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Road to COP28: World Peace & Climate Justice Require More Inter-National Cooperation… Not a “New Cold War” Mindset
in their keynote address to the 2023 GMB Forum held in Borneo, Malaysia, 28–30 November 2023, on the eve of the Dubai COP 28 Summit, Maher Nicolas Firzli, World Pensions, and Christopher Smith, City of Westminster, shared their personal views re fostering peaceful coexistence at home and abroad, strengthening inter-national financial cooperation, and the need…
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Cold War II and the Asianized World: Financial Markets Adjusting to “The Great Pivot”
in this exclusive interview croisée with Nozipho Tshabalala, AllanGray Pension Leaders Summit, Maher–Nicolas J. Firzli and the Hon. Nick Sherry look at “the future of finance in the Age of Geoeconomics” … The new era will be marked by “durably higher interest rates” and an accelerating shift of economic growth dynamics towards “ASEAN, India, the…
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Private Equity, Infrastructure Investment: from ‘Alternative’ Assets to Investment Mainstay
Sophisticated pension investors and sovereign wealth funds are integrating geoeconomic considerations in their assessment of risks & returns across asset classes and jurisdictions. They are also raising their allocation to private market assets across the board: PE, VC, and also infrastructure, farmland and forestry etc. The current geo-economic realignment could favour ‘pension superpowers’ like the…
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China’s New Silk Road & America’s Tech Cold War Reshaping World Economy
EU ASEAN Centre director MN Firzli was one of the first experts to look at the geoeconomic impact of chairman Xi’s “Belt & Road Initiative” (BRI) when it was established a decade ago. Fast forward today, the BRI’s Gargantuan infrastructure investment ambitions are partially but not totally “mugged by the reality” of 1) China’s sluggish…
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Financial Markets Shrug off Gaza Conflict as White House Steps-up “Industrial Cold War” with China …
in this interview with Asharq News with Bloomberg, held at the start of the 2023 IMF & World Bank Group annual meetings (Marrakech Summit), EU ASEAN Ctr. director MN Firzli looks at the tragic events of Ashqelon, Sderot and Ghazzat Hashem from a geoeconomic perspective: assessing their potential impact on financial markets in the United…
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G7/EU Equity Markets Frailty: Why Europe’s Broken Growth Engine Means Lowers Returns
in his Sept. 25 2023 interview on Asharq News with Bloomberg, MN Firzli, co-chair of the EU ASEAN Centre (EuAC) and director general of the G7 Pensions Dialogue (G7 P7) shares his latest geoeconomic growth and country risk & attractiveness(CRA) research findings with Mohd. Salti and Maya Hojeij. In the “Western EU core”, defined as…
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Riyadh Expo 2030 Bid Gains Momentum as KSA Emerges as Pivot Nation (EU ASEAN Center)
As Saudi Arabia celebrates its 93rd birthday (unification of Najd, Hejaz and ‘Asīr), the kingdom emerges as Western Asia’s “pivot nation” and a leading player in the “Age of Geoeconomics” (post-globalization, New Cold War, rise of Global South etc.). HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has seized the “strategic moment” (Anc. Greek: καιρός), turning his…
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Europe’s Low-Growth Trap & How Private Capital Can Jumpstart GDP(EUforum)
in his 19 Sept. 2023 interview on Asharq News with Bloomberg, EU ASEAN Centre (EAC) & Paris Private Equity Roundtable (PER) director MN Firzli looks at the alarming economic news coming from Berlin, London and other European capitals: growth has stalled and inflation is back with a vengeance, leaving Europe behind as US, Australian, ASEAN…
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Private Equity Moving Center Stage for Pension & SWF Asset Owners (Paris Forum)
Paris Forum founder Nic Firzli shares latest advances in private equity allocation (“private markets matrix”), showing pension powers like the UK, Netherlands, Australia, Canada & the US, “controlling jointly more than 70% of the world’s combined assets”, as future funders of the Fifth Industrial Revolution centered on Ai, advanced microchips, transition minerals and renewable energy.…
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G20 Shifting the Trillions : Impact Investing, Green Infrastructure and Inclusive Growth
Our seminal EU ASEAN–G20 primer was republished in Berlin and Singapore ahead of the 2023 Delhi Summit. We argue that our postwar social contract has to cope with unprecedented shocks: Britain’s thorny withdrawal from the EU, worsening Migrant Crisis, rise in populist demagoguery on both sides of the Atlantic & beyond…But there are also positive…