CGTN Europe's Juliet Mann spoke to Belén Garijo, CEO of Merck Group, Swiss Foreign Minister Alexandre Fasel and the CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Sania Nishtar.
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00:00A lot of the discussions here have been around the health of the global economy and on trade flows.
00:05So it was quite fitting that one of the last sessions on this final fifth day of Davos
00:11was the US-China-EU triangle.
00:14Lots of high-level discussion about economic dependencies between the three blocs
00:20and also discussions about where that relationship will go.
00:23And one of those panelists was Belen Garijo.
00:26She's the CEO of the German company Merck.
00:29It's a German science and technology company that's investing heavily in China.
00:34And that's something she focused on when I spoke to her here in Davos.
00:39So our core business in biopharma is making a significant percentage of our presence.
00:49But China is changing as well, right?
00:52And it's becoming much closer to a developed market,
00:57developed market which is going to be driven by innovation.
01:00So we are developing our oncology portfolio in China as well.
01:04We are partnering with Chinese companies.
01:06We have used each and every opportunity to in-license
01:13from very highly innovative Chinese companies.
01:16I believe that China is a big promising country in terms of innovation
01:23and a growth opportunity for our three businesses.
01:26What does your focus on China mean, though,
01:29for your strategy with Europe and other parts of the world?
01:33At this time, we are evaluating
01:38how do we evolve our China-for-China approach and become even more local in China.
01:46But we are also evaluating what we call China for global.
01:50I am absolutely convinced that innovative companies that have originated in China
01:57will have the aspiration to globalize.
01:59So we need to understand what it means for us.
02:02How can we really partner and benefit from all the innovation
02:09that is emerging from China for our global business?
02:15I can't hear you, but perhaps you can hear me.
02:18And you'll recall that the big overriding theme here in Davos
02:21has been collaboration for the intelligent age
02:23with a particular focus on artificial intelligence.
02:26And the Davos set here, I've been looking at ways to make it all joined up
02:30to have a sort of global conversations about AI regulation.
02:35But Alexander Faisal, who is the State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of Switzerland,
02:38said to do that, you just need to have a global vision.
02:41And that's what we're doing.
02:42In the 1860s, when the telegraph was invented,
02:54the French called for an international conference to regulate
02:58what are we going to do with that technology, the telegraph.
03:02Switzerland had a tiny little diplomatic service back then.
03:06The federal state was founded in 1848.
03:09So very, very small diplomacy.
03:13And nobody who knew what the telegraph was.
03:17So the federal government then asked professors
03:20from the Federal Polytechnic in Zurich.
03:22They knew what it was because they were engineers and technologists.
03:26And so they were disguised as Swiss diplomats
03:30and went to this conference in Paris,
03:34out of which was created the International Telegraph Union, the ITU,
03:40which later became the ITU, the International Telecommunication Union.
03:45So technology has always been at the very center of diplomacy.
03:51So and now that's what we are living now again.
03:56And so we need to discuss how can we cooperate internationally
04:00to understand and develop those technologies.
04:05We need to work together in order to make sure
04:08that those technologies can also be used for the global commons.
04:13And we need to discuss how they should be regulated or not.
04:17So this is, again, a constant of diplomacy is technology and science.
04:25Well, business leaders here and big thinkers have been highlighting
04:29the need to strengthen partnerships,
04:31strengthen partnerships to really shape a sustainable and intelligent future.
04:37I spoke to Sania Nishtar, who's the CEO of Vaccine Alliance,
04:42Gavi, about the power of collaboration
04:45when it comes to addressing some of the world's most difficult health challenges.
04:51Within a month of the emergency being declared,
04:54we were able to order the largest consignment of vaccines.
04:58That wasn't the case when COVID-19 had struck
05:01because months elapsed before the funding was raised
05:05in order to catalyze the development of vaccines and place orders for them.
05:09So during MPOCS, we acted very rapidly.
05:15But this is not a time for countries,
05:16regional entities, and global institutions to be complacent.
05:20We need to make sure that we are completely aligned
05:26on what needs to happen when an emergency strikes.
05:29There is no room for competitive behaviors.
05:32We must put our egos in our handbags.
05:34We must learn to collaborate a lot better.
05:39I love that line.
05:40I think that's the line of Davos for me.
05:42Put your egos in your handbags.
05:44But, you know, what we've heard about here in Davos 2025
05:48is about the health, an update, a health check, if you like,
05:52about Europe's economy and the potential that's there.
05:55We've had an insight into what Donald Trump's
05:57second administration is going to mean for global trade.
06:01We talked about the opportunities and the challenges when it comes to AI.
06:05We've heard from the United Nations pointing the finger at big oil in particular,
06:10saying that they're backsliding on green commitments.
06:14And more than ever, we've heard the voice of the global south.
06:17So there has been a lot, a lot of insightful discussion,
06:20a lot of big conversations, a lot for global leaders
06:22and the political and economic elites to think about
06:25as they now wind their way back down the mountain and back to their real lives.