DAVOS - (Xinhua) -- President of the World Economic Forum Borg Brende said Friday that avoiding a recession and building a strong growth agenda will be crucial to preventing the fragmentation of the global economy.

In his closing remarks during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Brinde said that progress had been made at the 5-day forum on issues of climate ambition, equitable growth and frontier technologies.

The 2023 meeting of the World Economic Forum was held under the theme "Cooperation in a Fragmented World" and came against a backdrop of unprecedented global challenges, including high inflation, energy crisis, climate change and geopolitical conflict.

However, at the end of the forum, Brindi expressed his confidence that "we can shape a more resilient, sustainable and equitable future", but added that "the only way to do this is for us to be together".

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during the meeting that "our world is suffering from a massive storm on a number of fronts," explaining that finding solutions to current global issues would be difficult if the world was united, but "instead, we face the most dangerous levels of geopolitical division and mistrust in generations.”

Forum participants, including Guterres, called on the world to heal the rift and restore confidence. "The time has come to forge paths of cooperation in our fragmented world," Guterres said.