1. Davos World Economic Forum Speech. David Cameron

Read the speech and answer the following questions:

1. Do you agree with David Cameron’s estimation of current state of world economic affairs - the East wins while the West loses; and the workers lose while the machines win? Prove your opinion with facts and figures from reliable sources.

2. What challenges of globalization your country faces? What benefits does it derive? What challenges can be faced more successfully than they are now? Are there any ways to derive more benefits?

3. Analyze all 5 parts of the economic plan outlined by David Cameron.

4. Work out similar plan for your country.

5. Comment on the following David Cameron’s vision of Britain: “This is Britain. Open, pioneering, creative, innovative – and ready for your investment.”

6. The Prime Minister provides the audience with some examples of the ways and means certain companies resort to to prosper. Which of them you personally consider to be good and effective ideas?

7. Do social protections and increased regulations bring more advantages or drawbacks for the development of economy. Prove your point using the examples of several states with different economic policies.

8. Translate the highlighted extracts into Russian.

David Cameron

Davos World Economic Forum Speech

Delivered on 24 January 2014

The key challenge for politicians and business leaders in Europe is how we make a success of globalisation.

For years the West has been written off.

People say that we are facing some sort of inevitable decline.

They say we can’t make anything anymore.

Whether it’s the shift from manufacturing to services, or the transfer from manual jobs to machines, the end point is the same dystopian vision; the East wins while the West loses; and the workers lose while the machines win.

I don’t believe it has to be this way.

Of course, we cannot be starry eyed about globalisation – it presents huge challenges as our economies and societies try to adapt.

But neither should we take this pessimistic view.

If we engage in the right way, if we get the fundamentals of our economies right, sort out our debts, maximise our competitiveness and build on our strengths, then globalisation offers our businesses the chance to win new contracts to export into markets that were previously closed and create jobs fulfilling the demands of new consumers thousands of miles away.

Indeed if we make the right decisions, we may also see more of what has been a small but discernible trend where some jobs that were once offshored are coming back from East to West.

And it is this that I want to talk about today.

All of this is about the same purpose.

Securing sustainable, well-paid jobs.

Giving people pride in using their skills.

Offering workers a chance to make world-beating products.

Bringing more of the benefits of globalisation home and ensuring those benefits are felt by hard-working people in terms of security, stability and peace of mind.

Let me start with what we are doing in Britain.

We have set out a long-term economic plan to secure our country’s economic future.