Three more priority areas have been added to the Shanghai agenda to make a total of six in the Geneva Business Declaration. They are not arranged along the lines of traditional ministerial responsibilities and international organizations. The six priorities are built around the basic principles, international strategies and mechanisms that are needed to respond effectively to a challenge that is becoming increasingly global. The free flow of goods and services, investment, know-how, technology and information remain a priority for world business. Ultimately, this process of liberalization fosters competitiveness and prosperity as the most reliable basis for individual freedom and dignity.
Freedom can only work within rules, and the same holds good for markets.
Business needs the backing of effective laws, rules and institutions for its own operations and to ensure overall civil stability. Governments and intergovernmental organizations are the main rule-setters. In the last decade, governments in both industrialized and emerging economies have contributed to significant improvements. In the emerging economies, they have modernized rules of special significance to business, such as those governing stock exchanges, and have improved the protection of physical assets, equity investments, and intellectual property. On the international level, governments have completed new WTO agreements on basic telecommunications and cross-border financial services.