10/02/2017 Asia Business Report

stories... The government as defendant the scheme about

immigrants after being criticised. Now for Asia Business Report.

Golf diplomacy, the Japanese Prime Minister tees off to negotiate with

President Donald Trump. We speak to Singapore education Minister as the

country tries to reinvent its workforce. Welcome to Asia Business

Report live from Singapore. The much anticipated meeting between Japan's

Prime Minister and the US President Donald Trump takes place later

today. She and the other is the first Asian leader to meet the

President. -- Shinzo Abe. He also was the first to congratulate him in

person on the victory. He comes bearing gifts. Trade relations

topped the agenda and he has reportedly put together a plan that

will see Japanese companies help create 700,000 US jobs including

Japanese investment in infrastructure projects such as

high-speed trains. We have heard from Toyota, sharp and Softbank

which said that they will build factories and create jobs in the US

and more companies are expected to announce new investments as well.

What does Mr Abe want in return. One was Japan so nervous about the Trump

residency? During the campaign, Donald Trump talked a lot about

China and slapping tariffs on Chinese goods and China stealing US

jobs. What has that been in the past double of months was Trump

conflating China's problem with Japan how Japanese automakers are

being unfair to US automakers and talked about how the yen, in his

view, is undervalued and in many ways it is about heading off a trade

war. President Trump does decide to devalue the dollar in Washington,

DC, you see this kind of a very big effort from Prime Minister Abe said

we are creating jobs and opportunities for the US. We are not

the enemy. Will it work? Mr Abe congratulated him back in November

but it did not stop Mr Trump from criticising Toyota in his tweets. I

think President Trump is realising from his visor is that US needs

Japan as much as Japan needs the US. With North Korea and China, the US

needs Japan. In the long run, I think it could be a problem. When

Raymond -- when Prime Minister Abe... He basically cancelled TPP

and since then has accused Japan of being a currency manipulator just

like China. Mr Trump has claimed Japan is making it difficult for

Japan. President Donald Trump says it is

not fair, Americans by millions of Japanese cars every year and

Japanese by hardly any American cars and he is right. Last year only

13,000 American cars were sold here in Japan so why is it the Japanese

do not buy American cars like this one?

It is not just that this car is huge, as Donald Trump might say, you

may have noticed the wheel is on the wrong side for Japan and the fuel

consumption is about double what the Japanese car might be. In Japan,

these tiny little cars cannot be more than one and a half metres wide

and the engine can only be 660 cc and they sell tons of them. 1.7

million last year. 40% of all cars sold in Japan. This is much better.

It is actually not true that Japanese people do not buy foreign

cars. Take a look at this street - Mercedes, another Mercedes and look,

another Mercedes and are BMW and in here, look, a BMW. Of course, they

are not American cars - all Germans. And I understand you have owned an

American car? Yes I did. And then I liked how it looked but when I

started driving I felt like it was cheap and I do not feel safe and

also it is not as good as a German car. Japan charges no import tax on

a car like this. America charges 25% import tax on Japanese cars so maybe

to suffer a America to stop complaining and learn from the

Germans. Japanese companies are not the only

one Fifa to be the target of President Trump's tweet. He has

almost 25 million followers and the social media platform gets lots of

attention with him announcing policies, denouncing critics and

pressuring companies. Twitter reported yet another loss over $170

million in the last quarter. The shares fell by 12%. Ask first

mentality is a big threat facing the Singapore economy according to a new

government report outlining what the small island nation needs to do to

stay competitive. Some key strategies included train workers to

have the right skills and build stronger business ties overseas. I

asked the Minister of education what skills are lacking in the workforce.

What is required going forward is that everyone every worker to be

able to find your niche, your passion, your interest and then

master that craft. It is a lifelong process. In that process, I think

understanding Digital economy, able to fit in a digital place will be

critical. That applies to every field. Even if you are a chef, you

continue to cook well but you must be able to process each payment,

receive EU orders and be comfortable in that environment. It is about

many parts, many parts to success and then been very good at what you

are doing. The other thing you report mentions is how Singapore

must deepen global ties but as we have been talking about,

protectionism is on the rise in the US and Europe - how do you plan to

achieve that? This sudden protectionist flavour moving around

the world but if you think about it carefully, the world is still

globalising. The tide has not been abated all subsided stop white?

Because it is driven by technology. You cannot stop the Internet, Jet

air planes flying all over the world, you cannot stop news being

broadcast, information being so available, you cannot stop people on

the go wanted to go in emerging markets, to develop their business.

I think that trend is still there and Singapore always relies on that

trend to make ourselves a good living. Since the new US president

has taken office, it is that to say tensions between the US and China

have been rising. Singapore has so far managed to maintain a gap

between the two powers but is that the Trump administration making it

difficult? It is early days. He is not appointed all his political

appointees. So far, the Secretary of State I'm and others are characters

we know very well. We are happy to work with them. Would you say the

Trump residency is destabilising the region? It is uncertain for now. We

have to watch it carefully. China - US relations are absolutely critical

for the whole world. The markets befall we go, Asian shares trading

higher, trading cues from the U S. Thank you for