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past 12 years. Now on BBC News all the latest | :00:00. | :00:15. | |
business news live from Singapore. As China moves to open up its | :00:16. | :00:19. | |
financial sector, it is asking to big internet firms to help it set up | :00:20. | :00:26. | |
private banks. -- two. And, cool jobs here in Asia, our new series | :00:27. | :00:30. | |
takes to disguise with the pilot of a hot air business in Myanmar. | :00:31. | :00:42. | |
Welcome to the programme. Now, two of China's biggest internet | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
companies have been picked up by the government to help set up private | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
banks. Alibaba and Tencent have been chosen for a project to set up five | :00:50. | :00:53. | |
banks owned completely by private companies. It is part of a move to | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
open up China's financial sector. Earlier, I spoke to our | :00:59. | :01:02. | |
correspondent in Hong Kong and asked about the significance of the move. | :01:03. | :01:13. | |
It is extremely significant. The trial programme has been announced | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
very quickly. The idea was floated last year, but no one had any idea | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
they would announce it during the National People's Congress. What is | :01:22. | :01:27. | |
less surprising is that it involves two of China's Digest internet | :01:28. | :01:34. | |
companies. In fact, Alibaba is already playing in this space. They | :01:35. | :01:38. | |
have announced they will be launching a credit card with a | :01:39. | :01:46. | |
Chinese tank. -- bank. They have also started offering an online fund | :01:47. | :01:50. | |
management programme, and, according to news reports, tens of billions of | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
US dollars have already been invested. Alibaba sent me a | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
statement saying they are in the process of working out the details | :01:59. | :02:02. | |
of the kind of private tank they would like to set up. They don't | :02:03. | :02:08. | |
have much more to Sebi on that. But they confirmed they are working with | :02:09. | :02:11. | |
an auto parts company, also based in eastern China. Are their concerns | :02:12. | :02:18. | |
about how these banks will be regulated? We know there is a big | :02:19. | :02:24. | |
situation about bad debt in China. That is right. I get the sense that | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
bad debt is less of a focus during this trial programme. The regulator | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
wants to achieve a more friendly banking process for the little guy, | :02:37. | :02:43. | |
meaning individual depositors and a small to medium-size company who | :02:44. | :02:46. | |
want access to credit. Right now, the banking sector is dominated by | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
the big four state owned banks. There are private players but at the | :02:52. | :02:56. | |
moment interest rates for people with deposits are extremely low and | :02:57. | :03:00. | |
for many small companies who wish to expand it is difficult for them to | :03:01. | :03:05. | |
get credit. According to a regulator who briefed journalists in Beijing, | :03:06. | :03:08. | |
he said that Alibaba's proposal focuses on the smaller companies. In | :03:09. | :03:14. | |
other news making headlines, Italy's biggest bank has reported a | :03:15. | :03:20. | |
record annual loss of $19 billion and says the plan to cut 8500 jobs | :03:21. | :03:27. | |
or 6% of its workforce. The biggest bank by assets put aside more than | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
$18 billion to cover losses from bad loans in 2013 and is trying to state | :03:32. | :03:36. | |
stock of its financial position before EU regulators conduct a | :03:37. | :03:40. | |
health check in the coming months of the industry. For other news and | :03:41. | :03:44. | |
analysis, you can log onto our BBC website. Over in Thailand, a state | :03:45. | :03:50. | |
of emergency may be lifted from the capital of Bangkok. According to | :03:51. | :03:55. | |
reports, top government officials said improved security could create | :03:56. | :04:02. | |
a high chance for the urgency to be removed. Protesters have been trying | :04:03. | :04:08. | |
to unseat the Prime Minister for several months and the conflict has | :04:09. | :04:12. | |
caused consumer confidence to drop to a 12 year low. Tourism, a key | :04:13. | :04:18. | |
industry, has also suffered and many related his nurses are feeling the | :04:19. | :04:22. | |
pinch. Thailand's central bank meets later and are expected to reduce | :04:23. | :04:27. | |
interest rates to boost growth. I spoke to a senior economist, asking | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
if lower in interest rates would address the country's problems. If | :04:32. | :04:41. | |
you are talking about interest rates being lowered by 25%, consumer | :04:42. | :04:43. | |
confidence is low so the credit channel might filter through, | :04:44. | :04:46. | |
consumers might not want loans. One of the things the central bank will | :04:47. | :04:49. | |
do is bolster confidence. They want to send the right signal, given that | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
the impasse is in place, he can't get mega infrastructure rolling, and | :04:55. | :04:59. | |
that is worth 17% of GDP. If you look at that over ten years, that is | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
one percentage point of growth that will be subtracted. What else are we | :05:04. | :05:09. | |
expected to hear from the central bank's what is their outlook for | :05:10. | :05:23. | |
growth this year? We lowered our growth forecast in the midst of the | :05:24. | :05:26. | |
political turmoil and the infrastructure plan, so we are | :05:27. | :05:29. | |
looking at 2.8% growth. The last time the central bank was in the | :05:30. | :05:32. | |
ballpark of about 4%. They might slow it to about 3%. What does it | :05:33. | :05:40. | |
mean for Thai assets? It has not been that hard hit. If you look at | :05:41. | :05:46. | |
it from 2013 Alan Knill now it has dropped less than 6%. The rupee has | :05:47. | :05:54. | |
fared much worse. We think the underlying confidence remains, but | :05:55. | :05:56. | |
they are waiting for the political storm to blow over. But we would | :05:57. | :06:01. | |
rather be cautious about these assets and we are looking at the | :06:02. | :06:09. | |
depreciation this year. You are saying the political storm blowing | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
over... Do you think the directionless nurse that we are | :06:14. | :06:16. | |
seeing in the markets, this caution, is due to this political | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
impasse's until that is lifted, nothing more can happen? That seems | :06:21. | :06:27. | |
to be the situation unfortunately. We are waiting for businesses to | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
come and invest. But none of this is a starter it until you have a proper | :06:32. | :06:38. | |
and stable government imposition. Ask any child what they want to be | :06:39. | :06:42. | |
when they grow up, and what do they answer? Usually things like | :06:43. | :06:48. | |
astronaut, football star, actress, and even teachers. So, what are the | :06:49. | :06:52. | |
coolest jobs in Asia? As part of our new series, we need the pilot of a | :06:53. | :06:59. | |
hot air balloon who flies over Myanmar's ancient temple city. | :07:00. | :07:08. | |
If you have a burning desire to fly balloons, you better be an early | :07:09. | :07:11. | |
riser. Today starts with a test of the wind at a dark 4:30am. I have | :07:12. | :07:17. | |
set the alarm and come to meet men whose professional life involves a | :07:18. | :07:21. | |
lot of hot air. How long does it take to become a hot air balloon | :07:22. | :07:26. | |
pilot if someone wants to train? For the private licence, usually within | :07:27. | :07:31. | |
a year. If you want to be professional, usually pilots, before | :07:32. | :07:35. | |
they get into the highest group, is easily 3-4 years. The pilots are all | :07:36. | :07:47. | |
European and they fly four baskets of tourist, each paying at least | :07:48. | :07:52. | |
$300 for 45 minutes, looking down on the ancient temples of Baghdad. The | :07:53. | :07:58. | |
view is amazing. Do you sometimes look at yourself and think wow. -- | :07:59. | :08:08. | |
Bagan. I have to pinch myself. Every flight is different. It is a bit of | :08:09. | :08:12. | |
a challenge. You don't know where you will end up. It is one of the | :08:13. | :08:17. | |
last real adventures. You know where you are taking off from, but you | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
don't know where you will end up. That is quite fun. But everything, | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
when you do it a lot, has the potential to get boring. You have | :08:26. | :08:29. | |
been doing this for six years, are you getting bored of these temples | :08:30. | :08:34. | |
every morning? Not really. It is an amazing place around here. If you | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
are up in a balloon, you see the sunrise and the temples, it doesn't | :08:40. | :08:42. | |
get much better. What are your friends say, the friendly gas jobs? | :08:43. | :08:50. | |
They do like my office. -- desk jobs. When the rainy season starts | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
most of the pilots had back to Europe for the summer season. What | :08:56. | :09:01. | |
is the worst thing about this job, they must be something that doesn't | :09:02. | :09:05. | |
make it quite so attractive. Obviously, it is a stunning place to | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
be, but it has its downsides as well because it is remote. The logistics | :09:11. | :09:14. | |
of getting family and children here can be complicated. My family were | :09:15. | :09:19. | |
here for three months, but I wish it could have been longer. Still, this | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
is an amazing place to fly. It is hard to complain. During Myanmar's | :09:24. | :09:30. | |
dark days, only one company flew here. But with reforms and more to | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
rests, there is now competition. The skies over Bagan has never been so | :09:38. | :09:46. | |
busy. -- have. Returning to Earth now, because the markets have seen a | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
huge sell-off this Wednesday morning. You are seeing the Nikkei | :09:51. | :09:57. | |
down. This is one week after China's onshore default. We saw | :09:58. | :10:01. | |
disappointing dater in the second largest economy, fuelling concerns | :10:02. | :10:05. | |
over Hong Kong and China markets. -- data. The yen is continuing strong | :10:06. | :10:13. | |
against the US dollar, meaning export relying stocks are being sold | :10:14. | :10:18. | |
in Japan. And in Australia, the market is down 45 points and mining | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
stocks, including BHP, are being sold off due to falls in metal | :10:24. | :10:27. | |
prices. There are worries about a cool the Chinese economy. That is it | :10:28. | :10:31. | |
for this edition of Asia at business report. Thank you for watching. -- | :10:32. | :10:44. | |
Asia Business Report. An Mike Embley. The top stories this our: As | :10:45. | :10:54. | |
the search for the missing Malaysian airliner enters a fifth day, there's | :10:55. | :10:56. | |
confusion over reports it had strayed hundreds of miles off | :10:57. | :10:58. | |
course. In | :10:59. | :10:59. |