Egypt has issued a warning that it will consider suspending the Camp David peace agreement that was signed between Egypt and Israel many years ago, if Israel proceeds with its ground offensive in southern Gaza. Egypt’s statement was issued following the initiation of airstrikes by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Saturday in Rafah, a city near the Egyptian border. Israel previously designated the city as a safe zone for civilians, with an estimated 1.4 million Palestinians seeking refuge there. The city’s population was approximately 280,000 prior to the start of the war four months ago, and it is currently considered the final stronghold of Palestinian militant group Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said carrying out ground assaults in Rafah is essential to defeating the Palestinian militant group, which raided Israeli villages on October 7, killing more than 1,200 people and taking hundreds of hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has emphasized the necessity of conducting ground operations in Rafah in order to achieve victory over the Palestinian terrorist group that launched terror attacks on Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of over 1,200 Israeli civilians and the abduction of hundreds of Israeli hostages by Hamas terrorists. Egypt has consistently declared that it will not allow a influx of Palestinians seeking refuge into its territory, since the North African country is already already hosting nearly 9 million migrants and refugees as reported by the United Nations officials. Israel and Egypt have engaged in four significant military conflicts, with the most recent taking place in 1973. In September 1978, both countries entered into the Camp David Accord, leading to a peace agreement the subsequent year. This historic agreement, facilitated by former US President Jimmy Carter, enabled the establishment of complete diplomatic relations between the two nations, marking Israel’s inaugural peace treaty with an Arab country. On Sunday, two unnamed Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat, also speaking anonymously, said that the Egyptian government could terminate the pact in response to Israeli military action in Rafah. Two unidentified Egyptian officials and a Western diplomat, who requested anonymity, stated yesterday that in reaction to Israeli military operations in Rafah, the Egyptian government might consider terminating the historic agreement. According to Paige Alexander, CEO of the Carter Center, the Camp David Accords were led by three brave men who took a bold stance because they knew the lasting effects for peace and security, both then and for the future. Alexander warned that any engagement prompting Egypt’s involvement in the conflict would have disastrous repercussions throughout the entire region. SOURCE: Egypt Threatens to End Camp David Peace Treaty With Israel BY: eTurboNews | eTN
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In a landmark lecture on Thailand at this year’s joint meeting of the Association of Thai Travel Agents and the Thai Hotels Association on 5 February, Professor Dr. Piti Srisangnam, head of the ASEAN Foundation, cited “De-Dollarisation” as one of “6D” trends that will shake up Travel & Tourism, the other five being Decoupling/ DeRisking of the global value chains, Deglobalization, Destabilization, the Digital Divide and Degradation of Environment. de-Dollarisation The lecture is set to reset the content of industry discourse, in Thailand and beyond. For the first time, two leading Thai travel & tourism industry associations invited a professor to discuss the impact of geopolitical conflicts on their businesses, jettisoning the repetitively boring talks on post-COVID recovery, sustainability, and technology. In a cogently argued lecture, Dr Piti challenged many of the sunny-side-up positions presented by corporate speakers at industry forums. Between the lines, he highlighted the problematic role of the United States in all the 6Ds, from wars and conflict to currency volatility, trade wars, technological disruption, and environmental degradation. Who is Dr. Piti Srisangnam? Dr. Piti Srisangnam holds a Ph.D. degree in Economics and Commerce from the University of Melbourne (Australia), and an M.A. degree inInternational Economics and Finance from Chulalongkorn University (Thailand). He has been teaching International Economics and ASEAN Studies for bachelor’s and master’s degree students at Chulalongkorn University since 2002. He has been Deputy Director for Academic Affairs of the Centre for European Studies from 2010 to 2012 and Deputy Director for Academic Affairs of the ASEAN Studies Center in 2012, both at Chulalongkorn University, before he became Director of the ASEAN Studies Center in 2013. He has been selected for the 2019 Rising Star Royal Thai Government Scholarships Association Award: Rising Star. In 2021, he was granted the Dongfang Scholarship to become a visiting scholar at Peking University for one semester. He has published several papers in journals and books e.g. on the economic development in Southeast Asia, on trade in services among ASEAN Member States, on the regional economic integration of ASEAN and of the European Union, on the economic reform and SME development in Thailand, on ASEAN-India, ASEAN-China and ASEAN-Japan and ASEAN-ROK relations. Apart from academic work, he also hosts 4 radio programs related to current issues in ASEAN. Of all the 6Ds, his most detailed views were on De-Dollarisation, which directly impacts the bottom lines of every company. Thailand faces a 1.6 billion Dollar tourism 50% of China’s trade no longer uses the U.S. dollar Prof Piti outlined many reasons why countries and companies were shifting away from the US dollar. More than 50% of China’s international trade no longer uses the US dollar. China has also scaled back its US Treasury Bond holdings from over $1.3 trillion to $700 billion because of “irresponsible US Monetary and Fiscal policies.” He cited the example of the US’s deployment of Quantitative Easing (QE) measures to recover from the Sub-Prime Economic Crisis (2006-2009), Global Financial Crisis (2009-2012), Covid Crisis (2020-2022), during which the US pumped US$9.4 trillion into the system. Because interest rates in America were very low at that time, money flowed out of the US to, amongst other countries, Thailand. This made the baht strong and affected Thai tourism and exports. The US, too, felt the impact as the QE policies triggered inflation. That, in turn, led to higher interest rates. From 2022 until the beginning of 2023, interest rates were raised 11 times from 0.25% to 5.5%. Then, money began to flow back to America in huge amounts leading to a depreciation of the Thai baht. Why rely on the United States? “So, managing currency fluctuations like this, many countries are beginning to think about why they must rely on America.” Citing another example of “irresponsible US fiscal policy,” Dr Piti noted that the US government alone is in debt of US$35-36 trillion while the country’s GDP is US$26 trillion. Just paying off the debt is costing the US $1 trillion per month. The American Credit Game “These are the games that America is playing. It is like taking the first credit card to buy something. When the credit limit is full, use a second credit card to pay off the debt on the first credit card. When the second credit card is full, ask Congress to raise the ceiling on third credit cards to pay off the first and second credit card bills. Eventually, this will land up in bankruptcy court.” He said today, the question is whether the US will ever go bankrupt. “In the past, people did not believe that America would get to that point because everyone uses the US dollar. But now China, which is the world’s number one factory and economy, has cut its use of the dollar in half.” He said countries like The Netherlands and the British once had dominant currencies. “Is anyone trading with these currencies now? Answer: Very few.” So, he said, the question is not if it will happen, but when. America will go bankrupt, but when? Debunking the claim that the US dollar is a safe-haven currency, he explicitly warned the tour companies and hoteliers that they could unknowingly run afoul of US anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism laws. After 2001, he said, the US amended its Currency Act to allow the US dollar to become a tool for exercising extraterritorial rights. He said if two countries are using their currencies for trading, there is no problem, but if the US dollar is used for any trading with a country that may be facing sanctions, such as Iran, “America has the right to arrest us.” That is why when China exports goods to Iran, the billing is always in Yuan. He recalled the case of the CFO of Huawei, the daughter of the company’s owner, who was arrested while in transit through Canada, because of just one instance of Huawei using US dollars to trade. Eventually, nothing was found against her, and she was released. He asked the tour operators and hoteliers if they had ever read the fine print of the foreign exchange declaration forms that have to be used when remitting or receiving foreign exchange from abroad. These declarations have to be filed by the transacting banks for submission to the Bank of Thailand (Central Bank). “Have you ever read the details in the declaration document?” Dr Piti asked. “It will include some items that are not issued by the Bank of Thailand. They are issued by the Federal Reserve. What does the Federal Reserve have to do with Thai banks? For this reason, many countries do not want to use the US dollar.” He forecasts more economic problems this year because the US is in an election year. This will require the US government to prop up the economy by using more stimulus measures which will only create more debt. That will only see a repetition of the same scenario that he had cited earlier of low-interest rates, higher debt, inflow-outflow of funds, inflation, and currency fluctuations. Exchange Rate Risks “So what mechanisms will we have to prevent exchange rate risks? If your business does not do well because of poor sales, that’s one thing. But losing money because of exchange rate fluctuations, that’s painful.”” On De-Stabilization, Dr Piti noted how the war in Ukraine has impacted food and energy security, and was also impacting tourism. For example, Russians are no longer going to Europe. Both Ukrainians and Russians are traveling to Thailand While this is good, many are also becoming investors and buying up distressed properties such as small 2/3-star accommodations that went bankrupt during Covid. In the future, this will mean more competition for Thai-owned properties. The Middle East Situation He forecast that the Middle East situation is likely to spread, depending on whether Iran gets directly involved. Myanmar and South China Situation Thailand will also be affected by disturbances closer to home such as the situations in Myanmar and the South China Sea. All these problems are in some way interconnected, and will impact other areas such as energy, food, mining, and oil, which in turn, will impact travel & tourism. The Digital Divide On the Digital Divide, Dr Piti said it was another battleground as the US and China compete for technological superiority, especially the mobile phone companies Apple and Huawei. While the technology that goes into mobile phones will make travel more convenient, greater use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will reduce the role of Tour Operators in planning trips and making bookings and reservations. That, plus the increased use of robotics will impact on job-creation in Travel and Tourism, especially among the rank-and-file.A lot of the repetitive tasks can be performed by chatbots and robots. Personnel Management Issues Compared to Robots “Personnel management issues are one of the biggest headaches, especially in hotels. But robots work 7 days a week, 24 hours without a break. Most importantly, they don’t call in sick, don’t face marital problems, don’t take drugs, and do not make customers feel annoyed. The question is, how do you adjust?” 6G Technology All this technology will require infrastructure support, especially the use of 6G technology. And here’s another digital divide because countries such as Thailand are ahead while others such as Indonesia are behind. This will require constant investment in keeping the infrastructure upgraded. Energy Transition The transition in energy will also be a challenge. As the world shifts to renewable sources of supply, new challenges emerge. For example, solar power can generate electricity but cannot store it, which makes it useless at night. Investment in energy storage is very high. When energy storage gains commercial ground, additional investment will be required in upgrading the infrastructure. Sports Tournament He also cited the wild price gyrations caused by seasonality or even temporary events like sports tournaments. Bars in England triple the price of beers during the broadcast of special football matches and go back to normal after it’s over. “Spatial Computing makes it very easy to change computer barcodes. So, for example, if you are walking in a shopping mall, and if it starts raining, the costs of rain-protection gear could be raised immediately.” Dr Piti said industry pricing schemes were also plagued by confusion and could be inflationary. In the old days, the price of an air ticket included everything — baggage, meals, etc. Now everything is on a user-pays basis. What will this mean in the future? Will airlines charge for using bathrooms? Will hotels charge for drinking water, mattresses, and other things? Climate Change On environmental degradation, Prof Piti said climate change is already impacting many aspects of life through natural disasters. SOURCE: Travel & Tourism Urged to Do Less Business in US Dollars BY: eTurboNews | eTN
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