16/12/2016 Asia Business Report

Presidential state visit. Rodrigo Duterte sits in a Singapore

stopover. We talk to the country's trade minister about opportunities

in the region. And what trade deals can we expect as the Russian leader

meets with his Japanese counterpart. Good morning, Asia and hello, world,

thanks for joining us for this edition of Asia Business Report.

It's Friday and I'm Rico Hizon. Filipino President to do is in

Singapore for a two-day state visit and he has received a ceremonial

welcome. -- President Rodrigo Duterte. Economic relations between

the two countries have always been strong. The Singapore President

highlighted both sides should explore ways to boost business links

and promote tourism. Earlier I spoke with the Filipino trade Minister

Ramon Lopez and asked him if the business community should be worried

about the President's apparent disdain towards the United States.

Everything is OK because even as those things were happening, we were

meeting investors and yes there is truth to some concerns being raised

but maybe 90% are all worried about... Not worried about but

concerned about their business and how they can expand the Philippines,

the confidence has been dead because of the market, the business

conditions in the Philippines. In your view, Secretary Lopez, is

president Rodrigo Duterte's Pevitt towards China SmartBras yellow

definitely. That doesn't mean we will kill the relationship with the

other parts of the world, though. -- Mark? Definitely. It will offer more

opportunities for Filipinos. -- smart? .

Immediately the president of China has lifted certain suspensions on

exporters that will allow banana and mango exporters to export to China.

There's been talk about further deregulating the economy,

particularly the property sector, the telecommunications sector. Where

are we right now in this process? Definitely as a matter of policy the

president has also mentioned those liberalisation is. It is opening up

to other parties interested in those sectors. -- liberalisations. We are

waiting for them to come in to establish operations. But this will

also mean a constitutional change, opening up the constitution to

changes. That's right. There will be discussions in terms of liberalising

the equity restrictions on certain sectors. Some will have to be

addressed by legislation, some by constitutional change. It is good

that there will be some front, constitutional change discussion

because of the planned change in government. Over the past few days

the President has talked about his health problems and he may not

finish his term. Can he really handle the job? Allowed exactly. We

have seen so many state visits, he's been moving around, all the

secretaries are trying to catch up with his pace. -- exactly. Anyone

that can work this hard with this rigourous schedule is really

something. The strength to lead the country he definitely has. Secretary

Ramon Lopez from the Philippines. Remittances play a huge role in the

Filipino economy and there are as many as 10 million Filipinos living

and working overseas. Many are domestic helpers, construction

workers or nurses but some are increasingly following a different

path, working in the US where they are in demand as teachers because of

the unexpected fracture of a strong economy. Timothy McDonnell reports

from Arizona. Several teachers here at this high school are foreign

workers hired from the Philippines. Working here is a chance to earn

more and to improve their careers. I think it's a great opportunity for

anyone around the world to teach here in America. Here, if I'm going

to make money back home, it is four times more. I decided to go and

apply to how my family because I believe I can support them well and

I also believe that I could grow professionally and I could become

globally competitive after learning all the strategies here. There's a

very good reason the local school board here in Casagrande aid is

hiring from overseas. It turns out it's very difficult to find

qualified teachers in specialised subjects. The salaries are simply

too low, not enough people are qualified and Americans seem to be

looking elsewhere for jobs. Arizona is well below the national average

when it comes to teacher salaries and while local officials are happy

with how the teachers are performed, they are concerned salaries aren't

high enough to attract local features. Ultimately everything goes

around money, the local Department of Education came out with a report

and we has as of today more than 2000 teaching positions still

vacant. Kids need teachers and that's the bottom line. Sadly if

that means we have to go overseas to find them, that is sadly what we

have to do. The President-elect Donald Trump has promised to tighten

rules on foreign workers, although he has said nothing about the

specific programme that brought these teachers over. Still they are

a little concerned. Yeah, I'll be worrying about it a lot because it

will control the number of professionals going to specifically

US. It will not only affect the teaching profession but other

professions as well. Nevertheless, these teachers are fulfilling a very

real need. I told my kids the number one reason why we are here is

probably because your economy is mostly up. A lot of your American

teachers are formally working as a teacher within companies because

there are now openings and they can earn more. For the moment they can

take comfort from the fact economic forces seem to be in their favour.

Timothy McDonald, BBC News, Casa Grande. Rupert Murdoch's

broadcasting giant 21st century Fox has struck a deal to buy Sky for

nearly $15 billion. The takeover if approved will help Fox take on

rivals like Netflix in the battle for viewership is. Sky has 22

million customers in Britain, Austria, Germany, Germany and

elsewhere. Yahoo! Has had its shares dropping overnight after a data

breach from three years ago which affected 3 billion users. The

announcement raised fears that the horizon could walk away or/ it's

offer for Yahoo's core Internet business. Japanese gaming company

Nintendo has ruled out Super Mario run, accessible on iPhones and iPads

-- rolled out. It's the first time the company has made a smart phone

game based on its most famous character and it follows the

successful release of Pokemon Go earlier in the year. Nintendo owns a

minority stake in the Pokemon company but the game was developed

by a third-party. Two countries, Japan and Russia, might technically

still be at war since no formal peace treaty has been signed to end

the Second World War but not only did the leaders from the two sides

meet at a hot spring resort, but trade relations or actively growing.

Bilateral trade between them is worth over 30 billion US dollars,

quadruple in over the last decade. Energy and agricultural products

make up Russia's exports to Japan. So what kind of deals can we expect

from their meetings? I asked that earlier to an expert from the

university or she is open. From a territorial side I don't think it

will happen overnight -- Shizuoka. That's why President Abe is saying

they should meet up just once a year. On the economic front there

are benefits from both sides, considering Russia is suffering from

the economic downturn caused by low oil prices and sanctions. But Japan

also wants to secure as much as possible as a trade partner

considering the turmoil that we are likely to see in the US and

particularly in Europe as well. Oil and commodities are the linchpin of

the Russian economy. How is it counting on Japan, which is also

suffering through this global slowdown? Allowed the fact of the

matter is Japan has excessive high reliance on oil to Middle East, and

we are trying to reduce a ratio of that for reducing our country risk.

But at the same time we don't want to be in the same position as many

Eastern European nations which are ransomed by gas provision by Russia.

The Japanese are becoming careful about taking the next step about

relying excessively on nations like Russia for energy. Let's have a

quick look now at the markets and as you can see, most of the regional

forces are in negative territory. That's despite the gains of US

stocks overnight. We also saw a surge in banks and other financial

issues standing to benefit from high... The Nikkei 225 is up more

than a century due to the weaker yen against the US dollar, a ten month

low for the Yemen. As for the Hang Seng and the All Ordinaries, down.

As for Wall Street, after a one-day break they are back to their winning

ways. -- the yen. That's it for this edition of Asia Business Report.

Thank you so much for investing your time with us. I'm Rico Hizon. Sport

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