Browse content similar to 31/05/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Building the future, we find out if India's economic growth is | :00:00. | :00:25. | |
delivering for its people. And India overtake America as the world's most | :00:26. | :00:41. | |
competitive place to do business. Glad you could join us for this | :00:42. | :00:46. | |
edition of Asia Business Report. We start off with India, and one of | :00:47. | :00:50. | |
Asia's largest economies will reveal in several hours how rapidly it has | :00:51. | :00:54. | |
grown over the past year. The country has become one of the | :00:55. | :00:57. | |
fastest expanding economies in the world, and the IMF has estimated | :00:58. | :01:05. | |
that growth of 7.5% will be recorded for this financial year. Despite the | :01:06. | :01:09. | |
strong performance, job creation is still a major challenge. | :01:10. | :01:17. | |
This has become a common sight outside most suburban train stations | :01:18. | :01:24. | |
in Mumbai. These men are not travellers but out of work | :01:25. | :01:29. | |
construction labourers who have lost jobs, due to a slowdown in the | :01:30. | :01:33. | |
sector. They assemble here daily in the hope of getting jobs like | :01:34. | :01:37. | |
repairing or painting to earn some money. This is the spot where | :01:38. | :01:42. | |
residents from the area come to hire temporary manpower for the | :01:43. | :01:46. | |
housework. Most of these men left farming and moved to Mumbai to | :01:47. | :01:53. | |
become construction workers. This man is one of them. He came to the | :01:54. | :01:58. | |
city in 2007, but lost his construction job two years ago, and | :01:59. | :02:00. | |
since then has been struggling to survive. TRANSLATION: Are used to | :02:01. | :02:07. | |
earn $200 every month, but now I barely get one third of that by | :02:08. | :02:12. | |
doing temporary jobs. In fact, I am planning to move back to my village | :02:13. | :02:16. | |
soon. At least then I will be able to earn more as working as a farm | :02:17. | :02:21. | |
labourer. Despite strong economic growth, creating jobs is still a | :02:22. | :02:26. | |
major challenge for India. The construction industry is the second | :02:27. | :02:28. | |
largest employer in the country after agriculture. But there are | :02:29. | :02:35. | |
concerns that the slowdown in the sector could push many people back | :02:36. | :02:39. | |
into farming. This project has been under construction for more than two | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
years. The developer has been struggling to find buyers, and now | :02:44. | :02:49. | |
that there is a shortage of funds work at the site has been stalled. | :02:50. | :02:53. | |
So you find all kinds of construction material and equipment | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
here, but no workers. It is not just the housing sector that is affecting | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
jobs. Stalled infrastructure projects are also contributing to | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
the problem. Business is blamed slow government approvals and redtape. | :03:06. | :03:11. | |
The approval part of the projects are been delayed very much. And | :03:12. | :03:18. | |
construction work is being delayed by a lot. This leads to a loss of | :03:19. | :03:26. | |
confidence by purchases. India has one of the youngest populations in | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
the world and it needs to create 10 million jobs every year for the new | :03:30. | :03:32. | |
people entering the workforce. Achieving that target will be the | :03:33. | :03:36. | |
key for Asia's third-largest economy to realise its long-term growth | :03:37. | :03:38. | |
potential. Earlier, I asked if India's strong | :03:39. | :03:51. | |
growth numbers reflect positive conditions. That is the big question | :03:52. | :04:02. | |
on everyone's minds. This is the fastest growth rate of any major | :04:03. | :04:05. | |
economy in the world, and you would expect to see the other data points | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
in India start to match up with those kinds of expectations. The | :04:10. | :04:13. | |
thing is, they are not. What we are actually seeing is that experts have | :04:14. | :04:18. | |
fallen, how much India sells to the world, for about 17 months in a row. | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
Factories are not reducing as much as they could or should. By some | :04:22. | :04:26. | |
estimates, we are seeing factories producing 30% less than what they | :04:27. | :04:32. | |
could be producing, and the problem is that the way India has calculated | :04:33. | :04:36. | |
its growth figures changed a couple of years ago. Critics of these | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
revisions point to the fact that this is just PM Modi's way of making | :04:41. | :04:47. | |
the Indian economy look like it is doing better than it actually is. | :04:48. | :04:50. | |
His government says there are structural reforms that are put into | :04:51. | :04:55. | |
place, they will take time, but the trajectory is moving upwards. | :04:56. | :04:59. | |
Whether that is reflective of what is actually happening on the ground | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
is beside the point. The figures are moving in an upward direction. Two | :05:04. | :05:07. | |
years now in office, what should be the priorities of PM Modi today? I | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
think the major priority for any Indian government has to be the | :05:14. | :05:16. | |
reduction of the poverty rate. A fifth of the country still lives | :05:17. | :05:20. | |
below the poverty line, and the PM has made it clear that that is very | :05:21. | :05:24. | |
much part of his agenda. He has also pointed to the fact that in his two | :05:25. | :05:28. | |
years in office he recently defended himself in an article in the Wall | :05:29. | :05:33. | |
Street Journal, that he has opened the world to farmers. I think that | :05:34. | :05:38. | |
is correct, but at the same time there are two key pieces of | :05:39. | :05:42. | |
legislation that his government has not been able to pass. That is the | :05:43. | :05:45. | |
goods and services tax as well as the land acquisition bill. He is | :05:46. | :05:49. | |
hoping to pass that at some point this year. | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
Hong Kong has toppled the US as the world's most competitive economy, | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
according to a new survey. The US had led the business School's world | :06:01. | :06:06. | |
competitive ranking for three years in a row, but now it has dropped to | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
sixth place, with Switzerland ranked second. I asked why the city ranked | :06:13. | :06:19. | |
so highly. It is a fact that Hong Kong is the conduit, the link | :06:20. | :06:22. | |
between China and the rest of the world. The fact is that the | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
infrastructure between Hong Kong and the rest of the world, ports, | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
airlines and communication, is extremely good. It also has good | :06:31. | :06:35. | |
communications into China as well. It is probably that linkage to the | :06:36. | :06:39. | |
rest of the world that drives the efficiency of Hong Kong doing | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
business. Basically two major rivals here in Asia in terms of | :06:44. | :06:46. | |
competitiveness. You have Hong Kong and Singapore, which is ranked | :06:47. | :06:51. | |
fourth. If you take a look at the overall survey, many other Asian | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
economies have slipped in the rankings. Why do you think this is | :06:56. | :07:00. | |
happening? Hiding a lot of that is to do with economic performance, | :07:01. | :07:03. | |
which is one of the factors they take into account, and obviously a | :07:04. | :07:08. | |
lot of these countries in Asia are exporters, and they have suffered | :07:09. | :07:11. | |
with a global slowdown. I think a lot more of what Hong Kong does is | :07:12. | :07:18. | |
infrastructure, finance, which has had less of a slowing process than | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
other countries. Asia's biggest technology show opens | :07:23. | :07:35. | |
today in Taipei. For more than three decades its annual exhibition has | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
been focused on computers, but against a backdrop of declining | :07:39. | :07:44. | |
sales, attention has turned to more ambitious technology, including | :07:45. | :07:49. | |
robots and virtual reality. I am joined by our correspondent from | :07:50. | :07:57. | |
inside the exhibition area. I know many of these technology companies | :07:58. | :08:04. | |
are facing some major challenges. Yes, what is happening is that the | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
staff from some 1600 companies are exhibiting here, and are setting up. | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
The show will open to the public in about an hour. They are quickly | :08:16. | :08:19. | |
trying to set up their laptops, smart phones, wearables, and all | :08:20. | :08:23. | |
kinds of gadgets, trying to entice consumers to buy. That is what the | :08:24. | :08:29. | |
companies here need, because computer sales have been declining | :08:30. | :08:33. | |
for the past two years, I5-6% globally. That is really hurting the | :08:34. | :08:44. | |
industry. If this continues this year and next year, this will be bad | :08:45. | :08:53. | |
news for many companies like Acer, and global brands like Dell and | :08:54. | :09:03. | |
Lenovo. They are trying to encourage people to buy things they have ever | :09:04. | :09:07. | |
bought before, like household robots and virtual reality headset. That is | :09:08. | :09:11. | |
the buzz right now in many computer shows all over the world, virtual | :09:12. | :09:16. | |
reality and robots. The big question is, will the man on the street, will | :09:17. | :09:25. | |
ordinary consumers, by these new consumer other than smart phones and | :09:26. | :09:30. | |
personal computers? We are seeing even with smartphone sales, sales | :09:31. | :09:37. | |
are flat so far this year. Analysts told me that consumers feel like | :09:38. | :09:41. | |
they have all the hardware and they need, so unless the companies come | :09:42. | :09:43. | |
up with really amazing product that people feel they need, they won't | :09:44. | :09:49. | |
feel the need to spend the money. There might be some products that | :09:50. | :09:55. | |
might convince people to buy, like household robots. They can unlock | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
doors, read stories to kids, we have to see whether the consumers will be | :10:00. | :10:10. | |
convinced. Thank you very much. Before we go, a quick look at the | :10:11. | :10:18. | |
Asian stock markets. Currently, as you can see, they are mixed at this | :10:19. | :10:24. | |
hour. The Nikkei down by 2.5, and the all ordinaries lowered by 34. | :10:25. | :10:30. | |
This is after the US and UK financial markets were closed | :10:31. | :10:32. | |
overnight due to the bank holiday. | :10:33. | :10:46. |