Merkel says unilateral action, protectionism not answer to world challenges

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 24 (Xinhua)-- German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized the philosophy of isolation and protectionism in addressing common challenges worldwide here on Wednesday.

When delivering a special address at the World Economic Forum's 48 Annual Meeting, which kicked off Tuesday, Merkel underlined that "Germany is a country committed to finding multilateral solutions".

"Unilateral action and protectionism are not the answer," she added.

Focusing on European issues particularly, Merkel urged closer cooperation in the EU in order to solve problems in Europe.

"Brexit has almost encouraged us to concentrate on the big issues," she said.

Specifically, Merkel called on more actions on digitalization rather than "debating philosophical issues", saying that it was too slow in EU to decide how to deal with big data, which has made Europe lag behind.

"We now have to re-oriented economic policies, creating a digital single market," she pointed out, reminding that Europe is under great pressure due to the presence of large American companies.

In addition, Merkel also called for efforts to tackle with fractured capital market by establishing capital markets union, as well as completing banking union, so as to weather the crisis at early stage. Enditem