18/07/2016 Asia Business Report

Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore

Donald Trump edges closer to becoming the Republican presidential

candidate. What does a trump presidency mean for Asia and the

global economy? And meet the Beatles being turned into robots and

engineers think they could be used to save lives.

Good morning, Asia and hello, world. It's the start of a brand-new week

and it's a Monday, and Don McLardy could join us for this edition of

Asia Business Report -- glad you could join us. The race for the

White House heads to Ohio this week where the Republican delegation,

convention begins and Donald Trump is expected to be nominated. The

businessman says he wants to make America a great again by cutting

corporate taxes and bringing jobs back to a Parikka. How will his

economic policies impact Asia and the rest of the world? -- back to

America. We spoke earlier about the possibility of the TPP being

cancelled. Both candidates have sworn on the TPP and it can't come

into force unless the US and Japan adopted. If one or the other doesn't

adopt it then it won't come into force. There are real challenges

ahead for the TPP. But for the convention and for Donald Trump

right now, what you're seeing right now is a generational change in the

Republican Party. The Democrats went through this in 2008, a generational

change away from Clinton to Obama. The Republicans are now facing a

generational change away from the Bush era to Donald Trump.

Regardless of who becomes the Nexus president they will be faced with

negotiating a new trade arrangement with the UK when it leaves the EU --

next. US President Barack Obama suggested before the referendum that

Britain would be at the back of the queue for trade talks, but one

country has already stepped forward saying it is keen for a deal.

Australia. Our business correspondent Joe Lynam has the

details. Written is one of the most open

trading nations in the world, in fact it is probably to open --

Britain. It imports far more than it exports around the world and that's

certainly the case for the EU. Now Britain is leaving the EU it's free

to negotiate whatever trade deals it which is when it has formally left.

First up wins be Australia, Britain's seventh largest trading

partner already. The Brits sell the Australians and your cards and

pharmaceuticals -- will be Australia. And the Australians sell

gold and other mining products. Malcolm Turnbull said he would keen

to sign a trade deal with Britain once he has left the EU. Clearly our

trade arrangements with the United Kingdom of course are with the

European Community. So as Britain leaves the EU, what we will need to

do is negotiate direct arrangements with Britain. I've had a very

constructive discussion with Prime Minister may about that and we look

forward to discussions between my trade minister, Stephen showboat,

and his counterpart and, in this respect Liam Fox shortly. The

problem is the size. In global trade terms Australia is a modest country

in terms of trade compared to Britain. The Brits sell 32 times

more goods to the EU than they do to the Australians. You can see dozens

of trade deals would need to be signed.

Joe Lynam. In other business news making headlines, following a failed

military coup the Turkish government is trying to reassure investors that

it is in control of the country and the economy but the coup has stoked

fears about political instability and that could promote flight of

safe haven investments today. Holiday flights have been resumed.

Malaysia airlines has settled damages with the relatives of most

victims of MH17 according to a lawyer representing Dutch victims.

Flight MH17 was shot down exactly two years ago over a part of Ukraine

held by pro- Russian separatists, killing 298. New Zealand's Prime

Minister Jonty has played down fears of a trade spat with China. --

Jonty. There are reports Beijing could retaliate against New Zealand

if the government launches an investigation into alleged steel

dumping by the mainland. Scientists in Singapore have wired up giant

beetles and shown they can control the insects remotely. They are

hoping to use the technology to help save lives in disaster zones and to

fight security threats. Sarah Toms went to meet the researchers.

Cyborg bugs are the stuff of movies and nightmares, but these giant

flour beetles could actually save lives. Using microelectronics,

scientists at Nanyang technology will Coolum university camera Mobley

control how the insects walk and even how they fly -- technological

ash removal camera Mobley. The team say they can help in disaster relief

efforts -- camera Mobley. Some think it is cruel but others think the

benefits are worth it. -- can remotely.

They are controlled using a radio transmitter and electrodes implanted

into the beetles' muscles. The bugs' size and stability could even make

them surveillance drones and spies. Wiring up the insects costs around

$7 and their natural abilities mean they don't need to be programmed.

Building a robot that mimics these beetles is complicated and costly.

That's why harvesting the natural abilities of a living creature opens

up enormous possibilities. But controlling and animal that's alive

also raises serious ethical questions. What's next? Where does

it end? And how does it affect our security and privacy? Sarah Toms,

BBC News, Singapore. Why is the technology so innovative?

We have the president of the Nanyang technological university and he

spoke to Sharanjit Leyl. It's interesting that today we

explore the interaction between technological systems and biological

systems. For various reasons, technical reasons and also medical

reasons. If you have maybe a hand that doesn't work and you could have

something in technology that could influence the nerves in the hand and

get it moving again. For example, the cyber bug, we can control the

movement of these. Maybe we can transform that knowledge to medicine

as well you see. Potentially you are saying we could have human cyborgs?

Exactly. That's very interesting of course. If we can get the study and

interface between the human brain and a computer, that has quite cyber

implications for the future, you know? Of course there is research

all around the world, not necessarily at NTU, that study the

interactions between nerve cells and electronic chips for example. There

are concerns there could be negative uses for this kind of technology

using cyborg bugs for spying and surveillance, how do you justify

that? There's always two sides of a coin, right? There's easy to see

many of the positive sides in technology with these super cyborg

bugs or in the medical field. Of course you could say, is it ethical

in respect to the animals? I think for insects it's not, insects are

not vertebrates, higher organisms, so I would be less concerned about

this. But of course you could say, if this technology is used, said for

spying or something like that, you could always argue whether it is

good or bad -- said. Talk about the search and rescue aspect? That is

one thing you could say -- say. You could say on television, on BBC, how

you have collapsed houses after an earthquake, it is hard to get to the

people trapped and identify them. That's one. There could be less

dramatic things were in stead of having a camera on the beetle you

could put a sensor for toxic substances that could go into some

tubing in a house to identify where it could be bacteria or toxic

substances and so on, you know? The professor speaking to Sharanjit

Leyl. Let's look at the markets. Right now only one market is open at

this hour and that's Australia, the All Ordinaries gaining around eight

points but the Nikkei 225 will be closed today due to a public

holiday. Not much liquidity in the market. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong

will be opening in about 50 minutes. This, of course, we are seeing

markets shrugging off the failed coup in Turkey. Thank you so much

for investing your time with us. I'm Rico Hizon, see you soon.