Obtain. What you might see is a bit more bitesized approach to aspects of the trading agreements. To get a greater engagement in a more constructive engagement. You talked about the covid recession. We have had a second wave of covid coming across europe in the last couple months. Indicators of the economy show that is causing a double dip in many economies in terms of activity. Youhelpful you are are that we could have a fast recovery this time around and see that vshaped recovery people have talked about . I think the vaccine is going to be a very important story for the 2021. From the irish perspective we moved early on in the early the second wave, the Second Lowest interest in europe now. We are doing very well in terms of the downward trajectory of caseys. Of cases in hospital and icu. Somewhere at the end of this month we move out of what we call level 5. Our schools of state construction has stayed open. Our domestic economy. Our investment side is doing very well. Science and technology, they are performing well. On the first lockdown in marchapril period construction and those areas took a big hit. So, we expect, i think in the early part of 2021, depending on the efficacy of vaccines as they by middle oft better than anyone anticipated. We are learning more about the virus. That will inform how long we can protect livelihoods as well as life. Get people back walking again in certain sectors. Travel tourism and aviation hospitality, those are the sectors that have been hardest hit. These other sectors can come back much more strongly and more quickly. Thank you very much. Youre very welcome, indeed. Some argue that regionalization is a new globalization. Irish primee minister and conversation stephanie flanders. From singapore, she takes up the reins with me. Hi. And welcome everyone to Bloomberg Markets asia from hong kong and singapore we have been watching all of these conversations at the Bloomberg NewEconomy Forum, kicking off this four day we have heard from the singapore Prime Minister, also bill clinton and of course we have been hearing as well from tony blair, a great conversation with bill clinton the former u. S. Present was saying that Climate Change is the greatest challenge but also the greatest opportunity. Speakers coming up include the indian Prime Minister, ecb president Christine Lagarde and bridgewaters ray dalio. You can cut those conversations catch those conversations online and on twitter and on facebook. Rishaad getting to Market Action. Is going on and upon n japan and hong kong. Speaking a welly uplift. The nikkei just a negative. Following theere asian high as we had henry inasinger, the u. S. Ch catastrophe on the scale of world war i. That has not engender optimism. The dollar index has been dropping back. The yen has strengthened a trad. Tad. Has caused a lot of optimism in u. S. Stocks to record highs in the s p 500. Oil prices as the vaccine has the optimism. Iette the Bloomberg New in session. M is lets listen to the conversation occurring now. Have reached. And if you look at the different regions if you look at europes, europe as a region, for example, their growth is slowing down due to new covid restrictions. Having said that, they u. S. The u. S. Economy is in an extraordinary manner is very robust. And, despite the pandemic. And if we look at asia, the asian market is recovering very well. So, yes, we need to remain cautious. But there is very good reason for us to bv optimistic. Very optimistic. I truly believe will get through this much stronger at a much wealthier manner. What i think we need to do is to remain resilient. And to stay very mu focused on what we can controlc. We are doing everything we can within our control to ensure the safety of our people and to also ensure business continuity. At the same time, we are enhancing the security of our supply chains to make sure that essential, required resources and equipment are always available at all times. And finally, of course, we have to focus on cost. This is an important piece of resilience. As you know, manus, we have been very much focused on cost as part of our trance our Strategic Transformation here for the past four years. By focusing on areas like safety, ensuring and because, i believe we can reinforce our resilience. Us can i bring it to you from another ministerial path in egypt . You said to me, manus, we are sitting in november. Its a very different Competitive Landscape for the world. Then you faced in january. Just give me a sense of how much has changed and how the regional countries are, i suppose, doing in this context of covid. Thank you, manus. Let me echo what he said by saying it is a pleasure being with all of you but also one of the fundamental outcomes of these 11 months has been that each one of us has been challenged. We have been pushed. We have had to innovate and think through and push forward for instance, in our case, the first order of business was protect providing liquidity to household as well as firms by improving on her structural reforms. Very difficult as we are sitting here to say that countries have the same competitive or comparative advantages they have at the beginning of january. However, what is extremely important is that countries that continued reforming before are actually, are at a stronger footing going into the crisis. In our case, between 2015 and mf program. An i and what of the key elements is that you have protectable policies. Through these programs you have some Macro Economic frameworks. You are keener about the agenda moving forward. When we were hit by covid, we came in with buffers on the fiscal side and important buffers on the foreignexchange side. Nonetheless, we wanted to continue showing the world that we continue to be committed to reforms in a transparent fashion and that is why a standby with the imf was also signed in june of this year. And the reason is, not just the financing element but to show very clearly what is it the government is continuing to do. I think there is a Silver Lining in all of this. And the Silver Lining is we keyld not from objectives related to Sustainable Development, inclusivity within societies. How do we capitalize on the digital revolution, which actually proved to be extremely important during covid. And if we had not, for instance in the case to beat up with our population size, in the case of egypt and the number of students we had had not done education reform we would have been at a standstill. Nonetheless we were able to breeze through it in a very, i would say acceptable manner if you are comparing to other places. Manus they have laid out a very formidable storyline. Bruce, can i call you the asset gathering . Touching on what rania just said, when it comes to allocating capital, rania talked about transparency. When it comes to looking at the rise of a new regional power, what do you want to see as an asset gatherer when it comes to the allocation . What is the most important consideration . For everyonenks for being here and thanks for the question. Ill just say the following. Whats extremely important are some very basic fundamentals. Were in 30 countries around the world and all of them sit essentially within these parameters. What we are looking for is transparency regulations and the rules which are going to operate. A developed Capital Market is extremely helpful. Although not the most important because we can bring enormous amounts of equity and we can finance from other places. The number one thing, and often people say rule of law is important, and rule of law is important and the adjudication of contracts is important if one gets into fundamental issues and with contracts in a country and that is important. That is basic than simply, and something we call respect of capital. , does essentially is the a country, its leaders, its business people, and everyone in their country, do they respect capital within the country . And i put it down for the most basic, simple analysis. Tough, do people decide to take the easy route or the tough route. And the tough route is continue to pay your bills, work through the issues, and deal with foreigners like they were your own. And many countries over time have proven to be that. And some have not. Thatwe look at countries, is probably the most paramount thing we look at his perspective capital. Respectiveot invest capital does not exist. That essentially, those of the parameters we look for. Us i know that you have had substantial business dealings in terms of allocating capital. I want to ask you whether who is the more difficult person to do the deal with. Behaad lets get to, leaving that current session on the Bloomberg NewEconomy Forum. U can continue watching it online. You can also go to the various nels, including twitter and facebook. E singapore Prime Minister address the four about the future of trade in asia. The u. S. Relationship with China Remains a big issue for collaboration. Lee said president elect joe biden should look to develop a construction relationship with beijing after four tumultuous years at the trump administration. His firsti think priorities will be domestic. Many urgent things to deal with, asia is with covid, ubbut a very important part of the world for america and china particularly. I hope that he will be able to focus his mind on developing a framework for an overall constructive relationship with china. That means one where youre going to be completing, there will be issues to deal with it where you do not want to collide and you tried very hard to work to develop the areas of common interest and constraints, the areas of disagreement. And, within that framework, deal with trade, deal with security, deal with Climate Change, deal with nonproliferation, north korea. All of the many issues which the two big, two biggest colors of the world have to focus on. And amongst those will also be issues which will be considered, of concern about 12 the rest of of concern about the rest of us in asia. The last four years have been quite a tumultuous ride. Trump iso you think that done permanent damage . Previous administration have seen americas having a broad interest in the stability of the region, the well being of his partners and the tending of its alliances and allies. And fostering an overall environment where many countries can prosper in an orderly scheme, and america as part of that scheme. And subject itself to the same is a and disciplines strong were to apply to a superpower, but prevents presents itself as complying with an order which is in the interests of more than itself. And it will take some time for america to come back to such a position. And for others to be convinced that it is taking such a position. It may never come back all the way. And certainly in the short term, certainly in terms of its relations of china, i think, cant speak for the whole administration but i think there are some elements within the administration who definitely war, that trade would be difficult to reverse by the subsequent administration in which will set the tone for the relationship for a long time to come. John one of the things people have talked about biden doing is having a coalition of democracies that would bring in people like yourself, indonesia, japan, south korea. Is that part of the framework that you can imagine working . All want to Work Together with u. S. We all want to Work Together with other vibrant economies. Within the region. I think not very many countries would like to join basically a havetion against those who been excluded, chief of whom will be china. You want everybody in the discussion in trying to work out adjustments with the world order. But i dont, think it is and haveat process you will people from alliances that cooperate with one another, they will try to find common cause. But to try to make a lineup, cold war style, i john do you think there is a possibility that biden could end up being somewhat tougher in terms of everyday things that trump was . Pm. Lee its possible because a consensus to see china as a strategic fit strategic threat is almost becoming unquestionable in the u. S. , in washington. So it will be very difficult for any Administration Whether it is biden or on the outside chance trump, to disregard that and just proceed as if the last few years have not taken place. John do you think the chinese, are the chinese prepared to do bargains about this . It takes two to tango. Know theyi think they are not ready for a collision. But i am not sure that they are prepared to give a lot of ground. And their principle consideration will be a domestic one, rather than one of the international balance. In the abstract, i think they would agree to, if not to a shift, at least to a change in the. Trajectory. But in practice when push comes to shove and you have to negotiate a new dispensation, i think they are hard bargainers. It is not clear between the two sides they would be able to move to a new position. Rishaad that is the singapore Prime Minister lee hsien loong, speaking at the new Economy Forum. Its still underway. You can watch that online or bloomberg subscribers you can watch on live speakers coming up include Prime Minister modi, Christine Lagarde and bridgewaters ray dalio among many others. Meanwhile investors weigh renewed optimism about modernas vaccine. It could be an added boost for the virus for every hotel industry. Lets bring in the founder and executive chairman of a hospitality group. Thanks for joining us. It has been a horrid year. The most probable used port of late has been unprecedented. Tell us about whether the worst is behind us and a little bit about china as well, given the fact we talk to other hospitality groups who say it has come back so strongly. Are you seeing the same thing and elsewhere are yet to see better days . I think everyl, crisis seems to be unprecedented. When we saw 9 11 it was unprecedented. The whole world was going to change. Everything wasmi unprecedented. One thing we have to take from this is that this too will pass as Everything Else will. So i think take it in stride we have to be resilient. In terms of asian economies, as we all know china has performed very well. Many other asian economies have also done very well in terms of keeping their economies relatively resilient. Having controlled the first outbreak of covid very well and probably likely to prevent a second outbreak. I think the real question for the Hospitality Industry now in asia is when will asia open up to itself so that, in overall asian bubble can exist in order to mitigate everything that is happening with travel and tourism in the United States and europe . China is doing extremely well. Our hotels in china have done even better than before, because there have been tens of millions of relatively wealthy chinese who at this time of year would have gone out to travel to europe and elsewhere. They are not able to travel. The messick tourism is just blooming. So that is doing very well Domestic Tourism is just blooming. Korea,land, vietnam, japan, there is an intent by governments to promote Domestic Tourism. Unfortunately, particularly in enough tois just not be able to fill all of the empty rooms that we are all facing now. Give me a sense of how the industry itself has been looking introspectively. Do you think a different type of Hospitality Industry will arise covid covid in the post world . There will be definitely changes but it is not as if the travel industry is going to go away. Are watching,t we different levels, for example within companies themselves, all of gains that Many Companies have made like ours in terms of restructuring, reducing our costs, creating much more variable employment levels and so on. All these gains have been making us far more lean during this difficult time. Survivee of us who can through this, as we can, want to be sure that when the recovery occurs all of these gains we have made are not just suddenly lost. And we do not remain as lean as ever. As we have been now. That is one thing that will change in the Hospitality Industry. The restructuring that has happened i think will continue. On the other hand, travel itself is changed. Leisure travel i think will become much more purposeful. Business travel will be purposeful. Meaning you do not just travel for the sake of meeting your customers on a whim every week or so. You can do a lot of it by zoom now. You also do not jump on a plane and go somewhere for a few days. It would be for longer times. There will be more purposeful, longerterm stays in each place. So the nature, the nuances of travel will change. But fundamentally, i think you will see in fact the pentup demand is one where when the recovery does occur and inevitably it will, it will be a very big recovery. But the question now for most of us is, can we get through until the end of next year . It is going to be another one year possibly if the asian economies do not resolve their intraasian travel arrangements which we are all waiting for anna has not happened yet. Everybody is defending themselves and covid countries covid free countries from thailand to china are not welcoming, not opening their doors to each other. And we need that to happen. There is it it is not good to be super healthy a lot to your economies while the Tourism Industry needs the opening up of a bubble within asia itself. Interesting point because it is not an equal recovery and you look at the likes of thailand, which is been hit incredibly hard by the fact that borders are shot. Where are you seeing potential areas of growth at banyan tree as we look forward . How do you attempt to this i adapted