21/01/2014 Asia Business Report

party for a refusing to apologise to women who he is accused of sexually

harassing. Time for the latest business news live from Singapore.

Where are the jobs? The International Labour Organisation

sees rising unemployment in the next few years.

The government unveils new policies which could create big changes for

foreign car manufacturers in Malaysia.

Welcome to Asia Business Report. The world economy may have turned the

job sector around, but part of it is yet to recover.

That is according to the latest report by the International Labour

Organisation. The study shows not enough new jobs are being created to

keep up with the growing labour force. Almost 202 million people are

jobless around the world last year. The IMF believes that global

unemployment will rise with two and 50 million people seeking jobs by

2018. -- 215. Our latest report finds that

unemployment has increased by 5 million and about half of that is

based in East Asia and South Asia. It's primarily is young people. The

quality of jobs remain very low in developing economies. Nearly 600

million workers still an little to escape poverty. This is hindering

consumer demand and stifling prospects for business expansion.

Did you find out why? There are a number of different factors. Because

of the rapid structural transformation is taking place. The

people entering the labour market are facing a skills mismatch. In

Southeast Asia, the structural changes have been slower, but there

have been greater growth in population. They need to reduce

vulnerability in the labour market. So not enough jobs are being

created. Any solution for that putting forward to cope with that?

It is important to support businesses in terms of finance and

expanding opportunities to create new markets. It is also important to

help workers develop new skills and reduce the skills gap. That will

help workers have better access to higher quality jobs. It will help

businesses increased productivity. We are seeing reports from several

media outlets that Lenovo has started talks.

A deal was not reached as they could not agree on price. Lenovo had put a

$5.25 million price on the service. Malaysia has unveiled a new policy

on cars that will be offering incentives on the reduction on

small, energy efficient vehicles. Foreign car makers offering a size

of 1.8 litres to protect the country's National carmakers. The

changes signal new opportunities international car makers. Around

650,000 cars were sold in Malaysia last year. That is 5% growth when

compared to 2012. The government also aims to increase total

production to 1.2 5 million vehicles. -- 1.2 5 million vehicles.

We look at why the government is changing the policy.

Malaysia is trying to complete with Thailand on foreign investment. They

have decided that foreign car makers should create small cars if they are

energy-efficient. You idea behind this is because currently there are

only two National car makers who dominate the market. They are

producing cheaper cars. They are asking Malaysians to have more

choices with foreign car makers. Hopefully they can bring down the

prices by around 20-30%. They were previously scared about protecting

their own. What kind of impact to rethink it will have? The National

car makers have been protecting themselves for a long time. The

average Malaysian is spending a lot of money on each car. Even the

cheapest car can cost more than a year's worth of salary. That is an

idea of how expensive because. Some of the people I spoke to are

concerned about the rising cost of living. The demand of cheaper cars

is a major point. Already they are looking at an innovative path. They

are looking at other factors, including adding more social and

digital pictures. -- touches. We saw a muted reaction to china's

GDP figures. But one country that is pleased is Australia. It is china's

largest trading partner and main supplier of commodities. The

shipment of goods reached a record high in November. The world's second

largest economy imports mainly iron from Australia. Earlier I spoke with

a recent analyst and asked him for his reaction to china's latest

growth figures. We expect that China growing at 7.7% for 2013 was

actually a very good number. Markets had been quite pessimistic that we

would seek to a hard landing in the economy. Going forward, we are

expect in a stable and robust growth figure in 2014. What does that mean

for Australia? How significant is it? That is very significant for

Australia. We are very big exporters to that particular country.

Especially of rural commodities. Provided we do see China growing at

a fairly stable rate, we think the physical delivery of commodities in

food and energy will continue to enjoy quite robust growth from 2014.

What is your biggest concern? I guess if you had one concern, it is

perhaps that all about eggs are pointed towards one major market. If

that major market had some geopolitical event or started a hard

landing cycle, then Australia would catch a very serious flu. If there

was a concern, that is it. However, China is such an immense country. It

has the firepower in terms of government policies, high interest

rates, that it can do adjustments to keep the economy ticking over. I

think Australia will be someplace to four years to come to deliver food

commodities and energy commodities. Tens of thousands of workers who

mind about half of the world's precious metals are set to go on

strike in South Africa. Japan and China are the top export markets. We

explain what this means for the world's platinum mine is.

The Association of mine worker 's and is in workers demand wage

increases to the tune of 1400 US dollars. That is more than double of

what the average Mineworkers own. It has been said that South Africa

Centre cannot afford more instability in the mining sector.

This is a situation that has been monitored closely internationally.

Mainly because South Africa holds about 80% of the world's Platinum.

It is a major exporter to countries in Europe and in Asia. That and is

used in the making of catalytic converters. Analysts have been quite

bullish about the sector, saying that an increase in prices and

demand will occur with increases and improvements in the auto sector.

Demand is also up in China. 80% of Platinum is used in jewellery

making. Japan has seen an increase. But there have been concerns about

the expected slowdown in the Chinese economy and what that will do to

demand of Platinum. In general, analysts are monitoring the

situation in South Africa's minds. There is a sense that a protracted

strike could hold about half of global production. That will drive

up prices. It is a better day for the markets.

Take a look at the board. All up. That is largely due to a drop in the

yen. We should just say that yesterday the American markets were

not treating because of Martin Luther King Day. -- trading. See you

soon. Here are the headlines: Syrian peace

talks are to go ahead on Wednesday. The main opposition group says it

will attend after an invitation to Iran has been withdrawn. The

president of