US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he is calling on the intelligence community to submit a report within three months on the origins of Covid-19 amid a resurgent debate over how the virus appeared.
Mr Biden said the report should look into "whether it emerged from human contact with an infected animal or from a laboratory accident", and present questions that may require confirmation, including some for China.
"I have now asked the intelligence community to redouble their efforts to collect and analyse information that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion and to report back to me in 90 days," he said.
The move comes during a growing controversy on how to handle an investigation into the origins of the virus, which has killed more than 3.5 million people globally.
“We need to get to the bottom of this," deputy White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
"As we all know, we’ve lost almost 600,000 Americans to Covid-19 and we have to get a better sense of the origins of Covid-19 and also, how do we prevent the next pandemic?”
The first virus cluster was reported to the World Health Organisation in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, fuelling theories that Covid-19 might have escaped from the lab.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Wednesday said the US was “spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation, such as a laboratory leak".
“Some people in the United States claim they want the truth but their real intention is political manipulation,” Mr Zhao said.
Members of the former president Donald Trump's administration favoured the laboratory leak theory, including former Centres for Disease Control and Prevention chief Dr Robert Redfield.
Many scientists, including WHO members, say the theory is unlikely.
The UN agency co-ordinated an investigation by independent scientists who visited Wuhan, China, and their report concluded that the virus most probably jumped to humans from bats.
Global leaders, scientists and WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus have said the investigation was not extensive enough.
Meanwhile, there are concerns that investigations into Covid's beginnings could fuel anti-Asian sentiment, which has increased in the US in recent months.
Mr Biden has signed an anti-hate crimes bill in response to several attacks on Asian Americans.
Scientists assert that finding the virus's origin would help the global community to prevent or prepare for the next pandemic, by figuring out how to protect against diseased animals or how to best improve medical lab security.
Top US infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci said he was "not convinced" that Covid-19 had developed naturally.
"I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happened," Dr Fauci said.
"Certainly, the people who investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could have been something else and we need to find that out.
"So, you know, that's the reason why I said I'm perfectly in favour of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virus."
More on animal trafficking
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.”
Sanju
Produced: Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Vicky Kaushal, Paresh Rawal, Anushka Sharma, Manish’s Koirala, Dia Mirza, Sonam Kapoor, Jim Sarbh, Boman Irani
Rating: 3.5 stars
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
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