Asia-Pacific

Mm-hmm

... uh, for its, uh, impact on, on, on the entire East Asia Pacific region, uh, and the world, for that matter, given the size and scope of its, uh, economy.

So you can't-- you can never rule them out, but, um, it's not the only thing, and I'm not-- I think there's too many other factors contributing to the glue that holds, uh, this together, starting with history, the, uh, security relationships that have developed over the years, the renewed interest in the Philippines now from not only ourselves, but other countries such as Japan, which we've talked about already, but also, uh, Korea and others.

So, uh, it's a factor, but it's not the only factor.

Well, let's unpack this now with Dr. Graham Ong Webb, a young fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

He's also Senior Advisor, Geopolitical and Regulatory Risk, Asia-Pacific at Crowell.

Graham, thank you for joining us this morning.

So ISD says the terrorism threat to Singapore remains high, while also saying there is no specific intelligence of an imminent attack.

Pleasure is all ours.

We've been speaking there with Dr. Graham Ong Webb, a young fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.

Now, he's also a senior advisor, geopolitical and regulatory risk, Asia-Pacific at Crowe.

Then we have H&M staying in Europe.

Then we're going to move over to the APAC region and talk about JD.com. Obviously, China, robots, AI.

Can't have a podcast without that.

And then we will move back to the UK to talk through Google and some potential finds there.

And we will end back in the APAC region in Australia.

Fantastic.

Okay, so tell me, what's happening with Inditex?

We do have quite a few visitors that come either for sports or group business, but predominantly leisure travel.

Yeah, and I know coming out of the pandemic, one of the biggest stories about Hawaii was the drop-off in travelers from the Asia Pacific region.

How is that looking now?

Yeah, it's been an interesting story over the course of the last six years.

Right now, and it's been continued, where there's currency pressure across Asia Pacific as well as Oceania.

And now we have fuel tariffs.

So there are fuel tariffs against every ticket.

We're hoping those ease over time.

The venue for the meeting is all decked out to welcome the leaders.

Shenzhen will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit on November 17 and 18.

Around 1,000 business and political leaders from APAC economies will attend the summit in the southern Chinese city.

The event will focus on promoting shared prosperity and a win-win future.

Participants will discuss issues including the Asia-Pacific free trade area, artificial intelligence, and sustainable development, and offer recommendations for boosting regional economic growth.

The Treasury Department says it will also deny most Iran-related licensing requests.

The Hormuz crisis has exposed Asia Pacific's energy vulnerabilities.

APEC ministers are meeting in Beijing to chart a way forward on whether the region can turn crisis into opportunity.

Leo Jashin has more.

It's not just a European topic.

People in the MENA region, in, in the APAC region are thinking about this themselves, and, and, and, and, insofar that Mistral can support them as they think about their own developments, they'll be doing it.

Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.

I guess that maybe ties to my, my final question for you both, um, as we come up on time here.

So that hasn't really happened.

And even the examples in like APAC region have still been ones where incentives have been given to the consumer to go and actually use an agent to buy something.

So it's going to be really interesting to see, like you said, the trust aspect of it and how that comes across.

So my recommendation to all of our customers is be ready for that.