28/05/2014 Asia Business Report

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

We take a closer look at the Finance Minister appointed to put India's

economy back on track. Cadbury recalls chocolate in Malaysia after

discovering traces of pig DNA. What are the implications of all the

brand? Hello and welcome to Asia Business Report. He may have an

unenviable job. He is India's new finance minister and the men cast

with revitalising India's can be. He is putting economic growth on the

top of his list. He is well`known close ally and friend of the new

Prime Minister. The new Indian government under the

leadership of Narendra Modi has officially taken charge. The man who

has been chosen to steer the economy. But who is he? He is a

senior and experienced audition. He was the leader of opposition in the

upper house of the Indian Parliament last five years. It was also the

Minister during the BJP government between 1988 and 2004. He was the

Minister for commerce and later in charge of the Law and Justice

Department. He is also adequate lawyer. Now as he takes charge of

the Finance Ministry, he will take that experience to revive the

economy which has been growing at its slowest pace in the last decade.

Controlling inflation and high food prices is one of the biggest

challenges he faces. This was one of the main reasons the previous

government was voted out. There are all be concerned that concerns that

food prices could be pushed up again. Foreign investors have stayed

away from India in last few years due to policies and tax issues.

According to the World Bank, India banks that are ranks 34th. Improving

the business climate will be a critical area because that will help

in providing the investment cycle which in turn will give a big push

for India's economic growth rate. You'll. He has also been even charge

of the defence Ministry and that is why many people are wondering, how

will he handle two ministries at the same time. He has made it clear that

he will be in charge of the defence Ministry only for the time being as

a new minister is expected to be appointed in the next four to five

weeks. His main job will be the finance ministry.

Earlier I spoke to someone from Berkeley 's bank. Given his stature

in the party, is effectively the second most important leader after

Narendra Modi and clearly, his position in the Cabinet, even though

he lost the elections have been secured for a prestigious position.

Given that it was expected that he would become the finance minister, I

think a lot of preparation would have already been done in the

background. At this juncture, what he does bring to the table is

vertical will to execute some difficult decisions. That is a key

requirement for the job because it is not going to be pleasant over the

next couple of years. We know that Arun Jaitley has already met with

the central bank governor in India and they have a very tough task

ahead of them with high inflation and high interest rates. How will

they boost growth is yellow Arun Jaitley has greeted in some good

steps. We have already seen inflation numbers coming down at the

margin in our forecasts are that inflation will move lower as long as

we get a good monsoon. That is the article X Factor. Overall, if there

is co`ordination within the finance ministry, if reforms are being

undertaken, there is nothing to say that inflation cannot be brought

down. That has been the experience of the previous governments.

GlaxoSmithKline is under investigation by Britain's serious

fraud office. Over its commercial practices. The firm says it will

fully cooperate. Earlier this week, Chinese authorities accused staff of

bribing government and hospital officials in the country.

GlaxoSmithKline refused to comment on whether the investigation was

connected to this incident. They are also facing criminal investigation

into similar allegations in Poland and rock. Our business reporter in

London has more details on what investigation means for

GlaxoSmithKline. You'll GlaxoSmithKline is the sixth largest

drug company in the world. This is a big hit. Under UK law, it would have

jurisdiction to probe in other countries. The US is the same in

that respect. You cannot necessarily assume, although the investigation

in China is incredibly detailed, and indicates quite a few people, you

cannot necessarily assume that what the serious fraud office is doing is

looking at this and then we think these practices have been replicated

elsewhere. It may be thinking that but we do not have confirmation of

that at all and this is fairly early days. It is also worth saying that

GlaxoSmithKline has made efforts to overhaul its practices in terms of

sales. But these are very widespread and potentially very damaging for

GlaxoSmithKline. Cadbury is one of the oldest and

most famous chocolate makers in the world. It is suffering a major

setback in Malaysia after traces of pig DNA was found in two varieties

of its signature chocolate are. They have been removed from shelves

across the majority Muslim country. This is how some chocolate lovers

reacted. TRANSLATION: I do not want camera any more. I feel disgusted

with what we have been consuming. Is not halal. Actions should be

taken against Cadbury. On the issue of Cadbury chocolate, as Muslims in

Malaysia, we feel we have been deceived because Cadbury is a famous

product in Malaysia. A statement to the BBC, Cadbury Malaysia said we

are proactively recalling to Cadbury batches.

No other country products are affected by

Martin role as a partner in the Martin role company forgot I spoke

to him earlier and asked what it would take for Cadbury to restore

its image in Malaysia. We are learning that the products are being

withdrawn. I think there are still some steps ahead in terms of

communicating with Malaysian authorities and reassuring the

public that this will not happen again. And the chocolate will be

clean chocolate. You can't lower the bar, you need to put in a lot of

effort so that sales will drop. How long will it take? Three to six

months. In half the time if they deal with it well, they will be back

on track. E`commerce is on the rise here in Asia and one company

benefited from this trend is Lazard. They launched two years ago

and are now in six south is it south`east Asian come to this. I

asked the executive how the company is faring against tough

competitors. The key difference is that we are a

local in the market that we have been here for two years now. We have

been present in a number of countries and we have running

operations in many of those countries. One of the challenges is

logistical constraint and payment constraint. Being on the ground

allows us to solve these problems. Cash delivery is still one of the

biggest payment methods and that can be difficult. How do you see the

growth of e`commerce, specifically in the south`east Asian market. It

is still well behind the US and China. Growth potential is

incredible. You look at China and the developer we have seen their.

Five or six years later, we are ready at 8% in South East Asia. We

expect the same kind of development because the prerequisites to have

online growth such as a lack of off`line retail presence or the

growth of mobile giving access to much more people to the Internet art

the same here as they have been everywhere else in the region. We

are very confident that the so are you leveraging off the growth in

mobile and the use of tablets, is that where you see the most amount

of growth? If you look at the development over the last six

months, traffic is now surpassing 50% on weekends. People can easily

access broadband outside of the office. That kind of... It has been

a huge driver of business. That have a quick look at the market because

they are all inching higher. We thought better economic data in the

US. That is it for this addition of Asia Business Report. Banks are

watching. `` thanks for watching. President Obama has announced that

10,000 US troops will remain in Afghanistan next year even after the

end of American combat operations. A fire at a rural hospital in South

Korea has killed at least 31