The St. Gallen Symposium, an annual gathering of current and future leaders from around the world, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. At the event, a total of 1.000 participants from the campus of St. Gallen University, an international center in Singapore, ten Swiss embassies around the world and elsewhere online, held a three-day intergenerational dialogue.
Catherine Chen, senior corporate vice president and member of Huawei's BOD, spoke at the student-led initiative on the morning of May 7. Other keynote speakers from the private sector include Christophe Franz, Chairman of BOD at Roche, Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Daimler, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Roshni Nadar Malhotra, CEO of HCL Corporation.
Participants, including political leaders such as Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and representatives of transnational organizations, such as the President of the Swiss Digital Initiative Doris Leuthard, met to exchange views on the theme of this year's symposium, “Trust Matters ”, Something that Huawei is deeply committed to.
Chen believes that this will require joint efforts by lawmakers, regulators and the private sector.
"As more devices have connectivity, more services become online and more critical infrastructure depends on real-time data exchange, governments around the world must therefore ensure that they are all protected by the highest security standards. Only a common set of rules can guarantee a level of security that creates confidence in the technology,”He stated.
This year's St. Gallen Symposium started on 5 May.
Event participants agreed that trust is fundamentally built on the basis of openness and transparency, and that it is time to take concrete and feasible measures to address the common challenges and risks that have arisen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public confidence in political and economic institutions, emerging technologies and the media has recently declined, especially among younger generations, and this has been exacerbated by the pandemic COVID-19.
"We, as members of the younger generation, are connected to a greater number of people through social networks, but that does not correspond to a circle of people we can trust," reiterated Simon Zulliger, a member of the team of 35 students from St. Gallen University that organized this year's symposium.
The team presented its view that finding ways to preserve and strengthen trust is crucial to sustainable recovery.
Chen hopes that the next generation of leaders will build trust and shape a world of widespread connectivity.
”I urge you to continue to develop positive relationships between communities, individuals and their environments. We must build a strong confidence in technology, provided by a common set of rules, innovations and progress. Only then can we commit to the sustainable and reliable use of technology, ”he guaranteed.
