Conference Presentation, Panel, Fireside Chat
Around the World in 60 Minutes: Creating Global Prosperity
- The 18th annual Milken Institute Global Conference convened in April 2015 with 200 panels, 700 panelists from 60 countries, and 4,000 attendees to address global prosperity and job creation.
- A specific "job creators" task force was established with the goal of generating one billion net new jobs globally over the next two decades.
- Conference Chair Mike Milken defined prosperity using a formula combining human capital, social capital, real assets, and the multiplier effect of financial capital.
- President Paul Kagame emphasized that trade and investment, rather than aid, are the primary pillars for development in Africa.
- Tony Blair defined the "art of leadership" as the capacity to say "no" to popular trends and unpopular decisions to maintain effective governance and global connectivity.
- Strive Masiyiwa highlighted that 63% of the world's unutilized arable land is located in Africa, where women produce over 60% of food yet lack access to land and capital.
- Masiyiwa noted that 7-8% economic growth in Africa has failed to reach the majority, with only 29% of the youth having stable jobs.
- Nouriel Roubini warned that automation and artificial intelligence could displace one billion jobs globally in the coming decades, necessitating a shift toward capital-intensive, labor-saving technologies.
- Roubini identified three stages of job displacement: offshoring of low-value labor to Asia, replacement of manufacturing jobs by robots, and replacement of service sector jobs by software.
- Kathy Matsui projected that India's economic growth will outpace China's for the foreseeable future, while warning that Asian economies face rapid demographic aging.
- Matsui proposed that the "silver economy" and lifelong learning models are critical for aging developed nations like Japan, where the traditional education-to-work model is obsolete for 80-100 year lifespans.
- Matsui identified the liberalization of labor migration as the single most effective economic lever to increase global welfare and job creation, despite current political backlash.
- Strive Masiyiwa added global health resilience and pandemic surveillance to the list of critical infrastructure requirements, noting that weak local health systems become global risks.
- Strive Masiyiwa cited a reduction in mother-to-child HIV transmission in sub-Saharan Africa from 90% to 2% over two decades as a transformative public health achievement.
- Nouriel Roubini linked gender equality to economic growth, estimating that equalizing female and male labor participation rates in Japan could add 7.2 million jobs and increase GDP by 13%.
- The panel agreed that resource-rich nations often suffer from a "resource curse" while resource-poor nations like Japan, South Korea, and Singapore succeeded by investing heavily in human capital and innovation.
- Tony Blair stated that long-term stability in the Middle East requires replacing the ideology of extremism with open-minded governance and robust institutions.
- The panelists concluded that successful economies in the 21st century must prioritize education, infrastructure, science and technology, and openness to migration and diverse ideas.
- A final list of ten strategic imperatives was compiled: leadership, migration, trade, infrastructure, education, lifelong learning, medical research, public health, environment, and tolerance.
- The 19th annual global conference is scheduled to take place from May 1st through 3rd.