17/11/2015 Asia Business Report

path. He died after being taken to hospital. Merseyside Police have

launched a murder investigation. Entrepreneurship, innovation and

human capital. Key themes for the meeting of the APEC leaders summit

in Manila. Stuck in traffic or moving forward? We take a closer

look at infrastructure, which is crucial to growth in not only the

Philippines but Asia-Pacific economies.

Good morning Asia, hello world! Great to have the with us for this

special edition of Asia Business Report, live from my home city of

Manila. I am currently here at the APEC CEO Summit, and it is 9:30am,

and world leaders are starting to arrive for the annual summit, which

officially begins tomorrow. The theme this year is all about

inclusive growth and inclusive economies. It is also the first time

that member states of the major trade agreement, also known as the

PPP, will meet, since the agreement was finalised. The host country of

APEC, the Philippines, is not part of this arrangement, and the

President has said the DPP needs to be more inclusive. Every country

would want to be part of all of these agreement, but we were not

invited to DPP to begin with. We are expected to be invited when they do

open up membership. If the idea is to broaden trade, making it

exclusive actually defeats the whole purpose of why you enter into the

agreement. That was the president of the Philippines. The leading lights

of the business world are also here, as you can see behind me. In fact,

7000 business leaders and delegates are currently meeting to discuss

economic growth, and how to make it more inclusive. Infrastructure

indeed is an important element, but it is one that poses many challenges

for the whole city, my home city. Manila, a place with huge potential,

but it has its setbacks. It can to work each day he can be a chore. I

want to experience people's daily frustrations. Today I'm going to

take a right with a management consultant, on his journey to work.

At this point I am wondering, is Manila really the worst city to

drive on earth? We are currently in the midst of a major traffic jam.

Vehicles are bumper-to-bumper. This is a reality every day. It takes us

at least 2.5 hours on average to get from one point to another. Why don't

you take public transport? It is completely dysfunctional, it is

obsolete, 30 years behind time. Time is money, and no one knows that more

than Jerome Coppel who owns it processing company. His plans turn

out more than 5000 hotdogs every minute, 6 million per day, supplying

80% of the Philippines' fast food restaurant. But profits are being

squeezed. We have trouble brought about by port congestion and very

busy roads, that hampers our efficiency and brings up our costs

of distribution. Port infrastructure, cost to the

Philippine economy was an estimated $16 million a day. The government

insist infrastructure spending has more than tripled since this

president came to power five years ago. The projects to build rail

networks, airports, and roads have been hit by delays, and even the

minister in charge admits it has had an economic impact. Definitely there

is a huge cost of the late infrastructure, but it took us some

time to put the programme in place. With elections due in 2016, the

pressure is on the next government to ease the burden on commuters and

businesses working in the capital. Those are some of the concerns of

the small and medium-sized enterprises, but what do the leaders

have to say about this? Growth has really helped in the fast food

industry. It is quite resilient industry, but a good economy help us

grow faster. The challenges would be with growth comes availability of

human capital, scheduling and delivery, with traffic issues we

need more proper scheduling, and probably our stores will carry a bit

more infantry. Wouldn't it be great if he road networks, the ports, the

airports, everything that facilitates trade and of people,

there is a lot of low hanging fruit in the country. The tourism industry

has tremendous potential, and if we can facilitate the movement of

people, the entry of foreign capital, we will be in great shape.

I think the waiting sheds in the basketball courts... When it comes

to the tollway it is the private sector building it, finding it. The

only reason there is a delay is the delivery of the right of way. It

really affects the Philippine economy in terms of the traffic, as

you know. The regular traffic is costing the economy billions.

For her views I am joined by the vice-chair of JP Morgan

Asia-Pacific. Thank you for joining us on Asia Business Report. We are

talking about inclusive growth building economies. Amid the

slowdown in emerging Asian markets, how can inclusive growth help the

slowing economy is? Around the Asia-Pacific region, we have 21

economies, so inclusive growth really happens at three levels. At a

country level, a corporate level, and that the people level. In the

Asia-Pacific region there are large economies, like China, but also

smaller ones, like the Philippines. Is there enough support for small

and medium-sized enterprises? Be used to be a lot more support,

because 90% of the companies in Asia-Pacific region need more

financing and support from governments in terms of profit. They

also need more employment, so at the people level we don't know.

Inclusive growth also means fighting poverty. How do you do that? We need

to create more infrastructure around the Asia-Pacific so everyone has

equal access to the cities and the wonderful infrastructure some urban

residents now enjoy. Looking at China, how has inclusive growth

helped the economy going forward? In China, one of the major environment

initiatives is to make growth a lot more balanced. In the past it was

all about manufacturing, but today it is more driven by services. Also,

urbanisation is a Keith Dean for Chinese growth, so inclusive growth

is about bringing more people into the city and making them enjoy the

city lifestyle -- a key theme. Before you go, what do you think

about more stimulus measures and interest-rate cuts? There could be

more, but we need to focus on the growth of people, rather than just

profits. We are cautiously optimistic, next you restart the

13th five-year plan, and we will seek it being transformed into a

more consumption driven and service driven economy. The

Morgan Asia-Pacific, thank you for joining us. Moving to other business

news, making headlines, Asia-Pacific airlines have taken a hit on the

share market on fears that the Paris attacks would deter people from

overseas travel. Hong Kong has said stocks closed lower by 3.5% on Air

China, with Cathay Pacific closing down. In Sydney, airline stocks also

down, but Virgin Australia has gained 1.7% while Qantas also in

positive territory by 2.3%. Indonesia's central bank is holding

its meeting today. It has kept rates on hold at 7.5% since February. The

most recent figures suggest inflation is easing and growth has

picked up slightly. Indonesia is expected to post growth below 5% for

the first time since 2009. The world's biggest hotel company is in

the making after Marriot has agreed to a deal with over 12 billion US

dollars to combine with another company. They will have more than

5500 hotels with 1.1 million rooms, and $2.7 billion in revenue. That

will see them overtake the UK's Intercontinental hotels, which is

just under 5000 hotels. With that, we end of this addition of Asia

Business Report. Thank you for investing your time with us.

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