WASHINGTON -
WHAT: The growing population in developing countries will be a major force shaping the terrain of international markets for labor and goods. Successful corporations will utilize local labor forces and create new products and services that serve the needs of the poor without damaging the environment.

WRI’s Seventh Sustainable Enterprise Summit, will open with a visionary discussion of new business models and the necessary innovations in technology that will allow business to create partnerships with local entrepreneurs and enterprises in the rapidly emerging markets of the developing world.

WHEN: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 from 9:15am - 10:30am

WHERE: Watergate Hotel
2650 Virginia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20037
(800) 289-1555

WHO: C.K. Prahalad, Harvey C. Fruehauf professor of corporate strategy, University of Michigan Business School

Allen Hammond, vice president, special projects & innovation, WRI

Juan Castro, vice president, planning & marketing, CEMEX

Moderated by: Luiz Ros, director, New Ventures in Emerging Markets, WRI

WHY: Traditionally, multinational and large national corporations have focused on the top of the world economic pyramid – the 75 to 100 million affluent people who mostly live in developed nations. Population levels in these traditional markets are now peaking and even declining in some countries. In contrast over 80 percent of the world’s population lives in developing countries, with per capita income less than $1,500 per annum. The challenge for mutlinational and large national corporations is to find new and innovative ways to compete with products that will improve basic conditions for this traditionally overlooked but expanding market at the base of the world economic pyramid.

WRI’s Seventh Sustainable Enterprise Summit will take place on March 17-18, 2004 at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. “Today’s Challenges, Tomorrow’s Markets” will bring together innovative corporate leaders and sustainability experts to explore solutions that corporations can provide in response to today’s most pressing global challenges, and, in so doing, position themselves as the competitive enterprises of the future.

For more information on WRI’s Seventh Sustainable Enterprise Summit, please visit http://summit.wri.org.

World Resources Institute

World Resources Institute

The World Resources Institute (WRI) is an environmental think tank that goes beyond research to find practical ways to protect the earth and improve people's lives. Our mission is to move human society to live in ways that protect Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. Because people are inspired by ideas, empowered by knowledge, and moved to change by greater understanding, WRI provides—and helps other institutions provide—objective information and practical proposals for policy and institutional change that will foster environmentally sound, socially equitable development. WRI organizes its work around four key goals:

People & Ecosystems: Reverse rapid degradation of ecosystems and assure their capacity to provide humans with needed goods and services.

Access: Guarantee public access to information and decisions regarding natural resources and the environment.

Climate Protection: Protect the global climate system from further harm due to emissions of greenhouse gases and help humanity and the natural world adapt to unavoidable climate change.

Markets & Enterprise: Harness markets and enterprise to expand economic opportunity and protect the environment.

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