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lawful. Now on BBC News, all the latest | :00:00. | 3:59:59 | |
business news live from Singapore. Japan's Prime Minister looks set to | :00:00. | :00:18. | |
pledge billions of dollars of aid during his visit to Africa. | :00:19. | :00:24. | |
And cooking with gas - why feeding a family in India is becoming a tough | :00:25. | :00:26. | |
task. We start today with the Japanese | :00:27. | :00:41. | |
Prime Minister, who is visiting the African state of Ivory Coast as part | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
of a trip to the continent. His trip will be the first by a Japanese | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
Premier in eight years and is aimed at boosting his international | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
profile. -- boost to the country 's international profile. He is set to | :00:55. | :01:00. | |
visit Mozambique and Ethiopia. He will be accompanied by a delegation | :01:01. | :01:04. | |
of business executives from up to 29 companies. Japan is a major donor to | :01:05. | :01:07. | |
Africa and has pledged an estimated $14 billion in aid over the next | :01:08. | :01:12. | |
five years. It is expected to spend billions more in private investment. | :01:13. | :01:18. | |
I asked what exactly the prime minister is doing in Africa. | :01:19. | :01:28. | |
This is a sign that he would like Japan to take Africa much more | :01:29. | :01:31. | |
seriously and would like Japanese companies to look harder at Africa | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
for investment opportunities, and as a new market. In the past, Japan has | :01:35. | :01:37. | |
looked at Africa as a place where perhaps they were sold a lot of | :01:38. | :01:40. | |
second-hand Japanese cars and also gave a lot of aid, but it has not | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
been seen as a market for Japanese products. As we have seen with China | :01:45. | :01:51. | |
in the last few years, Africa is growing very fast. Many African | :01:52. | :01:55. | |
economies are growing extremely fast at the moment, and people are | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
starting to see Africa in a very different way. That is what the | :01:59. | :02:04. | |
Prime Minister is trying to push. Do not look at Africa as a place where | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
we just give money to help, but look at it as an opportunity. | :02:09. | :02:13. | |
Do you think part of the reason for the trip is to try to counter | :02:14. | :02:15. | |
China's growing influence? How successful do you think Japan would | :02:16. | :02:22. | |
be at that? Japan has been in Africa longer than | :02:23. | :02:26. | |
China. If you go to African countries, you will see the | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
ubiquitous Toyota Hilux everywhere you go. African countries are very | :02:30. | :02:33. | |
familiar with Japanese products, but it is China that has been making the | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
big inroads, particularly with consumer products. I do not think | :02:37. | :02:48. | |
they will be competing head-to-head. But another part of this, with the | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
rivalry with China, what the prime minister has been doing since he | :02:53. | :02:55. | |
came into power is trying to get Japanese companies to look | :02:56. | :02:57. | |
elsewhere, not just investing in China. Japan is very dependent on | :02:58. | :03:05. | |
China as its biggest export market, but he would like Japanese countries | :03:06. | :03:08. | |
to look elsewhere. Southeast Asia, India, Africa, South America, to try | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
to counterbalance the dependence on the Chinese market. | :03:12. | :03:22. | |
To India, where one of the nation's biggest expenses is subsidising fuel | :03:23. | :03:30. | |
for its people. In an attempt to offset the recent hike in fuel | :03:31. | :03:33. | |
prices, they are considering raising the quantity of gas they provide | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
every family. But it is an election year - are they trying to appease | :03:39. | :03:41. | |
citizens, and can they afford the exercise? | :03:42. | 1:16:26 | |
On course for delivery. This woman receiving her second gas | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
cylinder in less than one month. Feeding a family of eight people has | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
been a struggle for her over the last couple of years. Her son, the | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
sole breadwinner, does not earn enough to support a huge family. A | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
recent hike in cooking gas prices has made life even more difficult. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
TRANSLATION: How can anyone afford such an expensive cooking gas | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
cylinder? I prepare the evening meal in the morning to avoid using extra | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
cooking gas. The recent hike in nonsubsidised | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
cooking gas prices has impacted many families across the country. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
Over 33 million households still use cooking gas cylinders. Distributors | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
say that there is growing public anger against price hikes. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
When there is a price increase, the customer issues that resentment at | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
the distributor level, because they cannot contact the oil industry. As | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
the first contact person, we have to face the wrath of the customer. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
The government provides a subsidy for nine cooking gas cylinders | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
consumed by every household annually. With an election in the | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
offing, it wants to do more. That could come at a high price. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
The government loses nearly $12 on every subsidised cooking gas | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
cylinder that is sold in the market like these. Despite that, there is | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
tremendous political pressure to increase the subsidy for cooking | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
gas. That could be a tough task, considering that the overall | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
finances of the government are not in good shape. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
India's oil subsidy bill is already running higher than the government | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
had accounted for in this financial year. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
This means any move to increase the cooking gas subsidy would further | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
squeeze the government exchequer. With the recent local state | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
elections, the ruling party suffered a heavy defeat. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
With elections around the corner, the current leadership is desperate | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
to woo voters. But with the economy not in good | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
health, the government will find out that it simply does not have the | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
money to provide help to those suffering the hard cost of living. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
China has released its latest trade numbers for December and the | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
official data says exports rose less than forecast from last year, while | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
imports were up by over 8%. Several car brands have posted | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
record sales. Luxury car demand has been growing in emerging markets | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
such as China and India as income levels rise. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
Carmakers have also benefited from a recovery in the US, one of the | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
biggest markets for luxury cars. After America's crippling recession, | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
was largest economy seems to be recovering. The jobless rate in the | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
US fell to its lowest rate in five years. Later today, they will lease | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
the December jobs data, with markets around the world likely to react | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
well if the numbers continue to tell a positive story. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
Despite the gains in the US labour market, the problem of the long-term | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
unemployed remains severe, which is a big ongoing challenge for | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
America's economy. This woman has been out of work for | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
nine months. She has exhausted her unemployment benefits, and has very | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
little left in the bank. I woke up one day and was not as | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
positive as I once was. I was wondering what was wrong with me | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
that I was not able to find a job. It starts to get you down on | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
yourself, to be honest. I had gone through fits of depression here and | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
there. It is hard, a struggle. I am not the type to not work. I need to | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
be a productive member of society, and be around people. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
She does not have a job interview today, it is heading out to | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
personally drop off her resume at a company she knows has an opening. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
Her way of setting herself apart from the competition. This career | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
coach has seen many people like her. America's job market is improving, | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
but prospects are tough longer you have been out of work. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
Imagine what happens when you have been out for a few years, and you | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
are going out to the marketplace and are competing against individuals | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
who are freshly unemployed, given that the market is opening up, you | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
have people who are working and looking to make a change and you are | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
competing against them. There are more than 4 million | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
Americans that have been out of work six months or longer. The sheer | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
number of long-term unemployed is having a ripple effect on the US | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
economy, because of these workers are not earning to their full | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
potential. It is less money in their pockets | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
that they can spend on groceries, clothing, gas, bills, rent, | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
mortgages. These are people that are a drag on our economy as a whole. It | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
is this kind of spending that creates more employment in the first | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
place. Despite the months of searching, she | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
remains optimistic. Perhaps the next time she walks into this building, | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
she will do it as an employee. That jobs report is being eagerly | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
watched by many investors in Asia because they are fairly cautious, as | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
you can see. Some gains, but fairly mixed because of declines in Korea | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
and Australia. The China Dato was fairly mixed as | 1:16:27 | 1:16:26 | |
well, investors not knowing what to make of that, but -- the China Dato. | 1:16:27 | 1:16:27 |