Browse content similar to 01/02/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Myanmar prepares for its first democratically elected government in | :00:15. | :00:22. | |
five decades. What will this mean for the economy and investors? | :00:23. | :00:28. | |
Indonesia sees a surge in transport services catering exclusively for | :00:29. | :00:29. | |
women. Good morning, Asia, hello, world. | :00:30. | :00:41. | |
Glad you could join us for this Monday edition of Asia Business | :00:42. | :00:44. | |
Report, I'm Rico Hizon in Singapore. In Myanmar, the | :00:45. | :00:48. | |
south-east Asian economy's new parliament convenes for the first | :00:49. | :00:52. | |
time later today since the opposition party won a landslide | :00:53. | :00:56. | |
victory in November. As the economy emerges from decades of military | :00:57. | :01:00. | |
rule, companies from around the world have poured billions of | :01:01. | :01:03. | |
dollars into the country to get a foothold in one of Asia's last | :01:04. | :01:07. | |
untapped markets. China is the largest investor in the country with | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
more than 15 billion US dollars in cumulative investments. The next | :01:14. | :01:17. | |
biggest investor is Singapore with about 12 billion US dollars. And in | :01:18. | :01:26. | |
third is Thailand with 10.3 US dollars billion. But many investors | :01:27. | :01:33. | |
are worried. So what can we expect from the new parliament? | :01:34. | :01:35. | |
It is a feeling of anticipation and hope. We will have to see when the | :01:36. | :01:44. | |
new parliament convenes today. We don't know yet who will be in the | :01:45. | :01:48. | |
new cabinet. The only thing we do know is that the NLD, the National | :01:49. | :01:54. | |
League for Democracy of Aung San Suu Kyi will be the dominant force. We | :01:55. | :02:00. | |
don't know who she will appoint as ministers and who parliament will | :02:01. | :02:04. | |
elect as president. Could there be concern among investors and the | :02:05. | :02:08. | |
business community that Aung San Suu Kyi's party is inexperienced in | :02:09. | :02:12. | |
handling economic affairs? Absolutely. That's the big question, | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
will she be able to make the transition from opposition leader to | :02:17. | :02:25. | |
have having the ability to lead the country? Have they given a sense to | :02:26. | :02:29. | |
investors how they will manage the economy? Yes. The NLD has put out | :02:30. | :02:35. | |
the news that they want to continue the opening of the country. They | :02:36. | :02:42. | |
want to open it to foreign investors. Many foreign investors | :02:43. | :02:47. | |
have moved in, but quite a few have hung back over the last six months | :02:48. | :02:50. | |
to see how the elections would play out. But now we will be waiting to | :02:51. | :02:58. | |
see who is in the new cabinet. We will see new investors coming in. In | :02:59. | :03:02. | |
the meantime, Aung San Suu Kyi will really focus not only on bringing in | :03:03. | :03:07. | |
new investment but also the rule of law, the peace process with the | :03:08. | :03:12. | |
minorities, agriculture, education. What should be her priority in the | :03:13. | :03:16. | |
first 100 days in terms of economic reforms? What would be the top | :03:17. | :03:22. | |
three? What we are going to see is a cabinet that will manage the economy | :03:23. | :03:29. | |
and make the right decisions. Also in the past they have had some | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
left-leaning tendencies, even some former communists, so we want to see | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
that she is really keeping opening up the economy to the outside | :03:40. | :03:41. | |
world. That was Myanmar investment expert | :03:42. | :03:53. | |
Hans. In China there is more bad economic news, the latest government | :03:54. | :03:57. | |
numbers have revealed manufacturing in China slowed again in January | :03:58. | :04:00. | |
hitting its weakest level in more than three years. It is growing at | :04:01. | :04:06. | |
its slowest pace in a court of a century and $1 trillion has already | :04:07. | :04:10. | |
flowed out from the equity markets. But could the outlook get any | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
worse? One leading financial forecaster thinks so. He spoke to | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
our Asia business correspondent. The huge expansion of credit has | :04:19. | :04:25. | |
funded an enormous investment boom, some of which has left China with a | :04:26. | :04:30. | |
use for capital stock for the future but a significant amount has | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
probably been wasted on apartment blocks that will never be occupied | :04:36. | :04:39. | |
and things like that -- useful. It does mean there will be a major | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
problem of bad debts in the banking system. There are many loans that | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
have been extended to companies that are now loss-making and cannot repay | :04:49. | :04:53. | |
the debts. Essentially they are only repaying their existing debts by | :04:54. | :04:57. | |
borrowing more. How much of a problem is the credit boom that is | :04:58. | :05:01. | |
continuing to unwind in China going to be for the overall economy, can | :05:02. | :05:07. | |
the officials manage it? Overall the Chinese economy has two shift to a | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
consumer focused service sector economy and there are some signs | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
that is continuing to progress. The creation of urban jobs last year was | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
very positive at about 13 million. But in the industrial and | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
construction sectors for the economy, things like steel, cement, | :05:25. | :05:30. | |
glass, there is a major industrial slowdown occurring in China, in a | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
sense a hard landing already occurring. It's going to be very | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
difficult for the Chinese authorities to manage the | :05:39. | :05:41. | |
consequences of that on the financial system, but they still | :05:42. | :05:45. | |
have significant capacity in terms of the national balance sheet, the | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
actual national debt isn't that high. There's lots of things they | :05:50. | :05:52. | |
can do but it is still a big challenge. Are you confident they | :05:53. | :05:56. | |
have the ability and capability to be able to pull this off? Last year | :05:57. | :06:02. | |
was a bit of a shock because there's been schizophrenic policies, first | :06:03. | :06:06. | |
encouraging the equity market boom, then trying to control it, then | :06:07. | :06:11. | |
trying to control the bust. There's been an attitude towards creditors | :06:12. | :06:14. | |
claim were first they have said we have got to call a halt to credit | :06:15. | :06:19. | |
growth, we need hard discipline in the system and then when the system | :06:20. | :06:24. | |
has produced default they have bailed out wealth management | :06:25. | :06:26. | |
products and encouraged more credit. There's been schizophrenia | :06:27. | :06:31. | |
and a lack of consistency. That reflects the fact there are | :06:32. | :06:33. | |
different points of view within the government and this isn't a perfect | :06:34. | :06:36. | |
system for getting a clear way forward. Yes, there are lots of very | :06:37. | :06:42. | |
competent people thinking about these problems but it turns out this | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
system is human after all and its policy responses may be imperfect, | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
and that will produce some turbulence in the market reaction to | :06:52. | :06:52. | |
it. A slowdown in China affecting the | :06:53. | :07:01. | |
economy of South Korea as well, where exports to the mainland | :07:02. | :07:05. | |
tumbled more than 20% in the month of January. Exports to the US also | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
on the downside. Moving out to the automobile | :07:09. | :07:15. | |
industry and Japan's halting production at its domestic plans for | :07:16. | :07:21. | |
a week due to a steel shortage, following an explosion at a facility | :07:22. | :07:25. | |
operated by one of its affiliate is. The UK's biggest bank HSBC is | :07:26. | :07:30. | |
planning to impose a global freeze on pay and hiring in 2016. The | :07:31. | :07:35. | |
measures are part of their cost-cutting drive. It's already | :07:36. | :07:40. | |
announced thousands of job cuts. Falling oil prices continuing to | :07:41. | :07:43. | |
affect developing economies around the world and Nigeria has asked the | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
World Bank and the African development bank for a $3.5 billion | :07:48. | :07:54. | |
urgency loan. To Jakarta, which has seen a growing number of transport | :07:55. | :07:57. | |
services catering exclusively to women. The motorcycle taxis offer | :07:58. | :08:03. | |
better security and comfort in the world's largest Muslim country. And | :08:04. | :08:05. | |
some of the drivers are also women. Getting around Jakarta can be a | :08:06. | :08:15. | |
chore, but for many women the daily commute is a potentially harrowing | :08:16. | :08:18. | |
journey of sexual harassment or worse. TRANSLATION: In other forms | :08:19. | :08:27. | |
of public transport, like minivans, there are too many men in such a | :08:28. | :08:31. | |
tight space, which makes me feel very uncomfortable. However I feel | :08:32. | :08:38. | |
safe on the ladies transport because the bikers are also women. They are | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
capitalising on the safety concerns by running transport services | :08:44. | :08:47. | |
exclusively for women. Its drivers aren't difficult to spot, and they | :08:48. | :08:54. | |
say business is brisk. The other online motor taxi services are | :08:55. | :08:57. | |
convenient but there's no service to take care of the comfort of women. | :08:58. | :09:02. | |
This demand has been partly driven by the rape of a woman in a public | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
minivan, which sparked uproar in the city last year. TRANSLATION: The | :09:08. | :09:15. | |
government hasn't really done much. Even when there are passengers who | :09:16. | :09:19. | |
felt they had been harassed and reported it to authorities, the | :09:20. | :09:23. | |
police were often confused about how to tackle the problem. They should | :09:24. | :09:29. | |
take immediate action and there must be CCTV installed at unsafe public | :09:30. | :09:33. | |
spots in the city. Jakarta's traffic may not be any better, but perhaps | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
women can feel a little safer on their daily commute through this | :09:39. | :09:40. | |
congested city. And before we go, a quick look at | :09:41. | :09:49. | |
the markets and we start with the Schengen and Shanghai stock | :09:50. | :09:52. | |
markets. They are currently in negative territory because of the | :09:53. | :09:56. | |
bad news on the economic front, a three-year low for the manufacturing | :09:57. | :10:01. | |
centre. The Shanghai Composite index down by about a fifth of a percent, | :10:02. | :10:07. | |
the Schengen Zen down by about 0.35%. Japan in positive territory | :10:08. | :10:14. | |
because of the positive effect of the bank of Japan move unexpectedly | :10:15. | :10:18. | |
slashing interest rates into negative territory for the first | :10:19. | :10:23. | |
time. Also the Hang Seng up by Mauboy 4% and the warlords gaining | :10:24. | :10:28. | |
0.8%. Overall positive the regional markets. -- up by 0.4%. -- in the | :10:29. | :10:39. | |
regional markets. That's all for now for now, Cabaye. | :10:40. | :10:43. | |
Deputies in Myanmar from Aung San Suu Kyi's party get ready | :10:44. | :10:47. |