25/03/2014 Asia Business Report

threshold to one million pounds in their manifesto for the next general

election. Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from

Singapore. Hope turns to tragedy for the

relatives of the missing Malaysian airliner. How technology is helping

to solve the mystery. As protest in Taiwan and the second week, we ask

how will it affect foreign businesses?

As we have been reporting, the Malaysian prime Minister has

announced that the missing flight MH370 he crashed in the southern

Indian Ocean. It is a devastating time for the relatives who have been

holding on to hope that their loved ones were still alive. The

conclusion follows information based on analysis from British satellite

companies. Like comparing satellite data from previous flights, they

were able to work out that the aircraft took a route south of its

original path. Our correspondence spoke to the team which helped solve

the mystery of where the plane may have ended up. We initiated a series

on the basis of signals and we send those two communications

authorities. We analyse the data by taking Malaysian 777 data, modelling

that, and then putting it against the northern and southern path. What

we discovered was that the path to the south was the one taken. You

compared it to other aircraft. Why have you not come up with this

before? We have been dealing with a totally new area. We have been

trying to help an investigation based on a single signal, once an

hour, from an aircraft that did not include any GPS data or any time and

distance information. This was really a shot in the dark and is a

credit to our scientific team that they were able to model this. They

could find a way to say that a single signal could be used to work

out that the plane was powered up and travelling and by comparing it

to other known flights, they established that it went south. Can

you pinpoint this any further? We cannot help you with any closer

data. If aircraft were mandated to report their position, we would be

able to tell you in instant. That will frighten a lot of people that

an aircraft could just go missing. Can we stop this happening? It can

happen now. Any aircraft can use existing technology, something like

SMS text messages, that give you time, speed, distance, and position.

It can be done now and it is a wonder that it has not been done

five years after the air fronts disaster but the industry is

slow`moving and needs to evolve with technologies that are already

established with regard to long`range tracking for ships at

sea. It is inconceivable that ships at sea would not now report their

position every six hours. Surely an aircraft flying at 470 knots can

report its position every 15 minutes and that can be done at wholesale

rates of $1 per hour. This is a British company at the forefront of

helping to find this aircraft. He must have mixed feelings about

that? Yes. We are very sad for the families who have lost loved ones.

We are also pleased that it appears that we have made a useful

contribution and it formed part of our 34 years of supplying the global

maritime distress service. Safety is part of our DNA. We are pleased with

that. Protesters in Taiwan are keeping up

pressure on the government about a proposed trade deal with China.

Demonstrations enter a second week despite the forced eviction of some

practices from the office of the Premier. They want the trade deal to

be scrapped but the president says that Taiwan risks marginalisation

without it. I asked our expert whether these protest with the

agreement in jeopardy. The ratification of the agreement will

be delayed but we do not know for how long. Eventually, there will be

some kind of compromise between the protesters and the legislators and

president. That kind of compromise is probably something that will

involve a more detailed review. What could be this middle ground? Or are

there indications that Taiwanese government officials will not back

down? They will not back down. This agreement is crucial politically to

the President. It is part of his platform of close relations with

China and of showing that Taiwan should be a participant in local

trade agreements. Could this impact relations between China and Taiwan?

China certainly cares. They watch Taiwan domestic politics closely for

its impact on relations. China will be very disappointed at the failure

of the President is to move this agreement through the legislature.

What about you, doing business in Taiwan? How does this trade deal

impact your business. Will you benefit? Most service providers will

stand to benefit. One of the selling points of Taiwan is that it is near

China, just like Hong Kong, but it has a stronger cultural affinity

with China. For multinational investors, anything in Taiwan that

facilitates close of business ties with China is usually a positive. If

there are going to be barriers then investors will look for other

options, such as Korea which is negotiating a trade agreement with

China. It is a win`win situation for local businesses and foreign

businesses doing business in Taiwan if this trade deal pushes through?

Absolutely. There is a perception by some in Taiwan that it moves Taiwan

to close politically to China and that it might lead to job losses in

Taiwan. Whether these things are true it remains to be seen. Russia

says it expects investors to move out up to 70 billion US dollars of

assets from the country. This is a sign that investors are becoming

nervous about sanctions and tensions over Ukraine. There are warnings are

stagnant growth and rising inflation. The head of the EU money

agency has said that virtual currencies are being used for

money`laundering. An American firm has also created a legal framework

to sell swaps related to Bitcoins. Colleagues of Bernard Madoff have

been convicted of helping him with his $17.5 billion scheme exposed by

the 2008 financial crisis. A New Zealand Internet entrepreneur facing

extradition to the US has announced plans to go public. Kim .com wants

to list his public company. He resigned as a director of the

company in August to focus on fighting extradition while his wife

owns 26.5% of the company. The Internet has become a crucial part

of our everyday lives but very few of us will ever think of the

technical rules which govern it. That is a good thing according to

the people who write those rules. The US government is phasing out its

control of that organisation. It is called ICN. Its president says that

the changes will not have any difference in customer use. This is

a courageous decision and we are embracing it. We need to come

together and start planning the composition from US oversight to

global, multi` stakeholder oversight. But it has transitioned

as not go according to plan, what kind of repercussions could this

have for the world wide web? The US was very clear that unless we come

back as a community with a plan that meets some basic requirements to

ensure the security, stability, and resilience of the technical

infrastructure that we co`ordinate, they will not change their oversight

plan. There is no danger. It is under control and what we have to do

is respond with a proposal and we can move from that oversight model

to a global oversight model. Who will now be accountable? We are

designing the accountability mechanisms now. These are review

mechanisms, other mechanisms, recourse mechanisms, that will be

managed by the community. Here is a quick look at Asian stock markets

before we go. All the markets are in the loss

column. Thank you for investing your time with us.

The main news stories this hour. Some of the Chinese relatives of

passengers now presumed killed on the