Browse content similar to 02/06/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore. | :00:00. | :00:15. | |
The US Treasury Secretary begins his trip to Asia. An industry buzz: We | :00:16. | :00:39. | |
look at the lies be exported trade. -- live bee. Glad you could join us | :00:40. | :00:45. | |
for this Thursday edition. The United States has accused several | :00:46. | :00:49. | |
Asian nations of manipulating the value of their currencies, including | :00:50. | :00:56. | |
China, Japan and South Korea. The weakest, South Korea, is likely to | :00:57. | :00:59. | |
be high on the agenda when the US Treasury Secretary visits Seoul | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
today and meet the country's Finance Minister. Earlier I spoke with an | :01:04. | :01:11. | |
analyst in Seoul. I think the level of the Korean yuan is very fair, and | :01:12. | :01:19. | |
in the case of career it is declining even more than the current | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
level. It is not a currency issue, it is about having the right | :01:25. | :01:27. | |
products and targeting the right export markets. This political | :01:28. | :01:34. | |
football, that is a fair phrase. It plays well at home even though it is | :01:35. | :01:37. | |
not supported by the reality overseas. The fact of the matter is | :01:38. | :01:46. | |
that the US is actually a very poor exporter of its goods and services. | :01:47. | :01:52. | |
It is not very competitive at exporting, even though it is a great | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
importer of other goods and services. For the likes of South | :01:58. | :02:00. | |
Korea, it is not just about trade with the US, but with their other | :02:01. | :02:06. | |
major partners such as China and the Japanese. With the strength of the | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
Korean yuan, they have remained uncompetitive with the Chinese and | :02:11. | :02:18. | |
Japanese products? Yes. For Korean exporters, in the range of | :02:19. | :02:28. | |
comparison from the yuan to the dollar, any comparison would be | :02:29. | :02:32. | |
hurting them. The biggest problem is the volatility of the Korean yuan. | :02:33. | :02:37. | |
It would be far better if it were more stable. -- won. They are | :02:38. | :02:45. | |
frightened of incurring the wrath of the US Treasury by failing to manage | :02:46. | :02:53. | |
the stability of the Korean won. Staying with South Korea, there | :02:54. | :02:58. | |
economy grew I half a percent in the first quarter this year. That is | :02:59. | :03:01. | |
according to the latest figures from the Central Bank. The GDP expanded | :03:02. | :03:11. | |
by 2.8%. Construction grew by 4.8%, with increases in building, | :03:12. | :03:14. | |
construction and civil engineering. Services expanded by half a percent. | :03:15. | :03:26. | |
Uber has raised $3.5 billion from Saudi Arabia's wealth fund. They | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
will be expanding into the Middle East. The investment was part of | :03:30. | :03:36. | |
Uber's latest financing round. It valued the company at 62.5 billion. | :03:37. | :03:45. | |
Its rival companies have also reported major investments this | :03:46. | :03:51. | |
year. It started as one of the most serious risks facing the economy, | :03:52. | :03:56. | |
the Brexit and the possibility of the UK voting to leave the EU. | :03:57. | :04:01. | |
Voting takes place in three weeks. I asked a professor about the | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
likelihood of a vote in favour of exiting the EU and what it could | :04:08. | :04:12. | |
mean for Asia. If the referendum were to take place today, I would | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
say there was probably a fairly strong likelihood that Britain would | :04:18. | :04:27. | |
vote to remain. Around 53% -47%. However, the opinion polls tend to | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
be unreliable. The referendum is still three weeks away. It is | :04:31. | :04:35. | |
difficult to estimate what kind of turnout will take place on the day | :04:36. | :04:42. | |
of the referendum. Some events could take place that could influence | :04:43. | :04:47. | |
voting behaviour on the voting day. Right now, it is almost impossible | :04:48. | :04:51. | |
to predict any outcome with certainty. What if there is an exit | :04:52. | :04:58. | |
from the EU? What are the implications for Asian economies in | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
terms of businesses with British ties? The economies most strongly | :05:03. | :05:10. | |
affected will be those that trade heavily with Britain, such as | :05:11. | :05:13. | |
Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea. They will be the most | :05:14. | :05:20. | |
strongly affected. What about the economies that don't have extensive | :05:21. | :05:22. | |
relationships with reduced businesses and have more enterprises | :05:23. | :05:29. | |
connected with the United States? Will they also be affected in one | :05:30. | :05:33. | |
way or another by a Brexit? I think the primary impact of the Brexit | :05:34. | :05:39. | |
would be felt through its effect on the world economy. If there is a | :05:40. | :05:47. | |
strong and powerful knock-on effect, if there was a consequence for | :05:48. | :05:50. | |
Britain opting to leave, other countries might think of doing the | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
same thing. This danger is not immediate, but it could lead to the | :05:55. | :05:59. | |
unravelling of the EU. That would certainly have a depressing and the | :06:00. | :06:05. | |
stabilising effect on the economy in general. If the UK does leave the | :06:06. | :06:11. | |
EU, would they have to start negotiating every trade agreement | :06:12. | :06:21. | |
from scratch. A sickly, yes. The WTO was saying that the UK will have to | :06:22. | :06:26. | |
renegotiate its trade deals with the rest of the world more or less from | :06:27. | :06:32. | |
scratch. This would be an extremely burdensome undertaking given that | :06:33. | :06:38. | |
since 1973, the EU has been responsible for the external trade | :06:39. | :06:43. | |
relations of the United States. Basically, Britain will have to | :06:44. | :06:48. | |
negotiate its trade arrangements with EU member states and the rest | :06:49. | :06:54. | |
of the world. They play eight key role in food production, pollinating | :06:55. | :07:01. | |
about a third of the world's crops. I am talking about bees. Populations | :07:02. | :07:09. | |
are in decline because of disease. Tasmania is one of the few places in | :07:10. | :07:12. | |
the world that has not seen a decline. It has been lucrative to | :07:13. | :07:18. | |
sell these live bees overseas. We spoke about shipping these bees to | :07:19. | :07:24. | |
Canada. Wherever I go and people asked me what I do, I tell them I'm | :07:25. | :07:31. | |
a beekeeper. I tell them that we export like bees to another country. | :07:32. | :07:37. | |
They are amazed that we send lies bees. They are very surprised. My | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
name is Lindsay Burke and I am the president of the Tasmania | :07:43. | :07:49. | |
beekeepers' Association. I am the largest exporter of lies bees in | :07:50. | :07:57. | |
Australia. Canadians have a problem with the terrible mite that has | :07:58. | :08:08. | |
spread right around the world, except Australia. So they are very | :08:09. | :08:15. | |
happy when these come to them from our healthy environment -- live bees | :08:16. | :08:24. | |
-- bees. We have to continually smoke the highs and use mallets and | :08:25. | :08:32. | |
is that nature to get the to come to the top -- get the bees. -- things | :08:33. | :08:43. | |
of that nature. Then we put them in a box and carefully into a little | :08:44. | :08:48. | |
container. That is ?3, that is the measurement. Then it's put into a | :08:49. | :08:58. | |
little bee box, with some food to last them on their journey, then the | :08:59. | :09:03. | |
queen is putting. That is a package. We send them to Launceston, they are | :09:04. | :09:11. | |
carefully packaged and then sent overseas. Within two or three days, | :09:12. | :09:17. | |
they arrive. Sometimes the temperatures are very cold, but they | :09:18. | :09:22. | |
put them out and away they go. Last year, Australia exported 17 pallets. | :09:23. | :09:32. | |
Eight of those came from my farm. We know that we have a surplus of bees | :09:33. | :09:36. | |
and other people need them, so we can send them off for export. We all | :09:37. | :09:41. | |
do things for money, but it's very nice when you're doing something | :09:42. | :09:45. | |
that other people really appreciate. And we know that our Canadian | :09:46. | :09:55. | |
beekeepers really appreciate the very healthy bees that we send from | :09:56. | :10:03. | |
Tasmania. Indeed, a very successful bees-ness. Having a look at the | :10:04. | :10:08. | |
markets. You can see that Asia is in negative territory. | :10:09. | :10:26. | |
Thank you so much for investing your time with us. | :10:27. | :10:39. | |
The top stories this hour: A British man is facing a life sentence | :10:40. | :10:42. | |
after pleading guilty to more than seventy charges | :10:43. | :10:45. |