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Quest Means Business

Americans Voting In First Major Test Of Trump's Second Term; Governor Races To Be Decided In New Jersey And Virginia; G20 Report Calls For Panel On Wealth Inequality; Cisco Positioning Itself As Key A.I. Infrastructure Firm; The Grand Egyptian Museum's Grand Opening; Guatemalan Tourism Minister Speaks On Sustainability. Aired 4-4:45p ET

Aired November 04, 2025 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:13]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Closing bell now ringing on Wall Street as if on cue, he pushes the button. The market

was down. Palantir earnings took the market lower. It has recovered as the session has moved, but not much, still heavily down, and if you looked at

the tech stocks they would be down even more.

Trading is coming to an end. One, two, three. No, sir. You didn't break the gavel despite your best efforts. I will have the full story of the market

and why I am wearing white sneakers after Labor Day. I will have the story of that.

Those are the markets and the main event of the day.

Economic activity and the soaring cost of living are the center of key elections across the U.S. today. Tech stocks are falling. Investors are

growing anxious on A.I. valuations. The president of CISCO will talk to us about that.

And we are speaking to tourism ministers at the World Travel Market and I will explain how and why I have some fancy footwear for the occasion.

Tonight, I am live in London as indeed you're joining me here on Tuesday. It is November the 4th. I am Richard Quest and in London, I mean business.

Good evening.

Voting continues in the United States, where the U.S. economy is at the center of today's general election. In many states, candidates in New York,

New Jersey and Virginia, they've all put the soaring cost of living at the heart of their election campaigns.

Inflation is elevated a year since President Trump's election victory, and that is especially true with volatile items like food and energy. And if

you add to it, the slowing labor market, which the Fed is deeply concerned about, you've added economic jitters.

The front runner in New York City's mayoral race has focused squarely on how difficult it is for people in New York to make ends meet. Zohran

Mamdani has proposed reforms, dramatic reforms like city-run grocery stores, free buses and a rent freeze for some tenants. He upset the former

governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, when Mamdani won the Democratic primary.

Cuomo, of course, is running against him as an Independent. President Trump has urged voters to back Cuomo to keep Mr. Mamdani, who Trump calls a

communist, out of office.

And this is how the candidates have responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Well, President Trump is pragmatic. He is telling them the reality of the situation, which is if you

do not vote, Mamdani is going to win. Who is Mamdani? I don't know, but he is a democratic socialist. He will bring socialism to New York City.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: Look if you are happy with the Donald Trump agenda, if you want to see more of Stephen Miller's

immigration agenda. If you think that its right that the richest man in the world is dominating our democracy to the benefit of himself, then by all

means, vote for Andrew Cuomo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Now the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa, has hosted a number of radio shows over the year, and he is reportedly a distant third.

Jason Carroll is in New York.

We will know the results -- I mean, well, remind us, of course, what time voting ends and when we can expect to get some results. One of the

interesting things I found in the last 24 to 48 hours as the insults flew, is that a Republican president didn't endorse the Republican candidate.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Interesting. Yes. And I think that's because when you look at the Republican candidate in this case,

Curtis Sliwa, because he is so far down in the polls, Richard, I think the feeling is that a vote for him would essentially be a vote for Mamdani,

which is why I would suspect the President said, look, if you're going to cast a vote, the person to cast it for is Andrew Cuomo, and we will see

whether or not that has an effect on the race.

I can tell you so far in terms of what we've been seeing out here on the ground, we are on the Upper West side of Manhattan is an incredible turnout

throughout the day. I mean, this polling place has been busy throughout the day. It has been open since 6:00 A.M. It is going to be closing like the

rest of the polls at 9:00 P.M.

We've been talking to voters as you can imagine, you know, throughout the day. And the consensus is, after speaking to, you know, a fair number of

people, is that what this race comes down to is a choice between the candidate who has experience, Andrew Cuomo.

[16:05:10]

He has got the experience governing a state. He knows the city. He has got the experience of dealing with the President, Donald Trump versus the man

who is the fresh face with what his supporters say are these fresh ideas and really zoning in on the issues that seem to be affecting a lot of New

Yorkers, as you mentioned, affordability, whether it be affordability with housing, freezing rent on rent-controlled apartments, whether it be

transportation, making buses free or making it free in terms of affordability, in terms of things like groceries.

So affordability seems to really be hitting home with a number of voters that we spoke to, but so does experience. Don't take my word for it, just

listen to some of those we heard from a little earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLORY MISSAN, MAMDANI VOTER: I love his ideas for education, for housing, for busing, all his concepts and his feelings for humanity.

DEWAYNE JACKSON, CUOMO VOTER: I decided to vote for Andrew Cuomo because he has a lot of experience. He has been the governor of New York, and he --

and I feel like we don't want our city to go in a direction that's not, you know important for businesses as well as our regular, everyday New Yorkers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Now, Richard, here is what is interesting. The elderly woman that you heard from just a few moments ago, Glory, who is voting for Mamdani. I

mean, again, she is 91 years old. What is interesting about that is she is throwing her support behind the young candidate, who is 34 years old.

Interesting, because so many of his supporters.

Now, look, he has broad appeal, but a lot of his supporters are coming from those who are younger, those who really keyed in on his campaign and the

social media aspects of his campaign. That gave him a lot of attention early on.

But interesting that you've got a 91-year-old lifelong New Yorker who says she is throwing her support behind Mamdani -- Richard.

QUEST: Absolutely fascinating. And, as you say, by my reckoning. So the polls close at nine, which is its four, five, six, seven, eight -- five

hours from now. Great. Thank you. Jason Carroll, I am grateful.

Voters are choosing the next governor of Virginia. It is a state reeling from cuts to the federal workforce. And now, of course, you have the month-

long government shutdown, which as of tomorrow, will be the longest so far.

Democrat Abigail Spanberger and the Republican Winsome Earle-Sears are vying for the job. Spanberger is a former congresswoman; Earle-Sears is the

state's current lieutenant governor.

The New Jersey governor's race is a tight contest between the Democrat Mikie Sherrill and the Republican Jack Ciattarelli. Sherrill is a Navy

veteran and a moderate in Congress. Opponent is a businessman who has President Trump's full support.

Danny freeman is in Passaic in New Jersey.

All right, I can hear our dear viewer who is, wherever they are in Europe, Middle East or Africa tonight saying, why do I care about these races in

New Jersey? And I am not being facetious when I say that. I ask it because it is what they tell us about what is happening, not just in New Jersey,

but in the U.S. electoral system. So why should they care?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Richard and I would go a step further, specifically when it comes to New Jersey, because

this is not only, as you know, one of the first races since the election of President Donald Trump to really get a feel of the electorate anywhere in

the United States. Of course, we have that governor's race also in Virginia and the mayor's race in New York.

But furthermore, this race in particular, Richard has really followed the trend lines of the United States' national politics even more than the

Virginia race, and frankly, Richard, the expectation is that this race is going to be close between Republican Jack Ciattarelli and Democrat Mikie

Sherrill here.

So this may be one of the biggest bellwethers, really, to determine what may be happening in the midterms. And, you know, years down the road with

our presidential elections.

So let me tell you specifically, though, why I am here, because, again, all of these through lines are important. I am in Passaic County, as you noted.

This county, Richard, is a swing county. It was a county that went for President Joe Biden. He won it by 26 points back in 2020. Well, then in

2024, President Trump won this county by seven points. So that's a massive swing.

So if you want to understand why President Trump really won last year, you don't have to look much further than this county. And the big question that

we all have, Richard is, does Jack Ciattarelli the Republican here, does he have the ability to build on what President Donald Trump did here? Or will

this county and others flip back to being reliably blue, as its been known to be?

[16:10:17]

Here's what I want you to do, Richard. I had a number of conversations with a number of voters who I asked, what is your motivation for voting and

coming out today? I want you to take a listen and just have your viewers pay attention to the last man there, because Latino voters are going to be

crucial to this particular election. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Was your vote today for Sherrill more about her plan to be governor or more about being a check against the Trump administration?

MARLA CASAS, NEW JERSEY VOTER: Being a check against the Trump administration. Yes.

FREEMAN: That for you was the most important thing.

CASAS: That's correct. Because it impacts and I see the impact being, again, the boots on the ground and seeing the need, knowing the need.

FREEMAN: A lot of Latinos though in this area, they went for Trump last time. Do you think that's going to happen again?

CLAUDIO MARTINEZ, NEW JERSEY VOTER: No. I think no, I am doing Uber yesterday. I picked liked ten passengers between the age 22 and 30, and

mostly say they vote the first time for Donald Trump. Not this time, because the party is completely different. Nothing that he promised is

being done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: And I will say, forgive me, Richard, for being loud out here. The wind has been competing with me all day. But anyway, from those voices, you

really get an idea of the two things. First, that this has become very much a national election, and second, that Latino voters in the United States,

certainly here in New Jersey, really hold a tremendous amount of power. And the big question is, is that limited to President Donald Trump, or will it

continue to go in the Republicans' favor in this particular election here in New Jersey? We will find out in a matter of hours when the poll closes

here. -- Richard.

QUEST: I am grateful. Thank you. It looks like a bright day, albeit windy. Thank you, sir.

So the issue really that's at the heart of it all besides Donald Trump's policies per se, but it is economic inequality. And it is at the core of

the election, and it goes far beyond as well, which is why this new report from a G20 task force, it was commissioned by the G20 current president,

Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa is calling it one of the most -- inequality, that is -- the urgent concerns of the world today.

So here is the statistics that everybody is bandying around. The richest one percent of the world's population has captured 41 percent of new wealth

since 2000, and the converse is true. So the bottom lot only gained by one percent. The task force is calling for a new panel on inequality, modeled

after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control.

Jayati Ghosh is a Professor of Economics at University of Massachusetts in Amherst, one of the authors. We will get to your recommendation in a

moment. What I -- okay, I am trying to -- when I look at the report, what is it telling me that I didn't know already? It may be telling me it is

getting worse, and it may be pointing it out with a brass band and balloons, but we've known that inequality is growing, so why is this a more

of a clarion call at the moment?

JAYATI GHOSH, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS IN AMHERST: Well, I think it is clear that we are not saying something new. We

are saying something that people have been noticing and you talked about it yourself, and you talked about the New York elections.

I think what we are trying to get across here is that inequality is not inevitable. It is not a process that's driven by technological change only

or anything like that, it is a political choice. It is a policy choice. It can be changed and it must be changed if we are going to preserve democracy

in any meaningful way.

QUEST: When you say, because what does strike about this report is this comment about, you know, it hits at the core of democracy, it pulls apart

the fabric of democracy. There will be some people who will say, yes, it is a bit hyperbole. I mean, you know, we've had inequality for a very long

time and we've had worsening equality for a while. Why do you think it pulls at the fabric and what is the evidence of that?

GHOSH: Well, what we are seeing all around us is much greater social political instability, much greater disaffection with political systems and

democratic systems and much greater alienation of ordinary people who feel that this is not delivering for them and who are turning to all kinds of

very different and often very unpleasant ways out of this.

What we are seeing is not just the poor getting poorer or feeling more fragile, or their material conditions getting worse. The hollowing out of

middle classes, and so on. We are also seeing the tremendous expansion of wealth at the top and associated with that expansion, the tremendous

increase in the power of the very, very wealthy.

[16:15:09]

And globally, this is probably the greatest it has ever been in human history that a few people are controlling political processes, legal,

regulatory processes through that extreme wealth.

QUEST: You see, I can -- I hear what you say, but an intergovernmental conference of the climate sounds like exactly the worst --

GHOSH: No, no. It is not a conference.

QUEST: No, no, but the --

GHOSH: We are not asking for a conference at all. No, no, please understand, we are not asking for an intergovernmental anything. We are

asking for an international panel of experts to put together all the information we have to assess the quality of the data to provide scientific

evidence of what is happening and what are the drivers, and how we can actually change this.

This is similar to the panel on climate change in only in the sense that we are asking for objective international panel that would put together all

the existing research and become a kind of scientific background.

QUEST: How do you prevent this very worthy panel, which will no doubt follow up the recommendation -- I mean, you will obviously come up with the

evidence, but how do you actually take this to some form of concrete policy action that governments can do? Because that seems to me to be the

difficult part.

GHOSH: Well, we have listed a range of policy actions and regulatory practices and legal conditions that would dramatically improve the

inequality that we see today. We have a number of them listed in the report. But really this is all very context specific.

And what we are saying is that once people realize the extent of it, once they understand the drivers, once they have sufficient data to be able to

assess this properly, there will be greater demand for many of these policies to be implemented.

And it is not pie in the sky. There are many governments that have managed to reduce inequality, and we have talked about the various things that they

have done.

QUEST: When I look at this and nobody doubts, I think the increasing range of inequality that takes place -- that is taking place at the moment, is it

when we talk about the fabric of democracy, is it a case that we are looking at social unrest, where we are looking at, yes, people on the

street, the sort of protests and yes, violence as well, that is abhorrent but often becomes the inevitable result of widening inequality.

GHOSH: Well, these can be some outcomes and we've seen them already in several countries, certainly in the developing world and in parts of the

rich countries as well. But it is more than that. It is the fact, as I've mentioned before, that extreme inequality and particularly the rising

wealth and incomes of the extremely wealthy globally create disproportionate power. And that power is being used to increase their own

-- to increase inequality further. That power is used to influence regulatory standards, practices, policies that actually further add to

inequality. And they prevent us from being able to do things about climate change. They add to social alienation, which then, as you mentioned, adds to unrest. And

we get all kinds of extremely unpleasant social reactions.

QUEST: I am grateful for your time. I mean, it is a sort of an incredibly important but somewhat depressing outlook. But thank you for joining us

tonight and putting it in perspective. Thank you ma'am.

As investors signal anxiety about the circular dynamic of A.I., we will speak to the president of CISCO joining us to put into perspective, because

it is interesting what we are also going to talk about, sir, is how CISCO is making its A.I. bet and will win whoever wins because of the way they're

doing it.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS tonight live in London.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:21:56]

QUEST: The U.S. markets were down today as I've told you at the top of the show, and the reason was anxiety over the huge investments in A.I. It was

the software giant, Palantir that reported solid earnings, but the shares fell more than eight percent, and as you can see, the rest all went down

with it. Well, not as much, but they all went down. Some held their nerve, but not surprisingly, Intel was another brunt off and Microsoft held its

nerve.

Wall Street is worried about the sky high valuations and even Michael Burry of the Big Short revealed he betting against Palantir and NVIDIA. You can

see they are all down.

Today's market pullback comes after record highs and solid gains in October, largely, it is all A.I. and that has been good news for CISCO,

which produces networking hardware and software. A key player but not in chips per se, it is in the infrastructure and new platforms that aim to

speed up the processing. I tis called the CISCO Unified Edge.

The device uses an Intel chip. It is expected to be available by the end of the year. There is a whole load of racks that they are putting together. A

lot of its agnostic as to which chip you want to use because Jeetu Patel is the president and chief product officer at CISCO. He is joining us, as you

would expect via CISCO WebEx which is, good to have you, sir.

The interesting thing about you, and we will come on to valuations and why you think -- but the interesting thing about CISCO's A.I. play is that

largely you're agnostic as to the chips, as to the players, as to the infrastructure, because essentially you want to be the backbone, you want

to be the plumbing, the bogs and the drains, as we used to say, of whatever system is finally put in place.

JEETU PATEL, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER, CISCO: We are definitely the infrastructure provider in this movement, Richard. Firstly, thank you

for having me on the show and it is great to be here. And you are correct that we are pretty agnostic on what models customers use. What GPUs they

might use. We have partnerships with all of them, but we work with all of these players in the market so that we can make sure that we can further

the cause of A.I.

Right now, if you look at what is happening in A.I., it is constrained in three areas, Richard. The first one is it is constrained in infrastructure.

There is just not enough power, compute capacity and networking bandwidth in the world to satiate the needs of A.I., so that's the first constraint.

The second constraint is a trust deficit. People just don't feel like these systems are safe and secure. We build safety and security systems for A.I.

and the third is a data gap where people don't always have the right core tooling to make sure that they can harness the most amount from their data

that they have that's proprietary data to get them ahead. And we help with all three of these areas.

QUEST: And when you put that into the context, but you're just as vulnerable if the A.I. bubble has been overinflated, and when I say burst,

let's just say there is a dramatic pullback in spending that is going to hit you, too.

[16:25:14 ]

PATEL: Well, the way I think about this right now is in any such major mega trend or a platform shift, you're going to have some companies who might

have frothy valuations, but there are industries that are going to get creative as a result of this movement.

And, you know, CISCO is providing infrastructure. We provided infrastructure during the internet age. We provided during Cloud. We are

providing it right now. So we are just providing the underlying infrastructure to make sure that these things continue to keep humming for

all classes of customers, from hyperscalers to neo clouds to sovereign clouds to service providers to enterprises, and so we have a lot of kind of

diversity in our customer base that helps out.

QUEST: But I do remember looking for some months ago, I seem to recall I had to look at the CISCO share price back in the dot-com boom and bust, and

it was as dramatic the fall. Yes, of course it recovered. But it fell like everybody else.

And I guess that makes you as vulnerable in the short term like everybody else.

PATEL: Well, I don't want to comment on share price, but I will say that the volatility that some of the other players in the market experience,

CISCO is a very steady company that is actually continuously just kept executing quarter and quarter out. But we just have a slightly different

profile than what someone who has actually had a huge run up over the course of the past few years.

QUEST: How far, and this is a bit like asking you how long is a piece of string -- how far do you think we are into this A.I. revolution? And, you

know, people talk about it being overvalued and this and hype and blah. But if we do look back to dot-com boom and bust and internet, the gains came,

but the market just was pathetic at timing it as in sales and productivity as indeed it is now.

But where do you think we are in this revolution?

PATEL: Well, if you were in America, I'd give you a baseball analogy, but given the fact that you're from the U.K., I will give you a cricket

analogy. If you think about 50 overs in a match, I think we are probably at over number two or three. We are still in the very early days, Richard, and

there is so much that needs to still get built out. There is so much potential that is there to go out to impact every industry.

We are in the very early days where people are starting to see the definitive potential of the technology, but we are nowhere near having

close to realized all of it yet, so I think we are in the early days.

QUEST: And the wider -- you know, at the beginning of this program, you may not have heard it, but our lead story tonight, as well as the elections in

the U.S. has been this report that shows dramatic inequality and the increase of inequality.

Now, the road we are taking will give those of us who have got more, some of us will have more leisure, but entire workforces are going to be

destroyed one way or another. Do you think were ready for that? Do you think we are prepared for that?

PATEL: Let me actually take a step back on what you said earlier, which is the inequality. I think A.I. is one of the force multipliers for creating

equality, because what it does is it levels the playing field. And when you start thinking about, you know, jobs getting lost, this is a very active

dialogue going on right now where people are worried about A.I. taking their job.

My perspective on this is that it is not A.I. that's takes your job, it is someone that uses A.I. better than you that you should worry about that

takes your job. And in fact, the way that we should be thinking about this is not that A.I. is going to take our jobs, but what can we do to make sure

that we use A.I. to do our jobs more effectively?

And in fact, over the course of the next few years, it will be unfathomable for us to actually do our job on a daily basis without A.I.

So I am of the opinion that there is a lot of areas where people say, well, let us eliminate entry level jobs in businesses. I think that's one of the

most erroneous strategies that companies can take, because that's the injection of new talent.

Richard, if you compare someone who is 20 years old and how they use A.I. and then compare that to someone who is 30 years old and use A.I., it is

radically different. A 30-year-old uses it very transactionally. They might use it by saying, let me make this a search engine that's on steroids. A

20-year-old thinks of it as a companion, thinks of it as a brainstorming partner.

I think there is a lot for us to learn from the new generation. I have a 14-year-old daughter, the way that she uses A.I. is very different from the

way that someone who is a person like me who has been around for ages and ages.

So I do feel like the strategy of not bringing new talent into the workforce is a flawed one.

PATEL: -- as a brainstorming partner. I think there's a lot for us to learn from the new generation. I have a 14-year-old daughter. The way that she

uses A.I. is very different from the way that, you know, someone who is a person like me who's been around for ages and ages. So I do feel like the

strategy of not bringing new talent into the workforce is a flawed one.

[16:30:21]

QUEST: Fascinating. Yes. We have to pause and say thank you, but I'd like to get a commitment that you'll come back and talk about these bigger

issues again because this is -- this is the future that we are talking about. And you have great insight.

Will you come back again?

PATEL: I'd be honored to.

QUEST: Good.

PATEL: I'd be honored to. Thank you for having me.

QUEST: Thank you very much, sir. Excellent.

Now, you know, we're talking about A.I. and we're talking about the future. Now, let's sort of put this into some real time perspective. The GEM, the

Grand Egyptian Museum. Now the museum itself has been in the work for decades. Its coverage of civilizations going back millennia, and according

to a top government minister, is well worth the wait.

Rania is a good friend of the program, will be with us. You'll hear from her after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: One of Egypt's top ministers told me the Grand Egyptian Museum, the GEM, is going to be huge for tourism. Minister Rania Al-Mashat is the

Egyptian minister of planning, economic and development and international cooperation. She used to be, of course, the minister for tourism.

I sat down with her at the Global Perspectives, the CNN Global Perspectives Conference. She told me that the Grand Museum was worth a decades long

wait.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANIA AL-MASHAT, EGYPTIAN MINISTER OF PLANNING, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION: Well, the Grand Egyptian Museum is not only for

Egypt, it's for the world. And it is significant. It is significant because we're expecting five million tourists a year to come and visit the GEM.

Because of the GEM, there has been connectivity between tourism and the resorts in Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada, with cultural tourism.

[16:35:05]

We have now the Sphinx Airport, which is very close to the GEM. The GEM also is the only museum dedicated to one civilization. The full collection

of Tutankhamun. So there are so many -- if we're talking about an integrated development project, not just a tourism project, that would be

the Grand Egyptian Museum.

QUEST: You see, I was interested because recently I was in Bilbao, where, of course, the Guggenheim is. Now, the difference there, of course, is the

Guggenheim restructured and refocused the city. But that's not the same thing with Egypt. Egypt is a much more mature, developed tourism market.

But I do see the GEM as being a potential of a new start or a new -- of a renewal of a tourism policy.

AL-MASHAT: Absolutely. It's, as you mentioned, we're trying within the GEM not just to show the antiquities. You have places for art, entertainment,

the whole area around the GEM will have new hotels where we're seeing a peak with respect to arrivals. By 2030, we want to move from the 15 million

tourists we have today to 30 million tourists. So that includes investments. It includes, all the -- all the industry around tourism.

We have employment multiplier 1.5 or 2.5. So for every direct job there are two or three jobs that are added.

QUEST: But one of the things that's been fascinating at this conference at Global Perspectives is -- and this is where you come in, it's about

execution. Everybody knows what needs to be done. Regulatory, infrastructure, investment, multilateral, blah, blah, blah. Everybody

knows. But you have the job of actually making it happen.

AL-MASHAT: So, you mentioned a lot of vocabulary. Let's put it in Egypt's journey. Infrastructure. We spend so much on infrastructure over the past

years, the GEM being one of them. So this is paving the way for the next stage, which is more exports, more ready. An economy ready for more

investments in the renewable sector, in pharmaceuticals, in textiles, benefiting from the trade agreement that Egypt has with 70 countries.

The market not just of Egypt, but of Africa, trying to create investment facilitation for trade. So it's a very multi-dimensional economy. We're

very diversified. We have an industrial base. We're trying to push ICT, tourism, manufacturing. If you take a look at our GDP numbers today,

despite the headwinds from Suez Canal being negative, we've grown by -- we've grown by 5 percent last quarter and 4.4 percent during the year.

QUEST: The war in Gaza, which clearly had an effect on the entire region. Now it is, at least for the moment, there is peace. How will Egypt take

advantage? What do you now need to do on the back of that peace that returns you to some sort of normality?

AL-MASHAT: When we met last in Dubai, this was in February, and things were very much heightened, we're very happy that Egypt hosted the peace

conference in Sharm el-Sheikh on the 9th and 10th of October. A very big commitment from the United States, other leaders, and, of course, our

president, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, was fundamental in putting this together.

Peace comes back, 12 percent of its international trade through Suez returns. This is a lower costs for the world, lower costs for citizens

everywhere. Inflation will come down for sure. But what we have learned over the past few years, despite the shocks, despite the shocks, we create

resilience. We create resilience through policies, through reforms. Trying to create more policy predictability as well, and being very much on

message.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: And that's Rania at the World Travel Market.

I spoke to Guatemala's Tourism Minister Harris Whitbeck. He says Guatemala is attracting new visitors without compromising on sustainability.

So how do you stand out from a crowded market?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS WHITBECK, GUATEMALAN TOURISM MINISTER: Yes, well, it's all about making noise. And I'm a communicator as well. So it's all about how we

communicate. What Guatemala offers is, and it's what distinguishes us from other destinations in the region, is the authenticity in our products. It's

the color. It's the tradition. It's the food. And so what we work, we work very closely with communities who are receptive to tourism and bring them

with us.

For example, we have the kite makers from one region in Guatemala where it's traditional to fly these kites on November 1st. So they come here and

they're actually producing their product. They're involving people. People get a very hands on experience.

QUEST: How are you building the tourism market in Guatemala? Because it's one of those destinations that is ripe for discovery.

WHITBECK: Absolutely.

QUEST: And --

WHITBECK: Couldn't put it better.

[16:40:01]

QUEST: Yes, but it's managing that growth now, isn't it? Because, sure, you can go hell for leather to grow.

WHITBECK: That's not what we want.

QUEST: Yes, but you can do.

WHITBECK: Then that's, and that's --

QUEST: You can do, and you can have all the airlines coming in, low-cost carriers.

WHITBECK: No.

QUEST: Open up, build hotels on the beach. Off you go.

WHITBECK: That's exactly what we do not want. There is nothing wrong with the all-inclusive model. And it works for other destinations. Guatemala

offers so much more that that would be the wrong approach. What we need to do is ensure sustainability, both, you know, biodiversity and also cultural

sustainability. And we need to take advantage of what we can offer, which attracts a different kind of visitor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: Now, you'll hear more from Minister Whitbeck tomorrow and the tourism ministers of Indonesia, Qatar, over the next few days.

The World Travel Market takes place at ExCel Center, the massive exhibition center. You remember we had the ExCel chief exec, Jeremy Rees, and we agree

it's such a vast venue the right pair of shoes is essential.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: The only thing I'll say is when walking around ExCel, wear comfy shoes. You know, I'm wearing my black brogues today. I'll tell you, if I

spent a day walking around Excel in these, I'd be crippled by tea time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Well, thankfully, Mr. Rees was there at Excel and my prayers were answered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY REES, CEO, EXCEL LONDON: I was concerned about you. I have got you, I have got you some branded no less comfortable shoes for walking around a

brilliant trade show.

QUEST: Look at that. That has to take the biscuit and the trade show. Don't really fit very well. Look at this. This is --

REES: No one is going to pinch those.

QUEST: I am so impressed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: And there they are. Genuinely got my name on them. Got the program name on them. I'm very grateful.

And that is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for this news night. I'm Richard Quest in London. Oh, the bell is over there. I'll have to go back for the bell. As

always, whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, I hope it's profitable.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:45:51]

(CONNECTING AFRICA)

END