Blair Inc targets Far East

By Edward Malnick

Tony Blair has expanded his business empire into the Far East. 

The former prime minister has struck a controversial deal to advise the Vietnamese government amid growing claims that the ruling Communist Party is cracking down on free speech. 

Mr Blair has held talks with the leaders of Hong Kong and Thailand in recent months, raising the prospect that he could land further business in the Far East by the end of the year. 

He has also won a contract to advise the Peruvian government on public sector reform. 

The deals come in an expansionary phase for Mr Blair’s Government Advisory Practice, which earns millions of pounds advising governments including those of Kazakhstan, Kuwait and Colombia. 

A spokesman for Mr Blair confirmed talks with “various countries”. 

The disclosures come after the former prime minister was seen on board super yachts in the Mediterranean last month for what his spokesman described as “meetings with various people”. 

In the new deal with Vietnam, a team of Mr Blair’s consultants are understood to be working with the foreign ministry to support economic and trade links with the UK and the European Union. 

The deal was confirmed after Mr Blair flew to Hanoi on two separate occasions in the past year for talks with Nguyen Tan Dung, the Vietnamese prime minister. 

On the first visit last October he offered to advise the government on issues including reforming Vietnam’s economy, attracting more foreign investment and adapting to climate change, according to a report in a local newspaper. 

The meeting took place after Barack Obama, the American president, warned of a “mass crackdown on citizen journalism in Vietnam”, and amid criticism of the government for an attack on political blogs, following widespread online reports on a series of economic scandals involving tycoons with close connections to the ruling Communist Party. 

Human Rights Watch, the lobby group, warns that the government suppresses “virtually all forms of political dissent, using a broad array of repressive measures”. 

In March this year Mr Blair flew to Hanoi for a second time when he pledged to continue supporting relations between Vietnam and the EU, including providing advice on public-private partnerships (PPPs), which he championed in Britain while prime minister. 

Vo Van Ai, a Vietnamese human rights campaigner now living in Paris, strongly criticised Mr Blair’s work with the government. He said the former prime minister was being used “as a propaganda tool to prop up Hanoi’s corrupt communist regime”. 

The Government Advisory Practice also has a deal to advise the government of Burma, which a spokesman for the former prime minister said was “pro bono” like “much of Mr Blair’s work”. 

Mr Leung’s popularity has plunged since he took office following several controversies, including his failure to declare illegal building at his house. He apologised over the issue, blaming forgetfulness. 

His meeting with Mr Blair appears to have been attended by Caroline Wilson, the British consul general to Hong Kong. 

“Good meeting: T Blair & Hong Kong Chief Exec CY Leung discuss challenges of effective government,” she wrote on Twitter, the microblogging website, on June 3. 

Days later the former prime minister flew to Bucharest for dinner with Victor Ponta, the Romanian prime minister, while on his way to Israel, where he carries out work in his role as Quartet Representative to the Middle East. 

“I have a lot to learn from him, a great prime minister of a very important country and with a political culture from which we have a lot to learn,” Mr Ponta said of Mr Blair following the meeting. 

Last month Mr Blair was greeted with angry protests when he addressed a one-day conference in Bangkok. 

Before the conference the former prime minister held private talks with Yingluck Shinawatra, the Thai prime minister, when he offered to help reduce conflict within the country. 

It is not clear whether these talks, along with the meetings with Mr Leung and Mr Ponta, related to the Government Advisory Practice. 

A separate contract Mr Blair has signed with the Peruvian government will also focus on helping to develop PPPs and is his second with a South American government. 

The deal is understood to have been struck in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, at a meeting between Mr Blair and senior figures from the Peruvian government, including Luis Miguel Castilla, the finance minister. 

It will bolster the presence Mr Blair already has in South America, with existing teams of consultants in Brazil, where they advise the state of São Paulo, and Colombia. 

Mr Castilla said as well as aiding the government to form more PPPs, Mr Blair’s team would help Peru to introduce better “technical education” to help improve the quality of its workforce. 

The deal was confirmed after Mr Blair flew to Lima in May along with Stephan Kriesel, the head of the Government Advisory Practice, arriving in the country from Colombia. 

Dr Kriesel has previously carried out work in Lima in his former role as a senior employee with the worldwide consultancy McKinsey, 

In Lima, Mr Blair held a 40-minute meeting with president Ollanta Humala, and also delivered a speech at the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias, part of the US Laureate International Universities group. 

He has previously spoken at five other Laureate institutions in Germany, Spain, Turkey, Brazil and Mexico. 

Along with other meetings held by Mr Blair as part of his lucrative government advisory work, the talks with Mr Humala are not mentioned on his official website, which does detail his work as Quartet representative and his charity work. 

There is no reference to the Government Advisory Practice on any of the former prime minister’s websites and its exact contracts are not known. 

However, the firm appears to be rapidly expanding. In April, Tony Blair Associates, described as the umbrella organisation for Mr Blair’s commercial activities, posted an advert in The Economist magazine seeking recruits to the Government Advisory Practice in Asia and South America. 

The expansion of his commercial arm comes after Mr Blair’s relaxed appearance on a trip to the Mediterranean when he spent time on board one of the largest yachts in the world. 

He initially flew into Sardinia on a private jet before being ferried out to board the 377ft Pelorus, previously owned by Roman Abramovich, the Russian owner of Chelsea football club. 

The yacht, with a crew of 46, is now owned by David Geffen, the US music mogul. 

 Superyacht Crazy Me, owned by Naguib Sawiris, Egypt’s second-richest man 

Days later Mr Blair was spotted in St Tropez, known as a playground of billionaires and actors, where he was taken on a motorised launch to the new superyacht Crazy Me, owned by Naguib Sawiris, Egypt’s second-richest man. 

Mr Sawiris, chairman of the Orascom telecoms empire, said last week that the pair were discussing how to restore order following the fall of president Mohammed Morsi in July, following the tycoon’s recent pledge to invest billions of dollars in Egypt. 

Mr Sawiris, who founded the secular Free Egyptians Party in 2011, is a controversial figure in Egypt and provoked anger on August 31 by claiming that the country should ban protests for two years “to take our breath and build our state”. 

His yacht is 167ft long and has a glass-bottomed pool on its upper deck. 

On Friday Mr Blair said he was “disappointed” by Ed Miliband’s decision to block military action against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. The aftermath of the Iraq war had made Britain “hesitant” to intervene he added. 

A spokesman for Mr Blair declined to disclose details of the Government Advisory Practice’s deals. He said: “Our government advisory practice is expanding and we are in discussions with various countries.”