-The Economic Forum presented an ambitious digital project at the Annual Meeting 2022 in Davos to leverage the metaverse movement to enable more effective public private partnership while promoting decarbonization

-The project which is known as the “Global Collaboration Village” will leverage new technology to accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions to address emerging risk and crisis

Metaverse has become a buzz investment word that everybody wants to know more about. It is becoming one technology trend that will shape the way we live, work, and entertain ourselves. Just to give you a financial background on this investment trend, the giant tech companies (Amazon, Meta, Nividia, Shopify, Google and a few others) invested over $10 billion in 2021. In 2022 we expect at least $ 50 billion going into the Metaverse space from VCs alone and by 2025, the total value of augmented and virtual reality products, including the Oculus, is forecast to hit $36 billion, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). The fashion and the health industries are two sectors where we are seeing massive investment and early adoption.  

In this short article we are staying away from the digital noise, and the trendy metaverse platforms, and rather focus of one application of Metaverse that aims to improve the way we partner, do business interactively and decarbonize our lives.

For over half a century, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has been the international organization for public-private partnership and the Annual Meeting is the indispensable platform where international leaders work together on global challenges while trying to shape a more sustainable and inclusive future.  During the WEC 2022 Annual Meetings that took place at the end of May, WEF launched its Metaverse platform in partnership with Accenture and Microsoft. The platform is called Global Collaboration Village as it wants to become the virtual space of choice of public-private cooperation. It will leverage AI, Machine Learning, and Augmented Reality technologies to create immersive spaces where individuals, government, and civil society organizations and businesses can convene, create, and act on the world’s most pressing challenges.

Conclusion:

Having worked in international development for multilateral banks for over 10 years, the only thing I can say is that this new development is much needed. This helps us transition towards a a more sustainable and digitally based marketplace. Davos Collaboration Village is a powerful development which will help cut many transactions cost, travels and unnecessary in person meetings. Overall, this metaverse platform will help catalyze effective collective actions geared towards shared prosperity and green growth. The partnership with the private sector is real and is based on leveraging each partner’s strength and comparative advantage.