World Governments Summit: live updates
US President Donald Trump's senior election campaign adviser says Elon Musk is doing what Americans want in his aggressive slash-and-burn strategy of public spending and red tape.
Jason Miller said the billionaire tycoon's assault on government agencies had been long overdue, despite widespread protest from public sector employees and some quarters of the media.
"It's a breath of fresh air that Elon has come in, you could say a bull in a china shop," he told The National at the World Governments Summit in Dubai.
Mr Miller said Mr Trump was "at his absolute best popularity right now, with Elon Musk helping him change the system".
He was speaking to a packed audience about the campaign tactics that helped Mr Trump win a second term in the White House, involving "simple and easy, deliverable soundbites".
Phrases such as "Drill, baby, drill," or "No tax on overtime pay" were popular slogans during the Trump presidential campaign, as well as methods such as "challenging traditional media on their ground" and "rejecting conventional wisdom", Mr Miller said. He called the President an "unstoppable force", despite being involved in two apparent assassination attempts, four indictments and several convictions.
"Everything that they challenged President Trump with he was able to overcome, because of his media strategy," he added.
Trump wants to bring peace to the Middle East
One of Mr Trump’s key claims is that he can bring peace to the Middle East, which he says his predecessor in the White House, Joe Biden, could not achieve.
But the US President has horrified many Arabs with claims that the US may seize Gaza and send the Palestinian people to live elsewhere.
“He wants to bring about peace to the Middle East. He wants to bring peace to Ukraine. He wants to bring peace all over the world,” Mr Miller said.
He highlighted the Abraham Accords, which saw the UAE and Bahrain establish ties with Israel, as an example of one of Mr Trump’s diplomatic successes during his first term.
“I would say never bet against President Trump. If he says that he’s going to help bring peace and stability around the world, then I think he’s going to be able to do it,” he said.
Mr Miller cited conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine during the Biden administration. “Under Joe Biden, we have had chaos and global disruption,” he said.
He added that Mr Trump won the Arab-American vote in the state of Michigan by promising to end the Palestine-Israel conflict.
Tariffs set to being markets turmoil
In his second term, Mr Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on a swathe of good entering the US, a decision that could bring turmoil to global markets.
“President Trump was so transparent about what he would do if he was elected, so everybody knew that he was going to push for tariffs,” Mr Miller said.
“I think it has helped him, as we saw in the first term, to bring about successful trade deals.”
Mr Trump also plans to revisit his trade deal with China, Mr Miller added, and anticipates making deals with the UK and EU, he said.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Ads on social media can 'normalise' drugs
A UK report on youth social media habits commissioned by advocacy group Volteface found a quarter of young people were exposed to illegal drug dealers on social media.
The poll of 2,006 people aged 16-24 assessed their exposure to drug dealers online in a nationally representative survey.
Of those admitting to seeing drugs for sale online, 56 per cent saw them advertised on Snapchat, 55 per cent on Instagram and 47 per cent on Facebook.
Cannabis was the drug most pushed by online dealers, with 63 per cent of survey respondents claiming to have seen adverts on social media for the drug, followed by cocaine (26 per cent) and MDMA/ecstasy, with 24 per cent of people.
