A Credit Crisis for France?
by Richard Attias on January 19, 2012
Image credit: Paris Descartes
It was unfortunate that so much had been pinned on France’s triple-A credit rating – not just president Sarkozy’s electoral future but that of the Eurozone more generally. Last week S&P downgraded the French rating to AA+, along with eight other European countries. Austria too lost its AAA status, Italy and Spain fell two notches and the ratings of Malta, Cyprus, Slovakia and Slovenia were cut. Unlucky Portugal had its debt consigned to junk status.
It’s bad news for Nicolas Sarkozy who is facing elections in a just few months. In a confession to advisors leaked to the media last year he said, “If France loses its AAA, I’m dead”. Read the rest of the article
Qatar Looks to a Healthy, Sporty Future
by Richard Attias on January 13, 2012
http://bit.ly/yLOiih
It’s a well known fact that exercise is vital to our mental and physical health. This is why the meeting of the Doha Pre-forum GOALS – Gathering of All Leaders in Sport — produced by Richard Attias and Associates, is putting sports at the heart of its agenda. On January 7-8 2012, fifty top policymakers, innovators, sports scientists, doctors, academics, NGO leaders, head of federations, and corporate executives met with in Doha at the Aspire Zone in Qatar, to discuss how sport could improve economies and society and the lives of women and people in cities.
As preparations gain speed for the FIFA World Cup in 2022, Qatar is transforming into a prime destination for sports. With the sophisticated facilities at the Aspire Zone Foundation, and the Aspire Academy — one of the world’s leading elite sports institutes — it is fast becoming a regional and international sporting hub. The Aspire Zone Foundation boasts some of the world’s finest sport stadia and venues. It came to international prominence through its successful staging of the 2006 Asian Games, and offers a unique sport, sports medicine, research and education destination for the international sports industry.
At the welcome ceremony on Saturday, Hassan Al-Thawadi, Chief Executive Officer of the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee, spoke about the importance of the 2022 soccer World Cup. “From the beginning of the bidding process we always viewed the FIFA World Cup Read the rest of the article
An Exciting Time For The Developing World
by Richard Attias on December 15, 2011
Lamido Sanusi, 2011 Forbes Africa Person of the Year Award
As I have mentioned before on this blog, one of the most pressing questions of our time is leadership – and the lack of it. Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of moderating a discussion on this topic at the MEDays in Tangiers, which is organized by the Amadeus institute, one of Morocco’s most prominent independent think-tanks.
This year, the world has faced some big economic challenges. The world’s largest economy – the US – lost its triple-A rating, the Eurozone plunged into crisis, and citizens around the world began to protest against their governments. At the same time, Europe’s leaders have not yet found a solution to their problems, and in the US, politicians failed to produce a plan to deal with the deficit. In all of this turmoil, the developing world is starting to take a new role.
This point was highlighted by Alejandro Toledo, the former president of Peru, who noted that the crisis creates opportunities. Leadership is not just a matter for China, or Europe, or the United States, he said. “Africa, Latin America, and the Arab world, have leaders.”
Toledo’s own background provides a salutary tale about success in the face of adversity: Read the rest of the article
Emerging economies prosper as the west muddles through
by Richard Attias on November 30, 2011
Right now, the smart money is sitting on the sidelines. This is what Diane Brady, senior editor and content chief of Bloomberg Businessweek, suggested at a panel discussion at APEC earlier this month. The other speakers didn’t entirely disagree, especially where Europe is concerned, but several suggested that the emerging markets are where smart money will be in the future.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of New Zealand, Bill English, suggested that his country was a barometer for broader currents because it has such a small economy. New Zealand has been badly hit by the global economic downturn and in September its credit rating was downgraded. English said the situation changed on a daily basis. “At the moment it’s quite schizophrenic,” he said. “There’s a lot of smart money sitting in safe banks – and it can’t stay there.”
In China, by contrast, things are looking good. Read the rest of the article
Obama at APEC: America is still welcome
by Richard Attias on November 21, 2011
Although his remarks at the recent APEC CEO conference in Hawaii earlier this month were mostly serious, US President Barack Obama opened with a joke. “This is my birthplace, I know that was contested for a while,” he said. “I can show you the hospital if you’d like.”
That matter dispensed with he moved to weightier topics. Obama praised the outcomes that had been agreed on at the G20 summit earlier this month. “I was pleased to see that European leaders were taking seriously the need to solve not just the Greek crisis but also the broader European crisis,” he said.
Like other speakers at the APEC CEO summit he felt that the end is not quite in sight. “We’re not going to see massive growth in Europe till the problem is resolved. That will have a dampening effect on the overall economy.” But as long as the problems are contained, this presents an opportunity for growth for APEC. In a time when the rest of the world struggles, the Asia-Pacific region is more important to the US than ever before. Read the rest of the article
