(Bloomberg) — Former Secretary of State and erstwhile presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum Friday that the world must stand up to Chinese aggression, while Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar blamed China for a “bad patch” in ties.
How geopolitical rivalries and their impact on capital flows, investment and the world’s ability to cooperate on issues like climate change were at the center of forum talks. Cryptocurrencies, disruptive technologies and supply chains were also discussed at the Singapore event.
The three day forum has touched on the future of health and strategies to tackle climate change, though the risks of a U.S.-China confrontation have been a repeated theme.
India Says China Must Explain Actions (11:40 a.m. H.K.)
China is to blame for worsening relations with India, Jaishankar said.
“We’re going through a particularly bad patch in our relationship because they’ve taken a set of actions in violation of agreements for which they still don’t have a credible explanation,” Jaishankar said in a panel discussion at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.
The two Asian powers saw their deadliest fighting in decades in the summer of 2020 high on their disputed Himalayan frontier. Twenty Indians and at least four Chinese soldiers were killed.
Zilingo Sees Business at Pre-Covid Levels (11:30 a.m. H.K.)
Zilingo, a marketplace for wholesale buyers and sellers in fashion, said business has recovered to pre-Covid levels as more people embraced digital tools during the pandemic.
“We are about 40%-45% higher because of the momentum and digitization,” in terms of gross merchandise value in the September quarter relative to the end of 2019, Chief Executive Officer Ankiti Bose told Bloomberg Television. The startup has also hired about 50 people in 2021, she said separately on the sidelines of the forum.
Mastercard Sees Travel Rebound as Asia Opens (11:25 a.m. H.K.)
Leisure travel is a big opportunity for business as borders slowly reopen throughout Asia, said Mastercard Inc. Asia-Pacific Co-President Ling Hai.
“When you ask consumers if you have some pent up demand, where do you spend it? Travel is the number one thing,” he said. While the rise in demand is already evident in leisure travel across the region, business trips are probably six months behind but coming back as well, he said.
Singapore may soon allow quarantine-free crossing at its land border with Malaysia, one of the world’s busiest border crossings, the trade minister said.
“I am cautiously optimistic that we will be able to do so quite soon,” Gan Kim Yong said.
Ayala Says Worst Over for Philippines (11:15 a.m.)
The Philippine economy is starting to move again, with output probably growing by 5.1% this year, Ayala Corp. CEO Fernando Zobel said.
The nation’s oldest conglomerate is focusing on rapidly expanding its core businesses of banking, telecommunications and renewable energy, Zobel said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin.
Micron says Chip Shortage Easing (10:45 a.m. H.K.)
The chip crunch that’s curtailed production in everything from cars to PCs is gradually easing, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said.
The crisis has affirmed the importance of diversifying and globalizing supply chains, he said.
U.S. May Pare China Tariffs, Clinton Says (10:15 a.m. H.K.)
Clinton predicted Joe Biden’s administration would remove some punitive tariffs on China, saying she was aware of a review on the issue. But she also said the world can not allow Chinese aggression.
“I know that there’s an ongoing process, as we speak, to try to figure out what would be the best approach with respect to the tariffs,” Clinton said in a virtual appearance at the forum. “And I would predict that there will be some changes. But they will not all disappear, because some of them in this new reality we’re living in may well be continued.”
Clinton said that some tariffs imposed during former President Donald Trump’s administration “hurt” the U.S., particularly those on agricultural goods. But she underscored the need to push back at China on some fronts.
“Of course we should cooperate on a range of issues, but we also cannot permit the kind of aggressive military build up, efforts to dominate maritime navigation, the intimidation of nations in the larger Asia-Pacific region,” Clinton said.
Kerry Wants Coal Ditched Faster (10:00 a.m. H.K.)
U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry said the world needs to speed efforts to ditch coal.
“We have to start where the greatest amount of emissions are if we’re going to win the battle,” Kerry told the forum. “We have to, all of us, be able to put the deals together that will phase out their coal fast.”
Speaking via videolink, Kerry said “coal is the primary culprit today in warming the planet, and in polluting the air and in creating the intensity of storms that comes with the increased moisture that rises from the oceans.”
Rudd Says Biden-Xi Meeting Good for Asia (9:00 a.m. H.K.)
The summit between presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping was positive for the West’s partners in Asia, said former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who also critical of how Canberra has handled ties with Beijing.
“The partial stabilization of U.S.-China relations coming out of the recent summit between Xi Jinping and President Biden is on balance good news for the wider region because it takes the geopolitical temperature down a notch or two,” he said in an interview at the forum.
“That actually creates more political space for other bilateral relationships — either with Japan and China, the Republic of Korea and China, Australia and China — to enter I would hope into a less fractious period.”
Bloomberg Plans NEF Event in Panama (8:40 a.m. H.K.)
Bloomberg Media on Friday announced the start of a new series of events, Bloomberg New Economy Gateway, beginning in Panama next year. The inaugural event in Latin America will be the first of Bloomberg’s New Economy series to be held outside Asia.
“We look forward to hosting discussions there with senior business and government leaders that will help shape a more modern global economy,” Michael Bloomberg said in opening remarks on the final day of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore.
Moet Sees 2021 Better Than Pre-Pandemic (8:10 a.m. H.K.)
Lockdowns haven’t been too bad for LVMH’s wines and spirits business, with Moet Hennessy CEO Philippe Schaus telling Bloomberg Television that this year’s results should beat 2019’s.
Moet raised prices, but not due to supply-chain issues, but as efforts to elevate quality feed into higher costs and higher prices, he said. In many cases, home drinking more than compensated for lockdowns as people opted for higher-end products.
Gates Wants Pandemic Surveillance System (8:00 a.m. H.K.)
Health has also been a big topic, with philanthropist Bill Gates among those addressing how the world can avoid future pandemics.
To better prepare, several thousand experts at the World Health Organization level could be deployed to spot and fight infectious diseases, Gates said. Any surveillance system should be able to function even when governments are dysfunctional or uninterested in sharing information, he said, adding that the world also needs to build capacity to develop vaccines and antivirals faster.
Today’s forum starts at 8:30 a.m. Singapore (7:30 p.m. New York), and speeches and panels are broadcast live. You can sign up for our New Economy Daily newsletter here. The New Economy Forum is being organized by Bloomberg Media Group, a division of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
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