12/02/2016 Asia Business Report

Will the year of the monkey also be the year of the bear? We will find

out why the stock markets have had such a rough start. And the circus

is in town, but it's having a tough time making money.

Welcome to Asia Business Report. I'm Ali Moore. It has been a tumultuous

week for the region's stock markets, with big falls, especially in Japan

and Hong Kong. If we look at how Asia is faring this morning, the

Hang Seng has just opened and it is down just over 1%. The Nikkei down

4%. Of course it fell 7% earlier in the week. The All Ords in Australia

down .7%. Overnight in the US shares fell. The Dow Jones ended the day at

the lowest level in two years. Hong -- I asked if the turmoil would

continue. We are still going through the holiday period in Asia and

markets don't like uncertainty. There are couple of overlays and

that the central bank's policy decisions. The street is digesting

the impact of those on the markets. We are specifically talking about a

move to deposit rate in Japan. Europe is there as well and the

uncertainty that brings. What are central bank telling investors that

they don't already know? One of the major tools of the central bank is

actually the communication tool to influence sentiment. The fact that

the governor came out and said they would move to a negative deposit

rate suggests that maybe it is an extreme measure and how many bullets

are left in the policy bank? Indeed. In other business news, the

International Monetary Fund has nominated Christine Lagarde for a

second term as the agency's managing director. She is the first woman to

lead the IMF. She took the helm as it 11th director in 2011. Shares of

Twitter hit an all-time low overnight after the company said

user growth stalled for the first time since it went public in 2013.

It has fallen more than 50% since the chief executive returned in

July. America's biggest insurer AIG lost more money than expected in the

last three months of 2015. It suffered from weak underwriting and

lower returns on investments in a turbulent market. It is also facing

pressure from activists to split the three smaller different companies.

The Indonesian government is hailing it as the biggest reform in a

decade. The president has announced changes aimed at opening the

country's economy to international investors. 29 sectors have been

removed from what is called a negative investment list, which sets

out which parts of the economy are partially or fully closed to foreign

investors. This report from Jakarta. It is certainly a bang, but whether

it is a big RAM or not we don't know. It goes in the right

direction. -- big bang. Foreign investors have for years called for

the easing of this negative investment list. It is a list that

really begins the investment discussion with the word no,

negative, which is not a good thing. The fact that some good sectors in

the economy created parts of e-commerce, some of the tourism

sectors, some pharmaceuticals, are opening up, that's a good sign but

there is a way to go. Will the devil be in the detail? In recent years

investors are more used to seeing sectors closed, not open. So it will

take a while to get confidence that it is OK to jump in? Yes, of course.

The devil is in the detail. What we got yesterday was a summary. It is a

good start, but what we are looking for are the details. How open will

the bureaucracy be to investment? How easy will it be to come in? Will

there be other sectors to follow? A lot of the big sectors are still

closed, like oil and gas and mining. Now the US is the leading

destination for Asian students studying abroad. Out of roughly 1

million overseas students who come to the US, more than half are from

Asia. Any students choose to study business. Especially from Vietnam,

Indonesia and China. At some in America are questioning the value of

a Masters of business administration, or MBA.

Columbia Business School. A Masters of business administration at this

university will set you back $130,000. A figure that doesn't even

include expenses like books and cost of living. So is it worth it?

Michael, the associated dean at the school, thinks so. When we look at

the success and track record of the school year after year in terms of

people going into jobs and opportunities that they find

incredibly fulfilling and make the not just the money but really to use

this as a launching pad for their career, to me it's a no-brainer.

Many MBA students are lured by the prospect of a handsome paycheque

soon after graduating. Last year the median starting salary for recent

MBA graduates were said to be $100,000. But critics say getting an

MBA is unnecessary and that many business school curriculum is our

frankly outdated. The value of a graduate business degree also

depends on where the degree is from on a ranking system. And then there

another question. Can leadership even be taught in a classroom? Meet

entrepreneur and MBA student can. He hopes his degree will give him and

the company he co-founded a leg up. -- Ken but he also believes doing is

sometimes more important than timing class. I've been through the

trenches. Having started from absolutely nothing, creating

something and hopefully growing the business further have to have that

mentality straightaway. An MBA would give you that necessarily. It will

give you tools but it won't make you and on the -- and often are. Ken

still wants to finish his MBA eventually. But if not he won't be

the first company leader to put his business before his education.

For many Indians, a highlight of the year used to be when the circus came

to town, but the clowns, animals and spectacular shows. -- with it. Now

the industry is struggling, so what has gone wrong? This report from

Mumbai. The circus is in town, but even as

the clowns try to editing the audience these are difficult times

for the organisers to be happy. And that's because of all these empty

seats. It makes staying in business precarious. This circus, which has

been in the business for five decades, says the survival is a real

effort. TRANSLATION: Earlier, people used to queue at the counter one day

before the show to book their tickets. The demand was so high. Now

people prefer going to shopping walls and movie theatres rather than

coming to the circus. -- shopping centres. A decade ago circuses like

this were so popular that they would travel across the country, from big

cities to small towns, attracting huge crowds. Now the audience is

less than half what they used to be. That forces organisers to cut

back on the number of shows and venues to stay financially viable.

Have the one reason for the drop in crowds is the changing nature of

circus acts. The use of live animals like elephants, tigers and bears has

been banned. So, today, birds, dogs and horses are the only creatures

you will find in the circus ring and they don't seem to have the same

appeal. To try to make shows more exciting, circus companies are

hiring foreign performers. Things most Indian audiences haven't seen

before. But that's making it even harder for Indian artists like this

and he is getting disillusioned. TRANSLATION: I earned $90 a month

and it is really difficult to on that. My salary hasn't increased in

the past couple of years and I have a family to support back home. When

I started out 15 years ago there were more opportunities. Now it is

very difficult to find a new job, as there aren't too many circuses

around. The way things are going I might have to quit the industry in a

few years. Circus owners say they aren't prepared to throw away the

tradition just yet but Indian circuses will have to bring in the

changes to stay relevant in a new era of entertainment.

Let's have a look at the markets. You can see now the boards are up.

The Hang Seng is down 1.4%. The Nikkei down 4.3%. The All Ords in

Australia not doing quite so badly, but still down .7%. Oil was a big

driver of the markets overnight because there were big falls in both

crude and Brent. There has been a bit of recovery, possibly on the

back of a report that OPEC may cut production. Certainly a bit of a

bounce this morning. That's it for this edition of Asia Business

Report. Thanks for