29/07/2016 Asia Business Report

station in a generation at Hinkley point. They were expected to sign

off on the deal today but now the deal is not expected until autumn.

Now it is time for Asia Business Report.

First was the Prime Minister's turn, now we find out the Bank of Japan

will pump more money into the country's economy. And, when a job

can mean life or death, Indonesian human rights lawyers tell us what it

is like to be in their shoes. Welcome to Asia Business Report.

More eyes will be on the Bank of Japan this morning as options become

available to boost their economy, including another cut to already

negative interest rates. The Central Bank is under extra pressure to move

after the Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his own stimulus package

earlier this week. What can we expect from the bank? We are in

Tokyo hearing what the risks are. Doing nothing would actually be the

biggest statement right now. We will say OK the government is not pumping

money in. They are talking about helicopters and everything. But we

keep our cards on the table and we won't move. They will move in some

way. They will show they have instruments and a mix of policies.

What we are talking about is an increase in asset purchases. We are

talking about another cut to interest rates further into negative

territory? It is unlikely they won't go 100% buying more government bonds

to basically finance the fiscal spending the government is planning

right now. They will probably buy some assets in the private market.

They might turn negative interest rates a tiny notch lower to show

they have still instruments but they are not 100% financing the

government. The question is any of it going to work? We have seen a

massive package but no news from the government. There is more news from

the Central Bank. From past records it isn't the first attempt at

stimulus in Japan. It seems that history tells us the effect will

fizzle out quickly. Is that fair? That is right. They upload to sing

on fiscal policy because monetary policy has been working in a way. --

they are not focussingthe government is saying we are doing this directly

now. The private market is not much help in that regard. But the Central

Bank needs to support that otherwise it won't work. These Central Bank

will move in a more symbolic way rather than direct. Will it help

boost the economy? I think the mix is positive in terms of moving

Japan. Japan is stable and moving slowly. We have little inflation.

And it is slowly growing domestically. In a beauty contest

Japan looks pretty good internationally right now. Ahead of

that lack of Japan meeting that has been some disappointing new numbers

showing household spending contracted in June for the fourth

month in a row. The cost of living for items excluding fresh food fell

05% in June compared to a year ago. -- 0.5. And output fell compared to

the month before but missed expectations on an annual basis. It

grew 0.8% last month. Google's parent company Alphabet has shown

its second-quarter results showing a growth of $4.9 billion, up 24%. Its

shares surged in after-hours trade after missing expectations for

several autumns. We are told how the firm managed it this time around. It

can be explained by the shift to mobile advertisers now. What we are

seeing is because of that there is actually more clicks. That is

causing a significant increase in numbers. It is a similar trend to

Facebook. They are using a drive for more mobile and digital advertising.

But Google has a bigger challenge because it had to make that

transition from the desktop screen to a hand-held. It applies to both.

Googlies in eight strong position because it has the component as

well. -- Google is in a. They have YouTube. We think there is a lot of

growth and success in the growth and success in the

advertising in the video department. Is that what the future is? Looking

like that? Everyone wants to know, this is what is happening in the

past, what is next? We are seeing a higher proportion of advertising

dollars shifting to video mobile. We expect more of that. Other things

Google and Alphabet are into, they said themselves they would have done

better if they weren't putting money into way a out ideas, there is

X-Lab, they call it, and other bats like self driving cars, how

important are those way out ideas? It is very important. Google is one

of the biggest companies in the world. To be focused solely on wine

industry is risky. -- one. If it can become strong in other industries it

becomes stronger. It has to invest some of the big profits it makes in

other ventures into new things. Some will not work that others will help.

The largest investor in the UK's first nuclear power plant in decades

has decided to press ahead with the deal. The French energy firm, EDF,

holds two thirds of the project. The new reactor is predicted to ride,

provide 7% of the UK's energy requirements. Ford has showed its

worse than expected results. Water companies went tumbling after the US

car giant said the auto industry's recovery was at an end. -- Michael

it. Royal Dutch Shell has plunged over 70%, just over $1 billion. The

firm blamed sagging crude oil prices and other reason. For some, their

ideal job is one that makes our different. This is an Indonesian

human rights lawyer who continues to speak out against his country's

death penalties. In the last few hours, Indonesia executed four

people for drug offences, three of them foreigners. This lawyer

defended Australians Andrew Chan and another who were executed last you

for drug smuggling. Despite ongoing battles, he tells the BBC why is

dream job is still being a human rights lawyer.

I am a lawyer by profession though I do not consider myself a lawyer.

LAUGHING. I am an activist. I have been an activist for a long time,

since my student days. I took up the case of Andrew Chan and Sukumaran

for principled reasons. Despite drug trafficking they do have a life.

That is one of the most supreme rights. The case was given to be by

Sukumaran along with a painting he did. He said to me, please do

whatever you can do a polish that penalty. -- abolish. And that

penalty is one of the most cruel and inhuman punishments in any legal

system. And we have to get rid of that. And I don't think, you know,

it is wrong to fight the government. It is part of your rights as a

citizen to help the people. I wrote I am sorry that I lost and I feel

bad. While the Indonesian legal system is very corrupt, that is not

the fault only of the judges, it involves the prosecutors, the

police, and intermediaries. We call them the court mafia. In essence you

were talking about bribery. For all the judgement you want you have to

bribe. That is why it is very difficult to stay clean in a system

like this. So that is why I keep telling my lawyers here what do you

want in your life? If you want to be rich, instantly rich, then this is

probably not the job for used up at lets have a look at the markets now.

On the Asia board you can see the Nikkei is showing no move at all.

But local stocks in Tokyo did slump on the open and the yen shot a bit

higher. Markets are focused on whether or not the Bank of Japan is

going to unleash a fresh round of stimulus. You can see the other

market trading, Australia up ever so slightly. Look at the US overnight.

Those markets were barely changing as well. That is it for this edition

of Asia Business Report. Thank you for watching.