14/03/2017 Asia Business Report


14/03/2017

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and the introduction of more driver-only-operated trains.

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

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Brexit is a reality. After a revised bill is passed in Parliament, we

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look at what it means. And tech industry leaders compete for centre

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stage in one of the well's largest interactive festivals. -- world's.

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Hello and welcome to Asia Business Report, I'm Sharanjit Leyl.

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Parliament in Britain has given its final approval to a bill setting out

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plans for the country to formally start the process of leaving the

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European Union. Parliament has also voted by a clear majority to reject

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two amendments put forward by the upper chamber, the House of Lords.

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The proposals would have guaranteed the rights of EU citizens in the UK.

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Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also announced plans to

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hold a second independence referendum by early 2019. She said

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the vote was necessary after British Prime Minister Theresa May refused

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to search for a compromise to allow Scotland to remain in the single

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market after Brexit. What Scotland deserves in the light

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of the material change of circumstances brought about by the

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Brexit vote is the chance to decide our future in a fair, free and

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democratic way and at a time when we are equipped with the fact that we

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need. Nicola Sturgeon speaking there.

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Earlier I spoke with David Quo and asked about the implications of

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another Scottish referendum. This has surfaced again and I think there

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will be continual... I wouldn't say problems but unease, not only in the

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UK but in Europe as well. I think we're beginning to seize certain

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parts of the union, not only in the UK but the European Union as well

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starting to unravel and that will cause some dismay and probably some

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consternation as far as Asia is concerned. Some people will see this

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as an opportunity. As we saw with Brexit, the pound has fallen so

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therefore Asian investors are saying, are there any opportunities

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in the UK? Some have actually found those opportunities. Let's take a

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closer look at the pound, it's going up, even going up on this news where

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we heard Nicola Sturgeon make her announcement, which is unusual, it's

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only a little bit, but we've only ever seen it go down, it is 2017's

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was performing currencies of our. Where is the pound heading? --

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currency so far. I can't see it strengthening until the Bank of

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England increases interest rates. America is in a position to do that

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now so that will heap more pressure on to the Bank of England. But the

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Bank of England can't do anything, after Brexit we saw they had to cut

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interest rates and they also had to fire up their muggy printing

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machines to try and inject more sterling into the UK economy. --

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money. That was just to try and keep it going. And that will continue for

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a while I think because they simply don't have any option. What has

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happened around the world now is investors have begun to believe the

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central banks... All that they can do really is whenever there's a

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problem, cut interest rates and let's start quantitative easing

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again and I think that will happen in the UK. If that were to carry on

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this year and maybe next year as well then I can only see the

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sterling weakening. We haven't seen markets react too negatively, we've

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seen all these huge gains on Wall Street for instance, why don't

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markets seem fazed by these political changes? They know there's

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a backstop and that is the central bank. In America, it is certainly

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the better reserve and in the UK it's the Bank of England and in

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Japan it's the Bank of Japan and they know the central banks will

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step in because they can't take the risk of armageddon -- Federal

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Reserve. Therefore it's almost like governments can do whatever they

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want and then you will get the central banks coming in and saying

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we will save the day by printing money.

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Since that interview with David Kuo earlier, the pound has changed

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direction and is currently slipping in Asian trade. In other business

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news, US search making giant Intel is forking out $15 billion for

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mobile eye, and of Israeli company that develops autonomous driving

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systems. They've been working together along with Ian W to put 40

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test vehicles on the road later this year. -- an Israeli. Intel says the

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driverless market could be worth $70 billion by 2030 -- BMW. Japan has

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joined the list of suitors for a huge share sale. Shinzo Abe has

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asked King Salman to list shares in Tokyo. Hong Kong, Singapore, New

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York and Toronto have been courting the Saudi Iran to share sale. King

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Salman said he would consider the request from the Japanese Prime

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Minister. Toshiba shares in Japan have fallen 4% in Tokyo on reports

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the company will extend the deadline for submitting its earning report

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for the second time. There's a reason for the delay, the

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conglomerate expects to announce losses of up to $6 billion. Toshiba

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is likely to also have to sell off some of its business, so where did

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it all go wrong for one of Japan's corporate icons? Here's our Asian

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business correspondent Karishma Vaswani.

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When you think of Toshiba you probably think of televisions,

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computers and possibly cameras but it's no longer the giant it used to

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be. Today Toshiba runs businesses in all sorts of sectors and that's part

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of the problem. Toshiba started its nuclear business

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around ten years ago. It now runs and operates nuclear power plants in

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the US, UK and Japan. In fact, the nuclear division makes up about a

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third of revenues. Things really started turning sour, though, after

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because she in Japan when governments started asking questions

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about how much they should depend on nuclear energy for their power

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needs. And then Toshiba's nuclear assets in America turned out to be

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worth far less than initially thought, so the company's having to

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take losses of several billion dollars because of that.

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Well, Toshiba has already sold off some of its more profitable

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businesses after an accounting scandal back in 2015. But the real

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jewel in its crown is the semiconductor business. That makes

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chips for smart phones and computers. Toshiba has already said

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it will sell off a slice of that business, but it still may not be an

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off to plug that whole. What does that mean? Well, Toshiba may not sub

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Don Max abide without a Japanese government bailout, which it may get

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because it is so important to the economy -- may not survive. In other

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news Thailand's company has turned down a bid for the owner of the

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Golden Globe TV awards. A clampdown by the Chinese government on

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overseas investments is thought to be the main reason. Elrich

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industries, the owner of Vic Clarke productions, who owns the Golden

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Globes, said they fail to honour contractual obligations -- Dick

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Clarke. The financial arm of Siemens has been granted approval to operate

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as a merchant bank in Singapore. They want to operate project and

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financial lending. Last year they provided $3 billion in funding for

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projects in the Asia-Pacific. Thousands of tech leaders, policy

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makers as well as celebrities are all flocking to Texas and it's not

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just for the famous barbecue and breakfast burritos. It's the

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Southwest Southwest conference festival and it's in full swing. Our

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North America technology correspondent Dave Lee told us about

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the coolest thing that he spotted at the event.

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The thing for Google is to provide our customers access to their

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favourite services and information from anywhere and at any time

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whether they are biking, walking, hiking, when their hands are busy

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they should be able to access their favourite services from the cuff of

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their sleeve. What is on my calf and how does it work? The interface is

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on the material and the other threads integrate together. -- my

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calf. We snapped on the tag. You can see it is Bluetooth, a simple brush

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gives you the time. It is to 30 7pm. We have the destination in, time to

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destination. -- it is 2:37pm. You can also add music. It is 2:37pm.

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That is quite expensive. A nice jacket but it feels quite pricey,

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how much of that is going on, give it the? Levi's commuter trucker is

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going to be $150 without the technology and we think this is

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really useful. -- how much of that is going on conductivity? Hope they

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come in women's sizes as well. Looking at the markets, they are all

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flat to lower at the moment, the Nikkei coming into some profit after

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hitting 15 month highs. There's lots of data we are awaiting from China,

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getting manufacturing retail sales as well as investment data. That's

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it for this edition of Asia Business Report, thanks for watching.

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