Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has moved the inaugural New Economy Forum from China to Singapore on Nov. 6 and 7 due to a conflict in schedule. Political observers suspected, however, that the move was motivated by the escalating US-China trade war.
The event, which was established as a counterpart of Davos conclave in Switzerland, was supposed to gather world leaders both from the private and public sectors in Beijing for the first time in an assembly of such kind. Bloomberg's Chinese partner, the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, requested for the forum to be rescheduled to the fall of 2019, something that Bloomberg organizers could not accommodate. CCIEE made the request due to an increasing number of scheduling conflicts in China this year.
In a statement, Bloomberg has chosen Singapore as the new location for the forum because organizers believed the country is one of the world's leading international and business hubs. The forum will stick to its original focus of discussion which is the opportunities and challenges posed by the emerging market namely Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.
Political and economic observers who spoke with The New York Times pointed out that what transpired between China and Bloomberg demonstrated perfectly how the trade war, started by U.S. President Donald Trump, is impacting business and diplomatic relations.
Sources told The New York Times that 400 business and political figures were invited for the event and 300 of them were from outside China. Chairman for the forum includes former U.S. Secretary of State and national security adviser Henry A. Kissinger; and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Among the participating companies were ExxonMobil, Softbank Group, and HSBC.
With the event's relocation to Singapore, the forum organizers are reportedly cramming to change the direction of the discussions and scrambling to replace some key speakers. The forum still hopes that China will send its representative as originally intended.
Experts hoped that the incident will not result in the fallout between Bloomberg and China. The billionaire is keen to engage China in discussions regarding trade and climate change. The media executive and former New York City mayor were one with Chinese leaders in criticizing Trump when he decided to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. Bloomberg had also objected to Trump's ways of using tariffs against any country that he wanted to castigate. The billionaire believed such decision may impact the U.S. economy, its labor sector, and innovation.
Meanwhile, a representative from CCIEE clarified to South China Morning Post that it requested to delay the New Economy Forum because it clashed with China International Import Expo which is scheduled between Nov. 5 and 10 in Shanghai.
