Macroscope | To bridge divide at heart of US-China tensions, start with global rethink of public sector’s role
- A new World Economic Forum report points the way towards achieving a synthesis between ‘market’ and state-controlled economies
- It is not advocating a return to socialist planning or rejection of market forces but upgrading public institutions to better work with the private sector to tackle serious socioeconomic challenges

A “new narrative on the role of the public sector is needed, away from that of burdensome bureaucracy to one of market co-creator”, suggests a June report by the Network of Global Future Councils, established by the WEF to review prospects for creating “new, inclusive and sustainable markets”.
What is remarkable about this exercise of bringing together what the WEF calls “nearly 1,000 top thinkers” from among policymakers, businessmen, economists and others around the world is its mould-breaking analysis of the potential benefits of upgrading public sector entities.
The WEF report goes so far as to suggest that public investment in the global economy should become the “investment of first resort”. This is not a call to abandon the private sector (or financial markets) but to invest aggressively in the public sector so it can fulfil its full potential.
Yet the opposite has been happening. Advanced economies have progressively disinvested in the capabilities of their public sector in recent decades instead of acknowledging that only the combined efforts of public and private sectors can achieve broader and better economic growth.
