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Now it is time for the latest business news live from Singapore. | :00:00. | :00:14. | |
Up in the air. Will changes to ownership structure help turn things | :00:15. | :00:26. | |
around for Qantas? And, the world's most expensive city is in Asia, but | :00:27. | :00:29. | |
it is no longer Tokyo. Welcome to Asia Business Report. We | :00:30. | :00:41. | |
start with the Australian government, which has decided to | :00:42. | :00:44. | |
relax foreign ownership restrictions on Qantas Airways, days after the | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
national carrier posted a record half-year loss. The minister Tony | :00:49. | :00:52. | |
Abbott said his cabinet investors have agreed to repeal legislation | :00:53. | :00:59. | |
that prevents other airlines from owning more than 35% of Qantas. The | :01:00. | :01:05. | |
government could struggle to pass the changes through Senate, where | :01:06. | :01:08. | |
opposition parties have raised objections to any reforms that could | :01:09. | :01:13. | |
send Qantas jobs overseas. Earlier, I spoke to our correspondent in | :01:14. | :01:19. | |
Australia. I asked him whether suitors would be lining up for a | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
stake in the airline. The Qantas management says it is being hampered | :01:25. | :01:28. | |
by current restrictions, but to limit the amount of foreign | :01:29. | :01:32. | |
ownership in the airline. They have always said that if the rules were | :01:33. | :01:36. | |
relaxed, foreign investors could come in, and Qantas could be | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
extremely profitable further down the track. If you look at the events | :01:41. | :01:43. | |
of the past week or so, that record half-year loss, about 5000 jobs | :01:44. | :01:49. | |
being lost, it certainly looks pretty grim. The Qantas management | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
team is insisting it can turn things around, but there are many people | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
here in Australia who fear for the future of the iconic national | :01:59. | :02:05. | |
carrier. The airline's request for a guarantee on its debt from the | :02:06. | :02:08. | |
government has also been turned down. Where else in whom else can | :02:09. | :02:16. | |
Qantas turn to? -- in. That is why they have been relying on the | :02:17. | :02:28. | |
changing of these laws. Qantas had hoped for a line of credit that | :02:29. | :02:33. | |
would make it easier to get hold of cheaper loans, and that that would | :02:34. | :02:37. | |
help the struggling airline. There has been an enormous debate here in | :02:38. | :02:42. | |
Australia. Many Australians view the flying kangaroo with a great deal of | :02:43. | :02:45. | |
fondness and a sense of sentimentality. They believe | :02:46. | :02:50. | |
Australia should have its own airline, but many Australians view | :02:51. | :02:54. | |
it as another business that should just stand or fall on its own | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
merits. Which city is the most expensive and cheapest to live in? | :03:00. | :03:07. | |
According to a report from an Economist intelligence unit, it is | :03:08. | :03:10. | |
the one I live in, Singapore. It has taken the title of the world's most | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
expensive city, forehead by Paris and Oslo. The cheapest city goes to | :03:15. | :03:21. | |
Mumbai, followed by Karachi and Delhi. | :03:22. | :03:28. | |
Singapore has been moving up the cost of living index quite quickly | :03:29. | :03:36. | |
in the last five years. It has now taken at number one spot. A number | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
of factors behind that, structural factors that push up prices in | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
Singapore, so very high costs of cars, certificates of entitlement. | :03:46. | :03:54. | |
Also, energy and water supplies are very expensive. These structural | :03:55. | :04:01. | |
factors behind the rise. Other factors include the relative | :04:02. | :04:03. | |
currency strength in Singapore, which makes the city more expensive | :04:04. | :04:10. | |
in US dollar terms. Is it also about the cost of living in places that | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
have great infrastructure and other factors? Certainly, this is one of | :04:16. | :04:28. | |
the points. The cost pressures are reflective of success, but it does | :04:29. | :04:35. | |
raise the question of livability. People will have to consider if they | :04:36. | :04:38. | |
can afford to be based in Singapore or Sydney, or so on. They may start | :04:39. | :04:43. | |
to look at other locations. Those at the bottom of the list, Mumbai, | :04:44. | :04:50. | |
Karachi, Delhi, why? This reflect a different stage of economic | :04:51. | :04:53. | |
development in the cities. Lower incomes, lower wage environments. | :04:54. | :05:01. | |
There are more moderate levels of household spending. Levels of demand | :05:02. | :05:08. | |
a much lower than you will see in the Asian cities we have been | :05:09. | :05:12. | |
talking about. There is not the spending, and pressure on prices. As | :05:13. | :05:20. | |
you may have heard from a previous bulletins, Russia has tightened its | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
military control of Ukraine's crumby region, with thousands of troops. -- | :05:24. | :05:35. | |
Crimea. The US has put trade agreements on hold as a rebuke. | :05:36. | :05:40. | |
Stock markets plunged, here is the reaction in the Asian markets. | :05:41. | :05:42. | |
Stock markets plunged, here is the reaction in the They are fairly | :05:43. | :05:45. | |
mixed, after the losses that we saw on Monday. That is basically as | :05:46. | :05:51. | |
investors are considering signs of global economic recovery against the | :05:52. | :05:54. | |
tensions in Ukraine. Michael McCarthy is the chief market | :05:55. | :06:02. | |
strategist at CMC Markets. Investors are choosing to panic early at this | :06:03. | :06:07. | |
stage of the crisis in Ukraine. The hardest hit is the share market. The | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
Russian market itself was down 11%, but we saw huge falls in European | :06:12. | :06:20. | |
markets as well. It is a natural response, given that we are seeing | :06:21. | :06:23. | |
elevated levels of share prices around the globe at the moment. | :06:24. | :06:28. | |
Let's take a look at this flight to safety, one of the assets being | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
bought up is gold. You said that in Australia you have lots of resource | :06:34. | :06:36. | |
stocks, so how will that impact them? Gold stocks yesterday were the | :06:37. | :06:42. | |
best performing sector on the market, even with the market down | :06:43. | :06:45. | |
more than 1%, they were in positive territory all day. The heavyweight | :06:46. | :06:50. | |
in the sector was up by more than 5%. We are seeing good gains in | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
further gains in trading this morning. The other sector that is | :06:55. | :06:57. | |
performing well is the energy sector. With a number of large oil | :06:58. | :07:01. | |
and gas companies listed here in Australia, it is those two areas | :07:02. | :07:07. | |
that are lifting numbers. You mentioned energy, and we know that | :07:08. | :07:10. | |
Russia is the world's second largest producer of oil. They were the top | :07:11. | :07:17. | |
exporter of natural gas as well, so are we expecting any more spikes in | :07:18. | :07:23. | |
oil prices? Quebec go as high as we saw in 2007 -08? -- could they. It | :07:24. | :07:35. | |
is likely we will see higher prices over the course of this week. We | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
sought a good list of over $2 per barrel overnight, and they were | :07:41. | :07:47. | |
maintaining a firm number in trading this morning. The risk to that | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
scenario is that there is a quick resolution of the Ukraine conflict. | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
In Sri Lanka, a severe drought is affecting much of the country, | :07:59. | :08:02. | |
meaning rice harvest is under threat, and equality of the tea | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
crop, Sri Lanka's most important export, could be affected. | :08:09. | :08:15. | |
These irrigation channels, vital for rice, have been dry for weeks. Any | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
paddy fields have been left fallow. The crops depend on one short | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
monsoon, and it just didn't happen. You should be a reservoir, three | :08:27. | :08:31. | |
metres deep and capable of irrigating for 40 farmers. The | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
failure of the range from October to December mean that only seven of the | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
40 farmers felt able to plant anything, and only two of them are | :08:41. | :08:46. | |
likely to get any paddy at all. Farmers have tried to channel the | :08:47. | :08:49. | |
scarce water into pools, but it has been almost useless. This man | :08:50. | :08:54. | |
planted four acres, and all was lost. These may look green, but | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
there is no grain, just husks. TRANSLATION: We have borrowed from | :09:00. | :09:10. | |
banks. We have lost our livelihoods. Because of the drought, we can't | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
find labouring work. This man is tending his seedlings. These are | :09:15. | :09:18. | |
watermelons. He gives them a little water from a makeshift dam, but this | :09:19. | :09:23. | |
is an emergency crop. He has fallen back on it, because thanks to the | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
drought he can no longer grow rice. Three quarters of the Mellon | :09:30. | :09:32. | |
seedlings have died as well. TRANSLATION: We just can't plan for | :09:33. | :09:37. | |
the future because rain is so unpredictable. It is the same story | :09:38. | :09:43. | |
in the upland key country. This tea is dead. Workers have become water | :09:44. | :09:52. | |
is, a highly unusual move. The owner says it is the worst drought since | :09:53. | :09:57. | |
1993. Two thirds of our crop has come down very badly, and we used to | :09:58. | :10:05. | |
bring 35 or 40 kilos per day, it has come down to 12 or 13 kilos. The | :10:06. | :10:12. | |
plants are wilting. Sri Lanka is the fourth largest producer of tea. The | :10:13. | :10:16. | |
blood praying for rain in the few weeks time. While in the drylands, | :10:17. | :10:24. | |
even the wildlife is nothing to it. That brings us to an end to this | :10:25. | :10:29. | |
edition of Asia Business Report. In Q4 watching. -- thank you for | :10:30. | :10:34. | |
watching. | :10:35. | :10:36. |