26/06/2014 Asia Business Report

considering other charges. Now we will go to Singapore with all

the latest business news. General Motors Holden sales of its

top selling Chevrolet over possibly defective aerobatics. And Google

unveils android TV after its last attempt to add a video service

failed. Welcome to Asia Business Report. It

looks like more bumps ahead for General Motors. It is halting sales

of its Chevrolet cars in North America because of faulty airbags.

It has been fined $35 million and faces a series of investigations.

The president of General Motors spoke to our correspondent in

London. It will be as big as it needs to be to capture all the

people that lost loved ones and suffered serious physical injuries.

We have appointed an independent administrator. He will set the rules

for eligibility and determine who gets compensated. Just this week it

emerged from an internal memo that was sent back in 2002 that the board

was warned that the company had to stop shipping vehicles that were not

safe. How do you feel about the fact that for over a decade GM was

selling unsafe vehicles? That was a problem. We have seen that problem

manifested itself and we are taking action to fix that. Is the

controversy around the issue, is that hitting confidence? If you look

at our current sales performance, it is hard to point to an immediate

impact. That does not mean there will not be one some point. Our

fundamental principle of doing the right thing for the customer is a

reasonable possession. How much is this likely to cost? You have

indicated initially around $2 billion, but visibly in the

long`term it is going to be a lot of money. We have announced charges

that are already out there. You could be some additional costs. The

company has a very strong balance sheets and liquidity position. We

will be able to absorb the costs. We expect we will have more clarity on

where we are. There is this technology among

technology companies to come up with the least clever gadget. At the

Google's conference, they announced plans to bring it and read software

to cars, TVs and watches. `` Android.

The keynote presentation here almost three hours long. No great

surprises. There were some interesting things and

announcements. First off the bat was Android one. It was a way to get

into emerging markets. Currently there were only 10% of smartphone

users in those markets. It is a way for Google to work with hardware

makers to deliver a low`cost android experience with the Google's support

and software. It is an opportunity for Google to increase its presence

in those emerging markets. Another opportunity is for Google to put

Android not just on mobile phones and on tablets, but in smart

watches. We have known about them for a while. Google is showing off

some of the capabilities of these devices. How you can receive

notifications from your phone, but also synchronise data and get

information from your watch to the phone. It has not been altogether

successful so far. Google TV was a bit of a disaster. They have

rebranded it Android TV. As with other services, it will get Android

money on your TV set you can order movies or play games. Android auto

is a way of using your smartphone while you're on the road. You can

get directions on your dashboard using your phone. What emerged today

as a theme was unifying the design across all the devices which we

might own. Even in your car. It is an attempt to shed its reputation as

being a disjointed and fragmented system. Who knows, it might even

give Apple uses some pause for thought.

US regulators have filed a lawsuit against Barclays for allegedly

misleading investors. It centres on the trading tool which allowed

investors to buy or sell large blocks of shares and honestly

without going through and made stock exchange. `` a main.

Taiwan's Fox, technology group is suing three Japanese technology

companies have a pittance. But over patterns.

They claim they violated patent is related to televisions, smartphones

and computers. China's top official for Straits relations today

continues his charm offensive in Taiwan, which China considers a

province. He will visit a community centre and

a home for the elderly, where he hopes to win the hearts and minds of

ordinary Taiwanese. He has already come up against opposition from

protesters who worry about closer economic ties.

Smiles and confidence, China's top official arrived in unprecedented

visit to Taiwan. He wasted no time in trying to charm the Taiwanese.

TRANSLATION: Hello, my fellow friends in Taiwan. My pronunciation

may be incorrect, but I am very sincere. Instead of seeing the

president, he will spend most of his time using ordinary people,

including owners of businesses fear they could be affected by trade

deals with China. Protesters worried about China's growing influence were

ready to give him an earful. They chanted, Taiwan's future will be

decided by Taiwan. TRANSLATION: We believe they will talk about

important issues. We have no access to the content or the process of the

meeting. They will make decisions under the table. The visit comes on

the heels of the student occupation of Parliament in the spring of two

stop the legislature from a passing a trade agreement Taiwan signed with

China. Students fear that it would make the island to economically

dependent on China and therefore vulnerable to Beijing's pressures to

reunify. Aware of the power of the opposition in democratic Taiwan, he

wants to be seen as listening to the opinions of the Taiwanese. Analysts

say this is part of a shift in China's strategy. It wants closer

relations with Taiwan, the latter who is in power. They should now

realises that before stronger ties can be built, it must first his

family 's suspicions. `` ease Taiwanese.

Climate change is an issue that has been causing the world to rethink

its energy habits. But the cheap energy adviser at your's biggest oil

company said they are now investing in cleaner fuels. Our company is

convinced we need to decarbonise as much as we can. What is something we

can do with our capabilities? There are some things we are doing. We

have pushed for natural gas to replace coal. That is a low hanging

fruit. The other aspect is cleaner fuels for cars. We do that with

ethanol and a joint venture in Brazil where we use sustainable

sugar cane growth to generate this fuel. But to meet the growing demand

for natural gas, that will require fracking, which has been proven to

be harmful to the environment. What can companies do to prevent this?

There is a lot of natural gas around the world. Half of the resources is

in gas we have produced for decades. The other half is

unconventional. Our company has five operating principles, a framework

for responsible extraction of natural gas. We are working with

several organisations to have a wider remit. Would companies like

Shell really put best practice above profit? The first will is, doing our

operations safely and responsibly. We have our business principles

underpinning that. That is the first criteria. When you do it

responsibly, the profits will follow as well.

That is it for this addition of Asia Business Report. Thank you for

watching. This is BBC News. Here are the

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