23/12/2013 Asia Business Report

Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.

China calling. Apple strikes a deal with the world's biggest phone

carrier, China Mobile. Women in Japan. How the Prime

Minister is looking to them to turn around the economy.

Welcome to Asia Business Report. We start with Apple, which has

announced a multi-year deal with China Mobile to sell iPhones on the

mainland through the world's largest wireless network. China Mobile is

also the biggest mobile firm in the country. Two other companies have

struck a deal with Apple. Apple says its new models will be available at

China Mobile stores, as well as Apple retail stores, across the

mainland starting January 17. Customers can register for the

phones from Christmas Day. It's a very big deal in the context

of the world's largest mobile phone company, accounting for about 11% of

the global mobile phone customers. Clearly the biggest partnership

announcement that Apple has made in years. But even more importantly,

it's a big announcement for China Mobile. It hasn't been seeing good

results in the last quarter and its profits have been going down. It is

under tremendous pressure from social media applications, which

tend to bypass the network currently. This is a great

opportunity to grow their revenues. A great opportunity for both but we

know Apple handsets are amongst the priciest. Will Chinese consumers be

swayed by price? Especially as Chinese made counterparts have

gotten cheaper. There is tremendous demand for Apple products and there

are many people wanting the products. The average mobile revenue

per user on a China Mobile network is maybe about $11-$12 US per month.

Clearly, this is beyond the affordability of many users. Apple

has to figure this out. How will they make the most of this?

It's for them to partner with China Mobile, to create the right

strategy, provide the right products, to be able to exploit this

huge opportunity of 750 million customers. Apple has acknowledged

that China will start to the replace North America as their most

important source of revenue, the largest source of revenue.

Strategically, what more can they do to capitalise on markets like China?

IPhone 5C is not the answer in itself. It will need more products.

Apple has done very well at the top end of the market. As the mobile

internet market expands to the 6.8 billion customers around the world,

clearly it needs more at the lower end of the spectrum. Companies like

Samsung and Microsoft have done well to position themselves in that space

and are benefiting. Apple needs to do more in that area.

For more on Apple and China Mobile, and other headlines, you can go to

our website. The Japanese economy has seen quite

a transformation, as the new Prime Minister and his economic policies

appeared to be working. The reforms include plans to bring more women

into the workforce. The prime minister wants to increase women in

leadership positions by more than 30% by 2020. To help achieve that,

he has set a target of at least one woman executive per company and the

government has offered tax incentives to companies that

encourage mothers to return to work. According to an influential

entrepreneur, it makes sense to invest in companies run by women.

The venture capitalist advises the Japanese prime minister and he spoke

to our chief business correspondent. I am pleased to be joined by one of

Japan's best known entrepreneurs. Good to talk to you. Let me first

ask you. How hard is it for women in Japan to break through that bamboo

ceiling, whatever you want to call it, glass ceiling? It's still

relatively tough but in the last few years it has gotten better. There

are more opportunities but it is still difficult. Is Abenomics going

to make a difference? I think the Prime Minister makes a

point of mentioning women almost every day. There used to be a joke

that he mentioned women once or twice in his tenure but now he does

so once a day. What's driving the change? It just makes practical

sense. There are more women than men in Japan. They go to school and are

educated for longer in Japan. They have a higher tendency to go

overseas, so they have a global perspective. Entrepreneurs are

extremely rare in Japan. Female entrepreneurs are even rarer. Why is

that? At the end of the day, in general, entrepreneurism in Japan is

tough because of the risk taking and the perceived nature of what failure

means in this country. I think that people are getting around that. The

women have yet another cliff in that their involvement in management,

getting up to the upper ends of corporation, and entrepreneurism is

even more difficult. Finally, we're seeing some growth. What's the

biggest difference between the way a man works and the way a woman works

in your experience? At the end of the day, the biggest difference I

see among successful entrepreneurs is the ability to communicate and to

be able to convince and work with people and to form teams. The

natural ability of women in general but women in Japan who tend to go

overseas have a better ability to communicate not just with the

Japanese by people from other countries. -- but. Thanks. That was

William, a prominent Japanese entrepreneur. Sharing his insights

into how women fare in what is perceived to be a man's world in

Japan. A new monorail is expected to be

launched in Mumbai soon. It's part of a plan to revamp the city's

struggling transport infrastructure. Overcrowded trains, buses and long

traffic jams plague every city but can the monorail help solve the

problems of commuters? A brand-new ride for the people of

Mumbai. This monorail train is on a test run. The first line is expected

to open soon. It's an elevated 8.8 kilometres stretch connecting two

eastern suburbs of the city. This is much better than being stuck in a

traffic jam on the road or being in one of the hot and crowded train

compartments. It's air-conditioned, gives you a great view of the city

but it is only a tiny part of the grand plan to give Mumbai a makeover

or, as one politician called it, to transform it into Shanghai.

Authorities hope people will use these trains instead of buses and

that this system will complement the railway network, which is the main

mode of transport in Mumbai at present. Over seven million people

use these trains every year. That is way more than they are meant to

carry, which means it's usually an unpleasant journey. It starts from

the morning when you leave your place. You are really motivated but,

once you travel in the local train for 45 minutes, you are completely

gone, no energy left. It's a big headache. That means many more

people choose to use their own cars to commute, adding to congestion.

More flyovers and high-speed freeways have been built over the

past few years. But, without expanding the bus network in the

city, these could encourage people to buy more cars. Mass transport

systems like the metro and monorail are being constructed but they're

much delayed. The monorail was supposed to start in 2011 and the

metro, still not complete, was to be launched even earlier, in 2010.

Authorities explain why it has taken so much time. First we had to find

out how many people were getting affected because of these projects.

It's not necessarily that the people own the land. They encroach on this

land and you can't throw them out. This monorail will undoubtedly

attract much attention when it begins its journey. But it will only

really start to make a big difference when all the pieces of

the urban transport plan fall into place. And that could take many more

years. A quick look at the markets.

Japan's Nikkei is shot. All other markets are gaining. -- shut. The

markets are fairly quiet going into the holidays. Provision of the US'

third-quarter growth was revised and that has had some effect on the

Asian markets. We will be back with more from Asia Business Report on

the 2nd of January. Happy holidays.

This is BBC News. The headlines: Tens of thousands have fled

escalating violence in South Sudan. The UN humanitarian co-ordinator

there says civilians are increasingly scared and