Farewell to another crisis year; welcome to another year of new hope and more expectations in 2011

The only hope now is that the robust growing economies of the Asian giants of China and India will continue to prop up the global economy in 2011, just as they did in 2010. At the same time, it is hoped that these positive trends will not be stalled by the ‘failed western economies’ via egoistically destructive policies of ‘quantitative easing, currency wars and nationalistic economic protectionism.’  

Geopolitically, the world today still remains unstable as there are still so many hotspots across the globe such as the wars ravaging Afghanistan and Iraq, human-, narcotrafficking and international terrorism, whose masterminds are broadening their modus operandi and geographies so to wreak huge direct and collateral damages against humanity. At the same time, both natural and anthropogenic disasters have continued to devastate the world’s poorest countries such as Haiti, hit by earthquakes and cholera, and Pakistan drown in one of the deadliest floods in recent human memory, etc. 

Besides, there are now fears of a probable open war in the Korean Peninsula after South and North Koreas exchanged hostile artillery blows and war-like rhetoric in November. When this is added to the North Korea’s plans to renew its nuclear ambitions with a new zeal despite global protests, lots of diplomatic efforts will certainly be required to normalize the high tension on the peninsula in 2011. 

This is why, against such negative backgrounds, the November decision between Russia and NATO at the Lisbon Summit to make ‘a U-turn towards mutual trust’ in their bilateral cooperation deserves lots of applause. The real good news from Lisbon is that these Cold War-era adversaries, instead of their traditional finger pointing and mutual accusations that have governed their relations for decades, have decided to stop viewing each other as potential enemies, but rather as key strategic partners in joint international actions targeting modern challenges in regional and global politics, including non-proliferation of weapons of mass destructions, wars on international terrorism, narcotrafficking, sea piracy, etc. 

Equally important is these partners’ readiness to seek reasonable and workable compromises on key sticky issues, where they still have some differences, such as the issue of construction and deployment of anti-nuclear attacks shields. This is very important because any tension, not to talk about overt military confrontations, between Moscow and NATO or any of its key member, such as the United States, has the potential to plunge the world into a more devastating chaos than all the above-listed negative factors combined. 

Now back to business. As usual, our end-of-the-year December edition is generally dedicated to the assessments of the achievements and failures in the Russian and global economies in the year under review and forecasts for the New Year. In keeping with this tradition, we asked companies CEOs in November to help assess this year’s economic performance and share their forecasts on their economic growth scenarios for 2011. Their diverse views are published in our Cover Story, CEOs’ Opinions and Experts’ Forecasts rubrics.

And, finally, as the crisis-battered 2010 is eventually on its way into the world’s chronological archives, and we head toward two of the world’s most important festivals — the Christmas and the New Year and, with them the hope for a better future in 2011 — I would like to thank all our business partners and general readers for helping us attain our key editorial mission – the provision of objective reports on businesses in and outside Russia. I would also like to wish everyone sound health and more positive prospects in private and corporate lives in 2011.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year in advance!