Executive sat down with Kelvin Tay, Swiss banking stalwart UBS’ managing director and chief investment officer for the Southern Asia and Pacific region, during his first visit to Lebanon. While he notes his enthusiasm concerning the growth of the Asian market, he expresses concerns regarding the MENA region’s attractiveness for investment. For more on UBS and Kelvin Tay, read “A tougher game“. From your perspective as a Swiss banker who is based in Singapore, how do Asia and the Middle East correlate? They are both similar in that they are both export-oriented. The Middle East, however, has actually just one product: oil and gas. The problem is that oil prices over the next 10 to 15 years will no longer be at the level that we are used to. We [at UBS] think oil prices will be flat and there is further downside risk due to shrinking oil imports
