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Dowler's phone had been hacked. Time for Asia Business Report. | :00:00. | :00:17. | |
7.5% growth, that is what China is aiming for this year at its annual | :00:18. | :00:26. | |
leaders' meeting. Australia sends emergency relief to farmers hard-hit | :00:27. | :00:31. | |
by a drought in eastern part the country. | :00:32. | :00:37. | |
Welcome to Asia Business Report, by Rico Hizon in Singapore. We kick off | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
in China, and its Parliament has become its annual meeting in | :00:42. | :00:49. | |
Beijing. In its opening speech, the Premier said they were hoping for an | :00:50. | :00:55. | |
expansion this year. We go to Beijing now, where we go to Beijing | :00:56. | :00:58. | |
now, where we're standing by outside the great hall of the people. What | :00:59. | :01:05. | |
is the latest? The delegates here at the opening of the national People's | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
Congress have been listening to a speech by the Chinese Premier. This | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
is widely viewed as a rubberstamp parliament, but it does, in terms of | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
what is being discussed here, give a sense of at least the broad | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
direction of travel of Chinese reforms. In the speech, I think | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
there will be a lot for inspectors and finance ministers across the | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
region to be very pleased about. They talked about the need to tackle | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
local government debt, which is something that has caused a lot of | :01:40. | :01:43. | |
concern over the past year or so. He talked about continuing to | :01:44. | :01:45. | |
liberalise interest rates, continuing banking reform, and | :01:46. | :01:50. | |
further injections of private capital and privatisation in | :01:51. | :01:54. | |
state-owned industries. Also, the important headline figure of the | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
7.5% growth rate for this year. There will be a sense from some | :01:59. | :02:03. | |
people, given the fact that there is this consensus that China needs to | :02:04. | :02:05. | |
undergo these painful structural reforms, but the fact that that | :02:06. | :02:11. | |
growth rate has been kept at 7.5%, but there hasn't been any lowering | :02:12. | :02:15. | |
of the growth rate, will lead some to question how serious it really is | :02:16. | :02:21. | |
about embracing the pain that those reforms are going to require, and | :02:22. | :02:25. | |
when it is that China will accept that the growth rate needs to come | :02:26. | :02:30. | |
down. Pollution is also the top of the agenda. Reforms, particularly | :02:31. | :02:35. | |
energy pricing, to boost non- fossil fuel power, any idea when we will be | :02:36. | :02:40. | |
getting more details on the implementation? No, we don't have | :02:41. | :02:49. | |
any further details. Some of those measures we have heard outlined give | :02:50. | :02:54. | |
us a little bit more of a sense of what China wants to do this year to | :02:55. | :03:00. | |
tackle pollution. This is a grave and growing area of public concern. | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
It will be interesting, I think, although we have seen some of the | :03:08. | :03:13. | |
usual turgid Communist Party speakers, the Premier speaking about | :03:14. | :03:19. | |
the Communist drive, there has also been a heavy dose of reality in the | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
face of the continuing economic difficulties that the local economy | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
faces. He said that the global economy is undergoing profound | :03:29. | :03:32. | |
adjustment, and competition is getting fiercer. " we are at a | :03:33. | :03:37. | |
critical juncture in were our path upwards is particularly steep. " . | :03:38. | :03:55. | |
Thank you so much for the update. For more on China's growth target | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
and other top business news from around the world, please visit the | :03:59. | :04:05. | |
website. In Australia, the economy grew 2.8% in the final quarter of | :04:06. | :04:10. | |
last year. That is compared to the same period in 2012. That is better | :04:11. | :04:15. | |
than the 2.5% many had been forecasting. The GDP data came after | :04:16. | :04:23. | |
the reserve bank decided to keep its interest rates at a record low for | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
the seventh straight month. The governor of the bank said that | :04:28. | :04:35. | |
growth had mainly been driven by the mining industry, and an insatiable | :04:36. | :04:40. | |
demand for Austrade's national resources from China. -- Australia. | :04:41. | :04:50. | |
Two things that stand up and net exports, contributing quite | :04:51. | :04:57. | |
generously to the growth. And, the RBA mentioned yesterday that they | :04:58. | :04:59. | |
are expecting growth to continue, and they came fourth with numbers | :05:00. | :05:06. | |
that reflected that. Can it be sustained this quarter? I think that | :05:07. | :05:11. | |
is quite an important question. One of the important questions is how | :05:12. | :05:16. | |
much increase can be expected in imports? On the whole, I think there | :05:17. | :05:24. | |
will be enough and net exports and consumption to offset a mining | :05:25. | :05:39. | |
sector slowdown. I think the RBA is expecting... They expected it to | :05:40. | :05:49. | |
slow down further this year. This is a bit of a trade-off, and I think | :05:50. | :05:53. | |
growth could come under a bit of a pressure in the coming quarters. The | :05:54. | :06:00. | |
RBA wants to rebalance away from too much mining revenue. They have also | :06:01. | :06:03. | |
stated that they will be moving away from a reliance on investment in | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
infrastructure construction. A decline in investment from the | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
Australian government, and also a decline from the Chinese, which has | :06:12. | :06:18. | |
been a main buyer of Australian resources. I think if you delve into | :06:19. | :06:21. | |
the details, you will find that it is not an imminent risk at this | :06:22. | :06:25. | |
time, because China will still need to offset with some targeted | :06:26. | :06:28. | |
infrastructure spending, particularly with upgrading. That is | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
in line with bringing pollution lower. For the moment, I think the | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
mining sector in Australia need not be unduly worried yet. Emergency | :06:38. | :06:44. | |
relief is on its way to drought ridden farmers in eastern Australia. | :06:45. | :06:50. | |
Many people are forced to sell or slaughter cattle. There is a | :06:51. | :06:53. | |
mounting psychological cost of communities, where once fertile land | :06:54. | :07:00. | |
has turned to dust. This contains scenes that some viewers may find | :07:01. | :07:03. | |
upsetting, from Tamworth in New South Wales. | :07:04. | :07:12. | |
They pray for rain in these parts, it is traditionally some of | :07:13. | :07:15. | |
straight's best farming country, but much of the land is barren. The | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
drought, 400 kilometres north of Sydney, is the worst in living | :07:21. | :07:26. | |
memory. Many waterholes are dry, crops have failed, and livestock | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
sold off to make ends meet. For many farmers, life is a struggle. When | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
times were good, how much water would be in this reservoir? In | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
normal times, this would be three quarters full to fall. -- full. | :07:43. | :07:50. | |
People become very depressed, and as we know, some people take it that | :07:51. | :07:55. | |
next step, the final step, which is very sad. It has been more than a | :07:56. | :08:00. | |
year since this corner of eastern Australia had rainfall. The ground | :08:01. | :08:06. | |
is turning to dust. Once upon a time, this dam would be full of | :08:07. | :08:09. | |
water. As debt and depression mount, there is still hope that the | :08:10. | :08:12. | |
drought will be shortly that, but for some on the land, they wonder | :08:13. | :08:20. | |
how long they can survive. To keep their land viable, many farmers are | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
being forced to sell their prize cattle. In the New South Wales city | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
of Armadale, the saleyards has been awash with livestock. Very | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
depressed. There has been no restocking interest, and if the | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
cattle are not good enough to go to an abattoir or a feedlot, the price | :08:41. | :08:47. | |
was very low. The big dry shows no sign of leaving. The fight to | :08:48. | :08:56. | |
survive continues. The one village, this farmer has sold a quarter of | :08:57. | :09:00. | |
his Angus beef herd, as the financial effect of the drought | :09:01. | :09:05. | |
intensify. 30% of the income gone for the year, Sony to try to make | :09:06. | :09:09. | |
that up in the next 12 months. I don't see how we are going to do | :09:10. | :09:13. | |
that, it is a real concern. You get to my age, and you worry about where | :09:14. | :09:21. | |
you are going to go. Drought relief has been approved by the Australian | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
government. This is a country that is well used to nature's extremes, | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
but this drought is testing the community like never before. | :09:31. | :09:42. | |
Making headlines also, Japan is suspending transactions involving | :09:43. | :09:49. | |
bitcoin. The move follows a collapse of a bitcoin exchange last week, | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
which the government is still tried to explain. It was at one time the | :09:54. | :10:02. | |
largest coin exchange. It may have lost 800,000 bitcoin to hackers. | :10:03. | :10:16. | |
A quick look at the Asian markets, which are currently in positive | :10:17. | :10:30. | |
territory. China has announced that it has maintained its growth target | :10:31. | :10:35. | |
for this year, at 7.5%. Thank you for joining us. | :10:36. | :10:46. | |
Our top stories: I'm just going to bring you some other stories, but I | :10:47. | :11:05. | |
think we will bring you this first. Rebekah Brooks from News of the | :11:06. | :11:09. | |
World says she knew | :11:10. | :11:10. |