UBS Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong to feature Simone Biles and Maria Konnikova
Maria Konnikova, a renowned author, psychologist and poker player, will discuss uncertainty at next week's Asian Investment Conference (AIC) in Hong Kong, a topic that is certain to be at the front of mind for attendees of the event, hosted by UBS.
She will be among the dozens of policymakers, economists, and robotics scientists to speak at the AIC, which was launched 28 years ago by Credit Suisse, now part of UBS.
Niall Macleod, the curator of the event and UBS' head of product management for the Asia-Pacific region, said the conference would open with discussions on economics, trade and political issues, before moving into strategies for managing uncertainty.
Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.
'What are the tools you can utilise to try and handle the things you can't see, the things you can't necessarily predict?' he said.
The political and economic uncertainties are far greater than normal, he said.
'It's providing a real challenge to investors,' he added.
In early April, US President Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on all its trading partners, with China facing the heaviest duties. Global markets tumbled on the news and China applied its own tariffs on US imports. Last week, China and the US agreed to a 90-day truce on tariffs. China said it would lower duties on US imports to 10 per cent from 125 per cent, while the US would cut its tariffs to 30 per cent from 145 per cent.
Macleod said when he started planning the event six months ago, he was unsure whether tariffs and trade would still be relevant.
'Six months on, it is one of the key debates,' he said.
The AIC was expected to welcome more than 3,500 participants – including institutional investors, companies, ultra-high-net-worth individuals and family offices – up from over 3,000 last year, UBS said. The programme also includes a session focused on wealth management in Singapore ahead of the main conference, which runs from May 27 to 30 in Hong Kong.
About 80 speakers – including Pascal Lamy, the former head of the World Trade Organization; Raghuram Rajan, a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India; and Olivier Blanchard, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund – will address topics ranging from economics and geopolitics to artificial intelligence.
Simone Biles, the famous American gymnast, will also speak at the event, on the topic of resilience.
'When you think about the hours and hours and hours she's put in to become this iconic, successful gymnast, she certainly inspires me,' Macleod said.
'When you look at the uncertainties in the economy and how you deal with uncertainty, a lot of it is about being resilient,' he said.
For the latest news from the South China Morning Post download our mobile app. Copyright 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Roundup: Europeans turn away from U.S. amid growing anti-American sentiment
LONDON, June 6 (Xinhua) -- While waiting in line outside Rome's iconic Gallery Borghese with his family, Polish tourist Antoni Furman shared why the United States is never on his holiday list. "Europe is much less crowded, and the U.S. tariffs on the European Union affect our pockets," he said. Furman represents a growing number of Europeans opting out of engaging with the United States. A wave of anti-American sentiment is sweeping across the continent, as U.S. policies strain the transatlantic relationship and influence everyday decisions - from travel choices to consumer behavior. Inbound travel to the U.S. is projected to decline by 8.7 percent in 2025, with the sharpest drops expected from Canada and Western Europe, according to Oxford Economics. Data from the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office revealed that trips from overseas fell by 11.6 percent in March 2025 compared to the previous year. Visits from Western Europe alone plummeted 17.2 percent. Germany, Spain, and Ireland each saw declines exceeding 20 percent, while the United Kingdom and France recorded decreases of around 10 percent. Travel booking platform Omio reported a 16 percent increase in U.S. trip cancellations in the first quarter (Q1) year-on-year, with cancellation rates from the UK, Germany, and France nearing 40 percent. Tourism Economics, part of Oxford Economics, noted a 10 percent decline in European trip plans to the U.S. for the 2025 summer season. Oxford Economics pointed to several causes for the gloomy tourism outlook: trade tariffs targeting traditional allies, troubling media reports on border security, and controversial travel advisories. Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, criticized the Trump administration's approach, noting that Trump's aggressive rhetoric toward the European Union (EU), Greenland, and Canada are all unforced errors, and have impacts on how people view the U.S. A British woman working in sports echoed this sentiment, saying, "I disagree with many of Trump's policies. The U.S. just doesn't seem like a positive place. I'd rather visit France - and I think most Brits complain about Trump's policies." Avoiding travel is just one of the many ways Europeans are rejecting American influence. From daily household goods to tech and media, European consumers are actively boycotting U.S. brands. In Denmark, a Facebook group titled "Boykot varer fra USA (Boycott goods from USA)" surged to 95,000 members by April. Similar initiatives emerged in Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, and Poland, urging consumers to favor European-made products. On Reddit, around 200,000 members of the BuyFromEU community share alternatives to American brands such as Netflix, McDonald's, and Apple - down to everyday items like socks, ketchup, and headphones. To support the movement, European developers have launched barcode-scanning apps to help consumers identify the country of origin for products. Many supermarkets now feature dedicated sections for European goods, with clear signage highlighting EU-made products. Goldman Sachs analysts warned that the U.S. could lose up to 90 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2025 due to declining tourism and mounting international boycotts. The resulting slowdown could modestly drag on the country's GDP, primarily through reduced foreign tourism. Trump has destroyed the reputation of the U.S., said Paul English, co-founder of travel website Kayak. He stressed that the reduction of travels to the U.S. is not only one more terrible blow to the country's economy, but also represents reputation damage that could take generations to repair.
New Straits Times
4 hours ago
- New Straits Times
US-China trade talks to resume in seven days: White House
WASHINGTON: Trade negotiations between US and Chinese officials are expected to resume within seven days, following a phone call between President Donald Trump and President Xi Jinping. The discussions will place particular emphasis on rare earth minerals, White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro confirmed on Friday. "We expect that a meeting will take place within seven days," Navarro told reporters at the White House, commenting on the timeline of the next round of trade talks. Navarro stated that Trump has been clear that "the rare earth issue will be key to that negotiation", as reported by Sputnik/RIA Novosti. The US delegation will include Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, according to Navarro. The advisor also mentioned that Thursday's call between Trump and Xi lasted approximately 90 minutes, during which both leaders demonstrated "a very clear understanding" of the expected outcomes of the upcoming discussions. Trump later shared on Truth Social that he had discussed "some of the intricacies" of the US-China trade deal with President Xi. He also announced that he had accepted Xi's invitation to visit China and extended a reciprocal invitation. Following high-level trade and economic talks in Geneva earlier in May, Washington and Beijing agreed to lower reciprocal tariffs by 115 percentage points each for 90 days. The US has reduced tariffs on Chinese goods from 145 per cent to 30 per cent, while China has cut tariffs on American imports from 125 per cent to 10 per cent. Later that month, Trump accused China of "totally violating" the Geneva agreement and remarked that "it is extremely hard" to reach a deal with Beijing.–BERNAMA
New Straits Times
4 hours ago
- New Straits Times
US, China officials clash at Shanghai business event
SHANGHAI: US and Chinese officials traded barbs at a celebration held by a US business chamber in Shanghai on Friday, as the chamber appealed to both countries to provide more certainty to American businesses operating in China. Scott Walker, consul general of US consulate in Shanghai, told a gathering of US businesses aimed at celebrating the 110th anniversary of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Shanghai that the US-China economic relationship had been unbalanced and non-reciprocal "for far too long." "We want an end to discriminatory actions and retaliation against US companies in China," he said. In a speech that directly followed Walker's, Chen Jing, a Shanghai Communist Party official who is also the president of the Shanghai People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, countered Walker's view. "I believe the consul general's view is prejudiced, ungrounded and not aligning with the phone call of our heads of states last night," he said. The interaction reflects the continued strained relationship between both countries as the trade war continues to simmer. US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping spoke over a long anticipated call on Thursday, confronting weeks of brewing trade tensions and a battle over critical minerals. Trump later said they agreed to further talks. It came in the middle of a dispute between Washington and Beijing in recent weeks over "rare earths" minerals that threatened to tear up a fragile truce in the trade war between the two biggest economies. The countries struck a 90-day deal on May 12 to roll back some of the triple-digit, tit-for-tat tariffs they had placed on each other since Trump's January inauguration but the deal has not addressed broader concerns that strain the relationship and Trump has accused China of violating the agreement. Eric Zheng, president of AmCham Shanghai which counts over 1,000 companies among its membership, told reporters on the sidelines of the event that many companies had put their decision-making on pause due to the uncertainty. "People are looking for some more definitive, durable statements on both sides that enable businesses to feel more secure," he said.
