21/02/2014 Asia Business Report

serving their sentences. Now on BBC News, all the latest

business news live from Singapore. Shifting strategy. Protesters in

Thailand but the tactics to bring down the current government.

From mining boom to dining boom. We see in on Australia's economic

transition. Welcome to the programme.

Anti-government protesters in Thailand are trying to hit the Prime

Minister weight has most. In her business interests. They have been

protesting outside companies linked to the Prime Minister's or the

family. Yesterday, it affected shares of many companies with ties

to the Prime Minister. Our correspondent has more.

Not a ministry building this time or a city centre intersection. In a bid

to keep their three-month-old campaign fresh, protest movement

shifted its attention to the business interests of Yingluck

Shinawatra and their family. Placating the headquarters of the

asset, the property arm. This follows successful pressure on the

government savings bank earlier this week to withdraw an interbank loan

it offered to help with overdue payments to rice farmers. The

government has been unable to raise the funds since it dissolved

Parliament last December. The protest seems more simple than

substance. The shares of the bank a falling this week. There is not much

they can do to have a businessmen in the hotels and apartment blocks.

This is a more serious threat. A convoy of tractors heading into

Bangkok. Onboard, farmers who are yet to be paid for the last rice

crop. Most of the areas traditionally unsympathetic to the

governing party. It still enjoys support from those in the north and

north-east. That could drop off thanks to a price purchase scheme

that has proved unsustainably expensive and corrupt. I've had all

of my suppliers, as is this woman. Wherever we have to go, I can stay

and sleep in my trailer. The theatre on Bangkok streets is just that. The

rule pressure on the Prime Minister comes not from the antics of protest

leaders but from the independent state bodies like the electoral

commission and most of all from an unsympathetic army.

Many have questioned the price. Few have questioned the significance of

Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp. One of the industry's biggest ever. It

will have an impact across the industry, including many messaging

services based in Asia. We speak to a technology analyst at how Asian

companies can defer from WhatsApp. It was meant to be a messaging

service. Simple, plain old text messaging. The new Asian Japanese,

Korean players have expanded beyond that into more advanced services.

Late payments or ticketing or booking services. So the Asian

counterpart are more at first, technology wise? We have the

e-commerce option. You could say that. There are more at West in

terms of functionality. You see the social platforms like Facebook, even

down in the messaging. Facebook actually has quite a lot of

functionality is. They have the emoticons and transactions. On the

other hand, you have the messaging players coming in anti-social media.

You are seeing an all-out confrontation between the two.

A Japanese company bought into Viber as well. This is a trend. Will there

be a higher price tag for this apps in Asia? You might see that. The

players who are owned by private and is looking to sell my take advantage

of the fact that if elections are high and trying to sell. On the

other hand, there is a lot of speculation going on, whether the

valley is right, with a $19 billion is the price tag is Silicon Valley

and Asia. India is one of the world 's largest

growing markets for mobile phones. It has none hundred million

subscribers. One company has bought rights to the airwaves. Our

correspondent has more. This person has been running this

electronics shop for more than two decades. Five years ago, he latched

on to the telecoms revolution and started selling mobile phones and

SIM card 's and handsets. These cards and recharge key points are

faster selling. There is one clear reason. Mobile phone rates in India

among the cheapest in the world. TRANSLATION: It could cost around

half a dollar to use a mobile phone. Now it costs less than 2 cents.

Rwanda the number of the bottom end users in India went into the

hundreds of millions. There has been a few hurdles. In 2010, the rapid

growth hit a roadblock. The government had misallocated spectrum

and it led to losses of nearly $30 billion. Many politicians and those

men were accused of corruption but they have denied any wrongdoing. The

court cases are still under way. Industry has already felt the

impact. In 2012, the country's Supreme Court cancelled spectrum

licences. They ordered the government should hold auctions to

distribute the rights. Vodafone is one of the largest service providers

in India. It continues to grow despite being in a long and bitter

tax dispute with the government. In the latest auction, it spent big

money buying spectrum. Why did participate this time? Our licences

were already coming to the end of 20 years. The government didn't want to

extend their licences. It was for us, a situation where we needed to

buy the same thing. Over time, shareholders would return on the

money. They want it to translate for consumers. Is device has been

embraced by India like nothing else before. There is a risk many will

not be able to use their phones as often. Even the volume of users,

there are still profits to be made, even when charges are low. Operators

are likely to hold back from ringing the changes on pricing for as long

as they can. The financial world is focused on

Sydney this weekend for the G20 summit. One person who will be

keeping a place I on proceedings is Tim Harcourt, and economist. -- a

close eye. He said the isolation that wants to find Australia is no

longer as relevant as before. -- wants the find. And it economist

in Sydney, embarking on the latest troubles around Asia.

I've been in 58 different countries in the past five years. I go

everywhere for three days. After some of the economy pretty quickly.

For many years, we talked about distance and how far Australia was.

Down Under, away from the rest of the world. It is now Down Under the

down wonder. The power of proximity has changed. It is partly because of

the rise of Asia. We have strong economic links. Geography is not

difficult as it once was. When I go to a country, I go to the key

decision-makers. The government, Central Bank, trade unions, this

newsgroups and get a feel for their take on their own country. I try to

talk to the Australian businesses, American and British Chambers of

commerce to find out what foreign investors are opportunities or are

up to. We signed an agreement with Korea.

We will have one soon with Japan and China. We are moving from the mining

boom to the dining boom, due to the great demand for agricultural

produce and a shot from Australia, where we have clean green supply.

When you look at the commercial sector, and architecture building up

all over Asia, a lot of the professional services we provide in

the region is different. This is an exciting century.

This is the end of our edition of Asia Business Report. Thank you for

watching. These are the headlines: War scenes

of bloodshed on the streets of Kiev. Many have been killed in clashes.

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