First foreign speech from top Chinese official since the momentous Congress last year, VP Liu Hei coming to #wef23 with what appears conciliatory message direct from Xi…
“Have to abandon the Cold War mentality… an equitable international economic order must be protected”…
Hei says:
“will work with international community on debt sustainability of emerging economies, & stick to international commitments on climate change (carbon peak before 2030 and neutrality by 2060)
must promote “positive sum games” and “work together to promote world peace”
On Covid situation, Hei:
“We are shifting our focus from dynamic zero covid” to managing Covid as a class B infectious disease - “a signal of reopening”.
“China has passed infection peak…, this years spring festival will see 5bn trips
Life has been restored to normal in China”
Hei then invites everyone to China to visit (albeit with 48hr Covid test)… things have been normalised, he says. #wef23
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At Davos I asked head of ILO, UN workers rights agency routinely cited by Government in support of its anti-strike legislation, if it supported the moves…
A: “not aware of any bilateral discussions”.. “v worried workers having to accept situations” under job loss threat
ILO DG Gilbert Hungbou told me at #WEF23 it did not want to interfere in national discussions, but said unions could file a complaint against the Government on adherence to its international workers rights convention, and it was already in conversations about that
… And then fairly extraordinarily… President Biden’s Labour Secretary (former union leader Marty Walsh) sat next to ILO DG suggested I ask him same q…
Q: does America support minimum service agreements?
A: “No…. I will not support anything that would take away from workers”.
- European CEOs tell me Biden’s green subsidies are tempting them to move production
- European leaders v concerned, will respond
- US not clear on response
- questions for UK strategy here bbc.co.uk/news/business-…
British Volt collapse obv of deep concern locally where promise had been thousands of good jobs in a key growth area…
bigger point is this though - UK really needs to have started building 4 of these battery plants to sustain current size of car industry… market is unconvinced
The “Global Britain” strategy was never about the car industry really -but if better pro-innovation regulation, and looking beyond Europe would have worked here, Tesla would have opened up here, were massively wooed, but Musk chose Berlin instead, (& publicly cited Brexit factor)
Worth $1.24 trillion on Jan 3rd, at $400 share price
Now $0.344 trn today, at $109… down 73%.
a loss of $900bn in value, or over 20 times Musk’s valuation of Twitter, or 54m Bitcoin (current value), or 12 trillion doge.
Musk below engaged with concerned investors, explaining that rising interest rates were leading to a repricing of stocks… which didnt explain Tesla’s specific underperformance…
During the pandemic Tesla did much better than many of the leading car manufacturers during the chip shortage, for example, by using a software solution and rewriting code for different chips… part of the reason its share price accelerated so much last year…
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt tells me economy is “likely to get worse before it gets better” and “I dont know whether inflation has peaked or not”.
On strikes he says “we completely understand why people are angry” about pay packets but he doesn’t want to “lock in” high inflation
Chancellor when asked if the pay review body is really independent when the Treasury sets an overall remit says “we do have to recognise that there is a genuine dilemma” and that “people are finding it very difficult”
Do you accept that for a public sector worker facing 10% rates of inflation - it's not militant to ask merely for pay to match the current extraordinary rates of inflation?
Hunt: “Well, I accept it's a totally sincerely held position.“