27/06/2014 Asia Business Report

decades, he targeted men, women and children, aged from five to 75. Now

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

UK discount retailer Primark is investigating allegations its

clothes were made using Chinese slave labour. And defeating

deflation. Japan's Prime Minister has an

ambitious plan to revive the economy, but will it work?

Welcome to this edition of Asia Business Report. Shoppers are rarely

forced to think too hard about where their clothes are coming from.

That's not the case for one shopper in Northern Ireland, who discovered

what she described as a cry for help from a Chinese prison worker in a

pair of pants she bought at Primark. This note came with a prison

identity card and claimed inmates were forced to work 15 hours a day

making clothes and were given food that was unfit for pigs or dogs. I

spoke earlier to our Shanghai correspondent and asked if there had

been any reaction to this in China. China has abolished the education

through labour camps. They closed at the end of last year. They were the

camps in which people were held, often for up to four years, without

any proper legal trial. You could be sent there on the decision of the

local police bureau. They have closed and there have been scandals

in the past about products from those types of detention camps,

making it into the international supply chain. What it looks like we

are talking about here is a proper prison, if you like. In China it's

not uncommon for these prisons to producing goods, to put the inmates

to work, earning money for the prison and for themselves. But of

course international companies will be working hard and Primark says it

does exactly that to make sure that goods from these kinds of places

don't enter its stores. The difficulty is often third`party

suppliers. Those contractors that then send the work elsewhere. That

might be what happened. But Primark says it is investigating. If it

turns out this note is genuine, it will be deeply concerning. But on

the part of Chinese authorities, are they trying to ensure that this

doesn't happen again? That these clothes don't find themselves on the

shelves of other countries? It's difficult to know whether there is a

national policy about making sure what's made in the prisons in China

don't end up overseas. If nothing else, you could argue it's

embarrassing. But it is probably really down to the international

companies themselves to make sure that their supply chains are free of

this kind of thing. It's not the first time it has happened. Previous

scandals have been related to these we education through labour camps, a

slightly different category of camp. That in 2012, a box of Christmas

decorations turned up in an American store with a handwritten note, a

plea for help, asking the purchaser of the item to forward concerns to

the world human rights organisation. International media eventually

tracked down the author of that note. He said he had taken great

trouble to avoid the attention of the guards writing ``, writing 20

notes and putting them in boxes. It looks like the Japanese Prime

Minister is making headway in his fight against inflation. Consumer

prices rose 3.4% in May, following an increase in the sales tax

nationwide. That's the fastest paced in more than three decades. But

household spending fell by 8%, more than expected. Earlier I asked a

market strategist for his take on those figures. These figures were in

line with estimates. What you might draw out of them is if you take away

the consumption tax, if it wasn't happening, he would make the

conclusion that it's actually slowing down inflation at 1.4% from

last month, 1.5%. The other part of the information, household

spending, is still impacted quite severely by this tax. It dropped 8%

year`on`year. That's another part. Maybe this month isn't the data we

are looking for and they have had to slow down their outlook. It is a

good thing to see that they are moving forward but a lot of people

will question, in the market site anyway, whether or not they are

doing enough. And are they trying to do their best to do that? It's a

good step in the right direction. The issue now is whether or not the

market will let them, over the two years, this could take up to five

years, to actually reach that goal. What you are saying is the sales tax

is artificially boosting but it is causing a little bit of a... It's an

aberration, really. But in terms of what Shinzo Abe is doing, he spoke

about the reforms he announced earlier this week, has there been

evidence that what he has been doing has worked? Of course this comes

after his first and second errors, fiscal stimulus, monetary policy, et

cetera. Policy reforms, no matter what country, take a very long time

to filter through. In a country like Japan it takes even longer a game.

Look, the jury is still out. `` again. There has been bought

swelling of euphoria, that things are getting better in Japan. You can

see that in a market, the Nikkei had a 52% appreciation last year. There

is a suggestion that he is doing the right thing. The bank of Japan is

delayed in the economy. The core question is, does that generate

inflation? The jury is out. If you look at what's happening in the Fed

in the US, they are also struggling to make inflation.

In other business news, shares of Nikkei jumped about 3% in late US

trade after better than expected profits. `` shares in Nike. Net

incomes rose to about $700 million in the three months from May, eating

estimates. This was led by strong sales in North America and Europe.

`` beating estimates. Shares of camera maker Oprah surged by more

than 30% in its first day of trade. `` company GoPro. It uses its

devices to film themselves doing activities like skydiving. Investors

approved. GoPro raised more than $400 million from its over

prescribed share sale. After speculation, Alibaba has confirmed

that it will list on the New York Stock Exchange.

It deals Broe `` blow to the NASDAQ, which has usually been favoured by

tech firms. Alibaba's share sale is said to be the largest public

offering by a tech company. More than $15 billion worth of loans tied

to an illegal old transaction has been uncovered by China's national

audit of all is to `` tied to illegal gold transactions. The

discovery raises concerns over how it deals are financed in China using

metals or other commodities. In the next decade, India's billionaire

count is expected to double. Many of the country's superrich are

expected to be from Mumbai. Well, as part of a new series on new

billionaires, we met a few of the city's entrepreneurs to find out

their ambitions. Young India is in the fast lane.

This man is 27. Ever since he graduated five years ago, he started

one company each year. Among his ventures is this Harley`Davidson

franchise. The only one in more buyer. He has had the financial

support of his family. But he is aiming to make his own mark. He is

in a hurry to achieve his goals but is also realistic that sometimes not

all goes to plan. I want to be the youngest billionaire in India. The

other one was 31. That's why I say 30. But I think that's going to be

possible. But you never know. India has a large young population.

Youngsters in more by our first exposed to new technology and new

ideas. It's also a city well known for entrepreneurial spirit, that's a

culture experienced early on. This teenager started his first company

when he was 16, providing software solutions to local businessmen. At

19, he is still to graduate but has already started six ventures. If we

found a great idea right now, it has amazing potential. India might grow

faster than anyone has ever seen anywhere. This confidence to take on

rapid rise over the past decade. rapid rise over the past decade.

Even though growth has slowed over the past couple of years, these

sorts of people believe that India still has miles to go and they want

to make sure that they are riding along as it tries to make its way

towards economic success. You can find out a lot more about

the rise of the super rich on our online special report. That is at

the BBC website. That's it for this edition of Asia

Business Report. Thanks for watching.

This is BBC News. The headlines: A Sudanese woman, sentenced to death

for renouncing Islam, has been freed for the second