Michael Bloomberg moves his new forum for business elites from China to Singapore due to ‘scheduling conflict’

A senior official with Bloomberg’s partners says the original Beijing plan would have clashed with November’s China International Import Expo in Shanghai –a showcase event for the Chinese government

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Michael Bloomberg, a former New York mayor and a critic of Donald Trump’s China policy, had planned to hold the event in Beijing in November. Photo: Photo: AP

Published: 12:30am, 31 Aug 2018Updated: 6:22am, 31 Aug 2018

Billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg’s new forum of business and political leaders that aims to rival the annual gathering in Davos, Switzerland will be relocated outside China because of “scheduling conflicts”.

Organisers of the New Economy Forum – aimed at improving understanding between China and the United States – had planned to hold the event in Beijing in early November, in partnership with influential think tank the China Centre for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE).

But the CCIEE asked for the forum to be moved to autumn next year because of “a growing number of scheduling conflicts in China this year”, Bloomberg said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that the event will instead be held in Singapore on November 6 and 7.

The city state was chosen as host due to “its position as one of the world’s leading international and business hubs”, the statement said.

A senior official with the CCIEE said the event would have clashed with the China International Import Expo being held from November 5 to 10 in Shanghai – an event seen by Chinese leaders as important for showing Beijing’s determination to open up, especially against the backdrop of the escalating trade war with the US.

The official said the organiser had made the decision to change the location, and that the CCIEE was “researching” whether or not it would continue to be involved in holding the forum, but he denied that the move had been prompted by fallout from the trade war.