda so that we sustainable build our own capability. So it's not charity, it is an investment, for example, health sector, predictable investment globally is to the best of the whole world, to the best of the region, because disease burdens everywhere is going to affect other countries as well. So I think the shared solidarity and win win global development is very important.
I'm going to come quickly now and I'll come to Rebecca. But it strikes me if any country in the world and all the countries I've visited, resilience is what one associates with Lebanon, because you seem to have had every single thing thrown at you that Ethiopia has also had a lot. When you when you look at what made Lebanon or parts of it extremely resilient, things like the private sector, what, what what do you think was the key?
I'm going to give you a bit of a secret. Lebanese hate the word resilience because we've actually it's become associated with they can take more shocks. Let it be. But the reality is there is something and there are a bunch of other economists. I mean, I think Costa Rica is as well. I mean, there's a number of small open economies. And if you look at them and I'm generalizing here, but if you look at them, there are certain basics that has allowed the ability to absorb shocks and turn extreme negative shocks into something that we can live with and survive with, one of which is, the markets do work. Private sectors do tend to absorb shocks quite well, allowing the private sector to play an important role. Having them as being I mean, Lebanon, unlike the rest of the region, has an extremely weak public sector, but an extremely strong private sector. The rest of the region has a complete opposite, by the way. So having a private sector that is that is dynamic, strong balance sheet, entrepreneurial, diversified quite is quite important. Second is, is the the the what we call the core of Lebanon, the the soft capital of the country. Right. In our case, it's the languages, it's the, external linkages and connectivity. It's an unbelievably large diaspora that is quite strong that we're able to to use quite well. Again, other countries have a similar model, Armenia being a good example of that. Greece. Right. So that's the second thing that I think has allowed us to, to, to, to to prosper. And third, and I mean, in our case, it's also luck. It's where we are in a, we're in a region that what happens in the Gulf matters a lot to us. And the Gulf is going through a transformative and extremely positive, transformative moment, right, that has been helping us because of our linkages to them. So part of it is private, strong private sector, strong soft capital and luck.
I'm going to come sometime to Riga, which I think is interesting also as an entrepreneurial center. But Rebecca, you look at all this frequently and you also have the Costa Rica experience. What, what what do you see that keeps economies being resilient?
Well, can I take the the point of shared responsibility because, you know, part of the resilience have come also from a the international community taking important decisions that allowed for that to happen. In 2008, it was the G20 in the financial, in the financial crisis in the North, in the Covid. It was the common framework and the SDR, the special drawing rights. So I would like to see the international community having more instruments to be able to stabilize, you know, the the global economy when shocks.
But that is not as we, some of us heard this afternoon, that is not the, the direction of travel at the moment amongst large countries.
But I really think that the IMF and the world Bank has already instruments that they can use much more. They can the world Bank. I think that they are doing a lot of it. But the crowding in private investment for the countries that are not receiving any so they can be more resilient in the future, will be an important thing. Yes. You know, lowering the risk, that's something that they can do without, you know, the US or probably the US will be also interested on that. And the IMF to, you know, they can really do better in terms of the quotas and the, you know, the, the emergency, lending that when countries enter into liquidity crisis. So that won't come as a crisis to those countries that they can do, and that will give a lot of resilience to the world. And they can do that. Despite all what we heard today, and with respect to to the countries, I, I really believe that the resilience of the small and medium sized countries come from the interdependence, you know, alone, they don't have any resilience. You know, they need the world to be resilient. They need the trade and they need the investment. So a country like Costa Rica cannot have any resilience. If the world will shut down to Costa Rica, yeah, we will collapse. Yes. So and can I say just one more thing. Social cohesion inside the countries sometimes help a lot. When we were in the in the crisis of the 80s, it was the institutions of the country. Yes. And the capacity to continue, unified project for the future. What allowed us to be more resilient to these shocks than other countries around us?
President, can I can I put to you I mean, just to take some of the issues that Rebecca just brought up and you all did, soft capital, you know, Riga, as I said, was famously one of the great trading centers of Europe. And yet it was very suppressed during that, I would argue, during the Soviet Union, you had this issue about regional integration. You've got the Baltics, but you've all been very open on the whole. But how important is that to you? And then finally, this issue of social cohesion, it's very obvious that you have divisions between Russian speakers and non-Russian speakers. What explain resilience against that?
Those are three questions I will try to now, sir.
Yeah.
And it's very dangerous to talk with you because you know quite well. So I have to be then factually accurate as well. But, frankly, you know, I very much agree that small and medium countries, are to some extent resilient because they are part of wider trade network. For us. It was obvious, after we regained independence from the Soviet Union that, we must join the European Union as one of the largest trading blocs in the world. It took it took some time, it took some quite adjustment. And of course, in the current world, with so many challenges and also during financial crisis, during Covid crisis, also during all the geopolitical turmoils, this kind of belonging to one of the largest trade, political, economic blocs for a small country like Latvia, I would say is a blessing. Well, sometimes, of course, we would love to see, some, some policies in Brussels in a different way, but that's life. On, on, on the kind of cohesion issue. Well, I think that what we are seeing and to some extent I would say, and it's not only the Latvian issue that's broader issue, the Covid years, the financial crisis now, the geopolitical turmoil and the war has brought many cracks in the cohesion. It's not only about, you know, ethnic, issues. It's actually about, way how sometimes the governments are trying to take into account very different points of view with social media. Now, everyone, almost everyone is a journalist. Everyone can pass his or her message. And then trying to figure out how to make this, let's say, uneasy situation manageable is sometimes very difficult. Yes, the war in Ukraine, Russia's aggression has brought also quite a debate back home in Latvia. But, you know, those are not only Russians. You have Russian speaking Ukrainians, you have Belarusians, you have different people. And indeed, this is sometimes challenging how to how to manage that debate and how to manage that cohesion in that or another direction.
Can I ask you it's interesting, all of you at different times mention different versions of technology and how that impacted. I'm going to throw this at Rebecca first because then you can think about it, for the other countries. But if you talk to most people in Davos this year, you have this immense thing of artificial intelligence, which seems to offer great hope, maybe improving agriculture in Ethiopia, maybe a whole improving the delivery of medicines in many different parts. But actually in terms of shocks, you've also got people here saying, I interviewed the head of anthropic yesterday. He's talking about 50% of entry level jobs disappearing within five years. And white collar that that is a huge that is going to be a huge shock coming towards us. So maybe Rebecca, do you want to say something about that. And then I will come to each of the the three more national, if I can put it.
I don't have a clear answer there, I have to admit, because on the one hand, the new technologies have an enormous potential. Yes. And, when when you read a little bit of history about technology, every time a new technology that is widespread, you know, comes, there is this fear that it will destroy employment. And at the end, we don't see that in aggregate terms that that happens, you know, but what is true is that large sectors lose. And maybe the question is, what are we going to do with the ones that lose so we can raise all boats and many, you know, if you I have talked to many, you know, leaders in the world. And when I asked them, even in my country, what would you do different. They will say I will put more attention to the losers. So maybe this is, a call for us to start thinking how we are going to deal with that in will it be a shorter work hours? Because that has happened with every technology. We have shortened the working week. Yes, it is more trading. It is a some form of distribution of income because concentration is very high in these technologies. But maybe this is that is the big question. Yes. We won't be able to stop technology. We don't want to we want to use it for good. But probably we need to think from now on, you know, much in a much serious way how we are going to deal with those that may lose in this process and be more aware of that than before.
Mr. Bishop, can I come to you next? You know, Lebanon has withstood many things. Can it withstand open AI?
And by the way, I just wanted to sort of literally the reinforce what Rebecca mentioned, because I think, honestly, managing the downside is going to be key. And that's very much her alley. But but we did not manage trade liberalization well enough as a macro concept. It worked through the 90s extremely well. It created the unprecedented prosperity. We did not manage the downside, the deindustrialization in developed countries, the income inequality, the environmental damage. And that led to the backlash that we're seeing right now. And the hope is that the same thing doesn't happen with AI right now. It's going to be a positive. There's no way in my mind it's going to be a positive. But we have to be very careful about figuring out the losers in it. But at the same time, and this is the to answer your question on, I think we also need to manage the the upside as well. Lebanon is going to benefit from from AI. Why? Because it actually makes us better at the things that we're good at. We're good at IP, intellectual, intellectual property. We're good at, we're educated, we speak languages. We're excellent architects, designers, artists. Right. All the things that makes us special. This thing is going to make us even better, right? It could replace us. I doubt it, because there's this soft capital thing that very few people, very few countries have. So if we know how to use it properly, I think it could make the creative economy that is at the backbone of Lebanon, at the high value added manufacturing that's the backbone of Lebanon. Even better.
Lebanese architect about to redesign the British Museum, for instance.
Let's do it.
Ethiopia. I mean, just the promise. You know, some people would look at Ethiopia and say, look, maybe this is a place where AI could allow Ethiopia to to leapfrog and to deal with these shocks in a different way. Do you agree with that.
Regarding AI? Under the leadership of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia has championed early more than five years ago, we have established the first artificial intelligence institute that even at a time, even artificial intelligence conceptually was not mainstreamed. Ethiopia has an institution that was the foresight leadership of the Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, that is part of the broader digital transformation agenda, digital development agenda as a source of growth, as well as as enabler of enablers of all other activities of the economy, in the state, in society, in services as well. So now also we are opening the first artificial, the first artificial intelligence university in Africa, which is going to be championed by, which is already championed by the Prime Minister. So we have adopted early artificial intelligence, and we are building skills, institutions, capabilities. In fact, Ethiopia is now facilitating other African countries in terms of sharing its own experience, in terms of establishing artificial intelligence institution. For us, we believe it's it's an enabler of growth and an enabler of also job creation. The net effect of job creation of jobs, it depends on the evolution of the economy, what's happening in the economy. If you become more efficient in one sector because of artificial intelligence, you can create so many jobs in other sectors by by diversifying your economy. So, so Ethiopia is moving on the right direction in terms of artificial intelligence capability and in terms of digital development. That is also improving significantly government service efficiency, digitalization of government, government services. We are also enabling us to facilitate more FDI to facilitate private sector development in the, in the, in the economy and also in targeting social programs, National ID program, the digitalization of financial services, financial inclusion. This is also significantly enabling poverty reduction and development, which is widely shared as a result of enabling this technology. Thank you.
What about Latvia?
I think that, you know, when it comes to all those kind of fears about artificial intelligence pushing out people from jobs, I think we have had those kind of fears back in history. Y2K problem, dot com economy. The truth is that we see fast developing technology, we see some risks and we do not know where we are heading. What I'm quite confident is that, to some extent, as AI is developing, I think we will see some readjustment and definitely, yes, there are going to be some, some changes in, in jobs, but the new ones will will appear then. I also see that, to some extent, there are, various aspects when it comes to artificial intelligence. We look at artificial intelligence as the great economic, generator. It helps to, to make decisions to to design many things very quickly. We see artificial intelligence as a serious risk also from security point of view. But we also see artificial intelligence, at least as a small nation. Also, how, we can use artificial intelligence to preserve also national identity and culture, because artificial intelligence currently is about big languages and then about small language. So there are there is variety. From our point of view, we are seizing all the opportunities that we have. We have National Artificial Intelligence Centre, and we are trying also to push as much as we can. Our, our abilities, to, to to stay as much as we can. On the top. However, the European Union has some serious challenges, and we know those regulations, we know copyrights, and we also know the privacy laws. And that's where I see also that we are going to have within the European Union a very serious debate, whether we keep those or we push more in the development side.
And on those kind of issues, is there a coalition of small countries within the within the EU that makes that a difference?
Not yet. I think that, we see no, we see to some extent some kind of internal competition within the European Union on one hand. On the other hand, we see this kind of feeling, that we are losing as the European Union in general. And we have this kind of acknowledgement. We must do something. We acknowledge that we must do something. But as always in the European Union, it's very difficult to agree what exactly we should do. And that's how we lose sometimes time and also the resources.
We have sadly run out of time, not least because I think our timing was itself somewhat disrupted by another another shock, which arrived in a in a suit from America. But I would like to thank all of you very much. And for me, I think what has been incredibly interesting is the idea, as Rebecca put, of, of small economies, the way that the necessity of remaining part of something bigger and that regional integration and the ability of larger groups. Unctad is one example. But how important those are to, to, to smaller economies in order to withstand these shocks, even if some of these shocks are invited in from beyond. So, Minister Mohamed, thank you very much. Mr.. Thank you very much, Rebecca Greenspan at Unctad. President. Thank you very much, all of you. And we have ended exactly on time. Thank you very much.