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be built in an independent Scotland and jobs could be put at risk. The | :00:00. | :00:00. | |
SNP accused him of spreading myths and misinformation. Time for Asia | :00:00. | :00:07. | |
Business Report now. China's growth numbers are out on | :00:08. | :00:18. | |
the government may be putting the brakes on growth as it looks to | :00:19. | :00:22. | |
reform areas of the economy. And thousands of Chinese workers from a | :00:23. | :00:29. | |
major shoe factory have gone on strike for improved social benefits. | :00:30. | :00:38. | |
Thank you for joining us. Broadcasting to viewers around the | :00:39. | :00:44. | |
world. We start off with China, which has just posted its slowest | :00:45. | :00:47. | |
annual growth in more than two decades. Its economy expanded by | :00:48. | :00:54. | |
7.4% in the January to March period, down from 7.7% in the previous | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
quarter. Industrial production and fixed asset investment also showed | :01:00. | :01:04. | |
signs of the slowdown. Let's cross the our correspondent in Beijing. | :01:05. | :01:08. | |
Should we be worried about these figures? What China's premier has | :01:09. | :01:16. | |
been stressing is we should not be fixated on the GDP figures. What | :01:17. | :01:21. | |
he's talking about is not the quantity but the quality of growth. | :01:22. | :01:25. | |
As you touched upon there, China's leaders are saying that the world 's | :01:26. | :01:29. | |
second`largest economy needs major reform. One area is the country 's | :01:30. | :01:38. | |
steel sector. That produces half the world steel. Many of the steel mills | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
are saddled with debt. Is generally seen as an inefficient industry. I | :01:44. | :01:50. | |
visited the country 's steel heartland just to see the scale of | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
the challenge there. It's the industry that fired China's | :01:57. | :02:05. | |
searing growth. Steel is transformed cities and laid the foundation of | :02:06. | :02:07. | |
the second largest economy in the industry is a symbol of China's | :02:08. | :02:16. | |
economic weakness. Nowhere is that clearer than in this province. It | :02:17. | :02:20. | |
produces more steel in a year than the US. But oversupply as well as | :02:21. | :02:25. | |
concerns about pollution mean unprofitable steel mills are being | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
forced to close. We visited one of the dozens of plants that has | :02:30. | :02:35. | |
stopped production. It is incredibly eerie here but when we talk about | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
economic restructuring in China, this is what it looks like. It means | :02:42. | :02:44. | |
that old industries such as steel will be left to rust. Investment | :02:45. | :02:51. | |
goes elsewhere but it is eight painful process. The workers at this | :02:52. | :02:55. | |
plant have already found out that it means tens of thousands of people | :02:56. | :02:59. | |
will lose their jobs. Outside the gates, workers can wait for a whole | :03:00. | :03:05. | |
day and get no work. This man says a couple of years ago, you could make | :03:06. | :03:09. | |
$700 per month. Now, he is lucky if he makes half of that. If the steel | :03:10. | :03:15. | |
meals do not produce, we don't get a job, he says. There are hundreds of | :03:16. | :03:22. | |
people like me. Chinese leaders say major economic reforms are required | :03:23. | :03:25. | |
to create new and better paying jobs. But many in the country's | :03:26. | :03:29. | |
industrial heartlands fear that they will be thrown on the scrapheap. We | :03:30. | :03:38. | |
hear a lot about these economic reforms. Economic costs and we have | :03:39. | :03:44. | |
seen that the date in the slowing growth but it is easy to overlook | :03:45. | :03:50. | |
the human cost as we heard from some steelworkers and the package just | :03:51. | :03:53. | |
then. They are concerned about losing their jobs. There is one | :03:54. | :03:58. | |
thing that the Communist Party prizes more than economic growth and | :03:59. | :04:04. | |
that is social stability. There will be winners and losers in these | :04:05. | :04:07. | |
economic reforms. The ruling party will be concerned about unemployment | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
and the potential that that could trigger social unrest. | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
Thank you very much for the update. China's first quarter GDP slowing to | :04:17. | :04:24. | |
its... Slowest annual growth in more than two decades at 7.4%. Staying | :04:25. | :04:28. | |
with China, thousands of workers have gone on strike in a factory | :04:29. | :04:38. | |
which makes footwear for brands like Alibaba and Nike. These pictures | :04:39. | :04:41. | |
show the striking workers clashing with police as they reach the | :04:42. | :04:47. | |
blockade. The factory is owned by a footwear giant, which is not | :04:48. | :04:50. | |
commented on the claims or the strike. Earlier, I spoke with a | :04:51. | :04:52. | |
representative from a group which promotes workers rights on the | :04:53. | :05:01. | |
mainland. He told me concerns about rights to social insurance have been | :05:02. | :05:06. | |
growing. Workers over the past few years have started to realise that | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
social insurance can benefit them. A few years ago, because of policy | :05:11. | :05:13. | |
issues, social insurance that was provided to workers could not be | :05:14. | :05:16. | |
transferred to another city or back home if the workers left their | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
current employment. But policy changes have made that possible, for | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
workers to take their benefits with them, and as workers have realised | :05:25. | :05:27. | |
this, they have learned that they have not been paid these benefits | :05:28. | :05:34. | |
for years. In this case, the workers are demanding this backpay for the | :05:35. | :05:40. | |
past few years. That is why we have seen an increase in labour activism | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
in the mainland. How will this be resolved between employers and | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
employees? In this particular case, nothing has really happened in terms | :05:49. | :05:52. | |
of negotiations as far as we know. The workers say they received a | :05:53. | :05:55. | |
letter that just washes over the position and does not really talk | :05:56. | :05:56. | |
about their demands. We are hoping the management will | :05:57. | :06:12. | |
step out of their offices and talk to the workers. Hopefully the | :06:13. | :06:17. | |
companies will also get involved and come to a resolution that is losing | :06:18. | :06:19. | |
four everyone. The US has warned China that it is | :06:20. | :06:29. | |
concerned about the recent drop in its currency. The US says the | :06:30. | :06:35. | |
Chinese yuan is still significantly undervalued and that it is watching | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
its movements closely. Many American lawmakers and politicians say that | :06:40. | :06:41. | |
China deliberately keeps its currency weak in order to gain a | :06:42. | :06:43. | |
trading advantage. Shares of Yahoo! Jumped by 8% in US | :06:44. | :06:57. | |
trading. After it posted stronger than expected earnings. The company | :06:58. | :07:03. | |
managed to increase revenue in the first quarter following a long | :07:04. | :07:06. | |
period of decline. The stock also got the boost to to its stake in Ali | :07:07. | :07:14. | |
Baba which posted a 66% hike in sales and is expected to hold one of | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
the world 's largest initial public offerings later this year. Intel saw | :07:20. | :07:27. | |
it profits drop as demand for personal computers that Mac | :07:28. | :07:28. | |
computers shrinks. Revenues grew by 1% to $12.8 billion | :07:29. | :07:39. | |
due to its tablet and data processing business. | :07:40. | :07:42. | |
After decades of indecision, the Australian government yesterday gave | :07:43. | :07:44. | |
the green light for a second airport in Sydney. The Prime Minister said | :07:45. | :07:49. | |
the project will cost $2.5 billion and work will not begin for over a | :07:50. | :07:53. | |
decade, but he said that it could potentially add $20 billion to the | :07:54. | :07:59. | |
Australian economy by 2060. He said it could potentially add more than | :08:00. | :08:07. | |
20 billion to this trillion economy. I asked whether a second airport was | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
really necessary. It is long overdue. The Prime Minister himself | :08:14. | :08:16. | |
said that we had been talking about this for 40 years and it is good | :08:17. | :08:20. | |
that action comes. It indicates the political nature of these | :08:21. | :08:25. | |
infrastructure planning decisions. It is a lesson for others in the | :08:26. | :08:28. | |
region of the need to ensure that infrastructure keeps up with the | :08:29. | :08:33. | |
expected growth and travel demand. South`east Asia's biggest carrier, | :08:34. | :08:35. | |
Singapore Airlines, has announced plans to sponsor the first leg of | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
the Singapore Grand Prix. Is going the same route as it rival, Emirates | :08:41. | :08:44. | |
signed a sponsorship deal with the race last year. To stay profitable, | :08:45. | :08:47. | |
Singapore Airlines is also investing in low`cost carriers and expanding | :08:48. | :08:55. | |
into regional routes. We spoke to the chief executive and asked him | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
about the carriers strategy for adapting in a competitive market. In | :09:00. | :09:06. | |
some cases, we still want to extend our reach to smaller destinations. | :09:07. | :09:15. | |
It makes sense for us to do so on our own. And when not, we will use | :09:16. | :09:18. | |
partnership to achieve these proposals, such as our partnership | :09:19. | :09:20. | |
with Virgin Australia and the partnership we have recently | :09:21. | :09:29. | |
announced with Air New Zealand. You are announcing all these | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
partnerships but in the past, Singapore has always been fairly | :09:34. | :09:35. | |
independent. Are you acknowledging you need partnerships to grow? We | :09:36. | :09:40. | |
are a commercial organisation and we cannot just be based on one | :09:41. | :09:43. | |
particular model and stick to it forever. The environment is changing | :09:44. | :09:46. | |
rapidly and we have to see how that environment has changed and what we | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
have to do in order to make sure that we do well in that environment. | :09:51. | :09:55. | |
Low`cost carrier traffic now accounts for some 30% of flights | :09:56. | :09:58. | |
going in and out of Singapore and 50% of flights going in and out of | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
south east Asia. Do you see your traditional long haul model dying? | :10:04. | :10:09. | |
Long haul flights will continue to do well. Different markets obviously | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
will have different growth on different levels of the market. In | :10:14. | :10:24. | |
the case of long haul, when the economy begins to be more robust you | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
will find those demand will pick up. We have invested in the low`cost | :10:29. | :10:36. | |
sectors. The absolute signs of the airline, you still see the legacy | :10:37. | :10:39. | |
airlines, a full`service carriers, are still forming a huge part of the | :10:40. | :10:43. | |
capacity. Singapore Airlines will continue to grow and will continue | :10:44. | :10:47. | |
to grow in places where it makes sense for us to operate. | :10:48. | :10:51. |