"Globalisation, the new economy and the I.T. revolution will only deliver their full promise of higher living standards for all of us if the private sector decides to make the investments and make them in the right way," Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah told chief executives from the 21 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) countries.
The three-day CEO Summit, which started on Monday, coincided with the wrapup of the trade and foreign ministers meeting and the start of the APEC summit on Wednesday bringing together the heads of government in the grouping's smallest member country.
With the negative impacts of globalisation on developing countries emerging as a key issue, the sultan of oil-rich Brunei called on the business gathering "to be more active in thinking about the policy architecture required to make globalisation, the I.T. revolution and the new economy work."
"There is a risk that developing economies will be left behind," he said.
Several of the participants warned earlier of a "backlash" not only in the developing world but the United States as well.
"Progress is about people, not just about placing a few of our companies and institutions in the high-tech highway," said Jaime Caceeres, chairman and chief executive officer of AFP Integra, Peru's largest private pension fund.
"Each of us has a role to play in the crucial process of extending the benefits of globalisation," he told his counterparts.
APEC's private sector business advisory group in a report to the leaders concedes globalisation is a "large and complex subject with economic, political and cultural dimensions."
While there was general agreement on the scale and complexity of the subject, its economic, political and cultural dimensions triggered heated debate.
"The concept of globalisation implies a conscious, and growing, attempt to pit all a firm's resources - wherever they might be - against one's perceived competitors," said Alan Carroll, executive chairman of the Pacific Rim Forum.
Since this most typically involves moving production facilities around wherever necessary to benefit from the quickest brains or the cheapest hands, Carroll said the implicit assumption is, "if you do not - or cannot - your competitors can and increasingly almost certainly will."
Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan warned of a "backlash if developing countries are urged to liberalise trade and accept globalisation before their economies are sufficiently prepared.
He called for a "rationalisation" of the international financial structure without compromising the free flow of assets and appealed to APEC's developed countries to help the less developed advance in the technological age.
Fred Bergsten, director of the U.S. Institute for International Economics, said the United States was not immune to the backlash.
"Poll after poll shows that more than half of the U.S. public do not want globalisation," Bergsten said.
The American political apparatus has been stalemated over further globalisation and trade liberalisation, he noted. "It could get worse," Bergsten warned.
The economy is slated to slow down and trigger a rise in unemployment, Bergsten observed. In that scenario, he predicted the anti-globalisation and trade liberalisation backlash would gain in strength.
"The big question is: will the United States economy achieve a soft landing?" asked Kenneth Courtis, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs Asia, Japan. If not, Courtis said, trouble could lie ahead.
Japan, with a fast-growing demographic imbalance between young and old, also presented a big threat to regional and world economic stability," said Courtis. "We have entered a white-knuckle period, of concern and even fear."
(la/dpa)