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INTEGRATION OF RUSSIA INTO WORLD ECONOMY: NEW PARADIGMS OF ECONOMIC CULTURE
Welcoming speech
Efim Mikhailovich Malitikov, Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, the Chairman of the Interstate Committee of Znanie and Adult Education of the CIS, the President of the International Association “Znanie” for the Fifth International Scientific Conference on International Management, in memory of Prof. Leonid Strovsky.
December 1-3, 2011, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Dear ladies and gentlemen!
Colleagues and conference organizers!
I am very pleased to be invited to the traditional, already the fifth in a row, international conference on such relevant issues as the integration of Russia into the world economy and the new paradigms of economic culture, dedicated to the memory of the outstanding scientist, Professor Leonid Strovsky, who made a significant contribution to world science, which allowed humanity to make one more step towards progress in improving our civilization.
Unfortunately, previous commitments did not allow me to fulfill my passionate wish to be together with you and take a lively part in such an important forum for science, state, business and society. But I am with you in spirit and wish all conference participants high-flying thoughts, creative approach to mutual understanding and solution of complex problems and interesting, unordinary discussions!
Today, given the conditions of globalization, it is more relevant than ever for scientists and practitioners to discuss the mechanisms of interaction between the main segments of modern civilization and the change of world leaders in the economic culture. The world needs new leaders, new knowledge about the Earth and the Universe, a new vision, a new international division of labor, new approaches and tools. We need to accelerate the process of putting into action the tools that humanity already has, spreading knowledge, to raise all activities in this field to the rank of public policy of all countries and the most important program of the United Nations.
Speaking of the economy, we cannot but touch upon the ecology and the social sphere. Unfortunately, national interests and political ambitions, which always mentally lag behind the scale of threats, prevail here. We forget that the nature of the Earth does not divide humanity according to national and frontier pillars, economic or military power. And it pays us back with man-made and natural disasters, retaliating for interfering with it with human casualties and damage to the economy. Like the birds, people hide their heads under their wings in the face of little predictable threats from the bowels of the earth and from the universe. Because nature cannot be opposed, it cannot be judged or punished. She is the instrument of the Supreme Judge!
People react to the deaths of hundreds and thousands of people as impassive observers of statistics. The statistics of the losses and costs of mankind from natural phenomena are as follows:
– Earthquakes alone kill more than 30,000 people annually in the world;
– The economic damage from seismic cataclysms alone amounts to hundreds of billions of dollars, which for small countries is half of their national wealth. Subsequently, these countries bear the burden of restoring the economy and people’s living standards for decades, lagging behind the rest of civilization in development. All together, natural and man-made disasters cost humanity an average of more than one trillion dollars a year. In the coming years, according to experts. The damage from natural and man-made disasters in the world will be commensurate with the growth of the total gross product of the planet. Forecasting of negative phenomena and mitigation of their consequences, and most importantly, preservation of human lives, will depend on timely, rather than post factum, measures to be taken.
Today, the development of the world economy is directly linked to the global processes taking place on the planet. Globalization has come inexorably into our world. Its signs manifested themselves in villages and farmsteads, invaded every home, affected the fate of every person.
It has predetermined the lives of succeeding generations and dictates its conditions to governments. It is as invisible as radiation, but it swiftly consumes the planet like a fire devouring a forest on a dry, windy day. Regardless of our will, globalization either makes us its victims or its riders.
Neither the political will of the superpowers nor the combined might of the world banking system can stop it. It is objective, logical and unavoidable. It must be accepted or become its slave, its servant without a vote. I declare everywhere that I am in favor of positive perception, a welcoming approach and active cooperation in global processes. I am convinced that in order to avoid a head-on collision, it is necessary to take a trailing rather than a blocking stance. For in a conflict with globalization, the death of its unintelligent, illiterate opponents will not even be noticed by it or by the surrounding world. The sacrifice will be as inglorious as the crunching of a frog under the wheels of a tractor.
It is surprising that many countries and nations have not yet realized this and are under the illusion that globalization will not touch them, that they can fence themselves off from it, shutting themselves in a comfortable niche with a familiar and mastered amount of wealth in a pose of lazy presence at the feast of life.
But prosperity goes out from under every person and every country, even a rich one, if it stagnates in its conservative prosperity, expending the accumulation of the previous phase of its development.
The danger of such a worldview is analogous to the recklessness of pushing uncontrollably on the gas pedal of the latest Mercedes. Without losing comfort at high speed, the driver loses vigilance and can, under unfavorable conditions, fly to the curb, leaving behind a pile of mangled metal for the edification of other dabblers of fate.
It is necessary to be prepared for the coming processes, which no single country will be able to cope with alone. It is necessary to learn how to live under new conditions. It must be mastered in the afterburner mode. Of course, the best simulator and assistant in this is our education. But not the one we used in the last century, but a fundamentally new one, based on new mental attitudes and the latest technologies of introduction and dissemination of knowledge. Classroom-lesson form of education in our information age has exhausted its resources.
It is illiteracy and the resulting lack of competitiveness that has led to more than 2 billion people on the planet living on less than one dollar a day, more than 3 billion – more than half – on two dollars a day. Hundreds of millions live in complete, hopeless poverty, not even reaching these numbers, hardly compatible with civilized life.
Closing this digital divide with the current classroom-lesson form of education is impossible, and the digital divide will widen.
This requires a consolidated position of the world’s governments, the integration of their joint political, scientific and technical activities. And all this requires an immediate solution.
I would like to draw your attention once again to the fact that the project of the International Global Aerospace Monitoring System (IGMASS) proposed by the Russian scientists and supported by their foreign colleagues from 37 countries at the First International Symposium “Space and Global Security of Mankind” which took place in November 2009 in Limassol (Cyprus) may become a real tool to solve the aforementioned problems.
I hope that the forum will not judge me for not simply expressing my good wishes to the conference participants and wishing good luck in developing new models of social responsibility of business in the world economy, new social mechanisms for implementation of partnership in the system of economic relations. In addition, I ask you to pay attention to those acute and painful issues which are closely connected with the world economy in the context of globalization and which require a comprehensive approach, consolidation of all active forces and the use of existing tools for their rapid resolution.
I do this solely out of the kindest attitude to the forum and my deepest interest in its success.
I am sure that the conference will be held in a warm, benevolent atmosphere of mental comfort, a great coefficient of moral satisfaction from the work done and a significant contribution to the expected results.
Regards,
Yefim Mikhailovich Malitikov
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