“Welcome to Part One of the Global Foundation’s ‘State of the World’ Roundtable. This Roundtable was created out of necessity during the COVID pandemic to ensure we continued to connect and progress our mission. This invention out of necessity was lauded by our members as an apt and helpful way to start the year’s collaboration and action – I am thrilled to welcome you all to our 4th annual state of the world roundtable.

We are particularly thrilled to have Australia’s new ‘ish’ Reserve Bank Governor, Michele Bullock, as our guest of honour. Welcome Michele – thank you for generously making the time in your busy and demanding schedule – we are most appreciative. A warm welcome also to all participants this evening, and to our eminent contributors, and as always, our steadfast Key Partners & Partners and Foundation members. Online we have attendees from other parts of Australia, as well as Hong Kong, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, the United Kingdom and France. Thank you all for making the time, many in the very early morning.

Today’s session is entitled ‘the state of the world: the global economy.’ The global economy has endured significant shocks of late in the form of a pandemic and the outbreak of wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Climate change continues to impact the global economy, both in the form of extreme weather events and the global energy transition. How we manage this essential transition, functionally and financially, will impact the lives and prosperity of future generations.

And it’s not only events which impact economies. It’s sentiment – positivity or fear – and whether these are short term or long-term attitudes. With accelerating conflict, fracture and divisiveness in our world, our leaders and politicians need support and goodwill to traverse the complex and plan and implement for the long-term – particularly when our world seems obsessed with the “immediate” – promoted by social media and the 24-hour news cycle.

Long-term ambitions can sometimes be lost in the noise of today. And it’s a big year of noise ahead – the fact that 2024 is set to be the biggest global election year in history only adds to the flux of our times. This year, countries representing approximately 49% of the world’s population have held or are set to hold elections. Already significant elections have taken place in Taiwan and Indonesia. Later this year there will be significant elections in the European Union, the United Kingdom, and, of course, in the United States.

Which leads to some context of why we are here this evening. As a trusted, apolitical organisation that operates behind the scenes, the Global Foundation is in a position to serve as a bridge between people and organisations across civil society, business and investors, across faiths and across public and private institutions. Our 25 years of hard work and mission is to bring together a broad-church of people with goodwill, good intent, deep experience and expertise, and willingness to work together to solve important issues for the future – and together – not to be stalled by the noise of the day. It seems that we the Global Foundation, you our supporters, and our collective can-do attitudes are needed than ever.

And that brings me to my clarion call – As Chairman of the Board, I must continue to advocate our case for financial support – we are a privately funded organisation – funded by caring organisations and people who strive for the global common good – and our work can only continue to flourish, and deliver meaningful outcomes if we continue to attract new partners and members. Your advocacy of The Global Foundation and its mission is needed and valued.

We welcome your participation this evening and I am sure there will be consequential take-outs as we all navigate another challenging year.”