Alliance President Monique Leroux with Globe and Mail editor David Walmsley

While the theme of the forum is “the fourth revolution” - a reference to networked technologies - ways to counter the economic slump brought about by the petrol crisis and political instability are primordial to world leaders and businesses at the forum, who are looking to connect resources.

Monique Leroux: “Striking up authentic, sustainable and effective public-private partnerships, linking up the initiatives of corporations, public instances, local governments and citizens is the main subject of discussions here at the forum. International organisations such as the Alliance will play a key role in this. All agree that such partnerships would help to develop much-needed education and infrastructure to start with. It is hard not to see the opportunity for co-ops in these fields, all the more since we have been acknowledged for our potential in managing infrastructure, in B20 recommendations.”

Innovation in networked technologies and platforms will be essential to facilitate public-private partnerships. At a high level interactive session, Ms Leroux shared recent progress of Desjardins Group in finance and fin tech, such as the ExcentriQ network, Desjardins-lab, and avenues of co-operation currently on the table, such as with Hackathon. Check back for further WEF updates, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook! Have a comment? Please tell us - edigest@ica.coop