DEVELON

At the 2nd Doosan Global Business Forum held in Edinburgh, Scotland on July 19 (local time), global political leaders, scholars, and CEOs of global enterprises gathered together to review the global economy and diagnose a range of geopolitical issues. The invited speakers included First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Professor Paul Krugman of Princeton University, Professor Tyler Cowen of George Mason University and author of The Great Recession, Steven Koonin, Director of NYU Center for Urban Science & Progress(former Under Secretary of Energy with the Obama Administration). Also distingushed guests including CEOs of several global infrastructure and machinery enterprises from United States, UK, Germany, Japan, Brazil, UAE, and many other places attended the event.

The forum was a rare occasion that brought together opinion leaders from diverse fields, who otherwise have few chances to get together, in Edinburgh, the venue of The Open Championship (The British Open), of which Doosan (Chairman Yongmaan Park) is a title sponsor.

In his welcome and closing remarks, Chairman Park said, “We are still facing an environment of poor predictability, so our future will be determined by how we cope with this challenging environment, which hinders companies from making sustainable growth.” He added, “Integrating the trend of innovative ICT convergence with the traditional machinery and infrastructure industry will generate new business opportunities.” In her special remarks that followed congratulatory remarks by First Minister Salmond, former U.S. Secretary of State Rice offered her diagnosis of the international political situation and various geopolitical issues.

In the subsequent session on ‘Prospects for the Global Business Environment’, Profs. Krugman and Cowen presented their insightful analyses on the outlook for global economic recovery, the impact of the aging population on the global economy, and the efficacy of fiscal policy.

In the session on ‘The New Era of Connectivity’, which addressed the trend of ICT convergence, Dr. Stefan Ferber, director of Bosch Software Innovations GmbH, and Steven Koonin, Director of NYU Center for Urban Science & Progress, introduced the global trend of ICT convergence, and discussed the outlook concerning the changes that ICT convergence will bring to the manufacturing and energy industries.

Doosan held the 1st Global Business Forum in Manchester, England last year, which was attended by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria, and Prof. Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard University.