21/11/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Ben Thompson and Sally Bundock.

Will France's next President give l'economie some va va voom?

And will voters opt for radical change like in Britain and the US?

Live from London, that's our top story on Monday 21st November

As competition narrows to become the next President,

we look how the challenges facing one of Europe's biggest economies

could help to decide the country's next leader.

Also in the programme: British Prime Minister Theresa May

will tell business leaders she plans to keep UK's business taxes

But will it be enough to give British business

And markets look like this at the start of a new trading week.

We'll have the expert view on what to watch this week.

And we'll be getting the inside track on how augmented

The boss of one company tells us how it could revolutionise the way we

get around in the great outdoors. And what do bosses believe when you

have been sick? If you have taken a city, what has been your best

excuse? Use the hashtag and confess. There are some brilliant excuses in

that top ten list. The former French leader,

Nicolas Sarkozy, has been unexpectedly eliminated

from the contest to choose the centre-right candidate for next

year's presidential election. He finished third in a nationwide

vote, behind two former prime ministers, Francois

Fillon and Alain Juppe. They go to the final round next

Sunday. With France's Socialists

in disarray, the presidential election is expected to come down

to a fight between the centre-right candidate and the far-right

leader, Marine Le Pen. At the heart of that contest will be

a battle over improving the lives of France's

struggling working class. Last week the government

lowered its growth expectations for this year saying it now

forecasts just 1.4%. The country's independent watchdog

says even that figure is optimistic. Meanwhile the unemployment rate

remains stubbornly high at 9.7%. The former economy minister

Emmanuel Macron is running He's proposing ditching France's

35-hour working week for young people in a bid to give

them more experience. And another big shake-up has been

pitched by Marine Le Pen She wants a referendum on whether

France should leave the EU. Tomasz Michalski is

Associate Professor in Economics Welcome to the programme. First of

all, your reaction to that result? Nicolas Sarkozy is no longer in the

frame. First of all, he ran a very divisive campaign and he is not a

very beloved figure, even among the right. He is remembered as the one

that did not conduct necessary procedures when he was in charge and

he had a catastrophic foreign policy. On security grounds, he

contracted the police force, which sowed the seeds for some attacks

that were witnessed afterwards. That is what many people believe. Talking

through those that are still in the frame, Alain Juppe, Francois Fillon,

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, of course. Give us your take on what

these candidates will be saying about the French economy and how

important it will be in the spring next year. First of all, the first

three that you mentioned, they want to reform the system to different

degrees. The most credible the two because they have popular support

and representation in the Parliament are Alain Juppe and Francois Fillon.

They are both suggest the wide-ranging tax and social security

reform, raising the retirement age, and reducing the expenditure of the

government by 5% of GDP. And they are paying for this by various other

cuts, for example in the number of public servants. On the other hand,

the project of Marine Le Pen is really... I doubt that there is

anything that can help the French anything that can help the French

economy. It calls for abandoning the Euro, increasing tariff rates,

basically reversing globalisation, coming back to the good old 70s,

which are gone. From your point of view, do you think there is this

antiestablishment feeling in France to the degree that we have seen in

the UK and the United States? It has definitely been simmering but the

successful candidate, Francois Fillon, he rode this tide, taking

very strong positions on immigration and on Islam in recent weeks. That

probably put him ahead of Alain Juppe in the last days of the

contest in the Republican primary. His success doesn't mean that the

French are suddenly embracing the free market reforms espoused by

Francois Fillon, but the position of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007 and now

Francois Fillon, which they hope to use to their favour and therefore

depressed the national front, -- depressed the national front vote

outcome will stop thank you very much.

This morning, Theresa May will tell business leaders she plans to keep

UK corporation tax at the lowest rate of the group of 20

The Prime Minister will also pledge an extra ?2bn, roughly $2.5bn,

a year into funding for scientific research and development by 2020.

Mrs May's speech to the Confederation of British Industry

in London comes two days before the government delivers its first

post-EU referendum budget, in the form of the Autumn Statement.

Facebook says it will expand its presence in the UK by 50 per

cent when it opens its new London headquarters next year.

It will hire 500 additional employees, including engineers,

marketers, project managers and sales staff.

There has been speculation following the UK referendum vote

to leave the EU that international companies may reconsider investing

Bernie Ecclestone, the chief executive of Formula One, has

suggested to German media that the authorities in Singapore

may look at dropping the F1's only night race,

when the hosting contract ends next year.

This year's F1 race in Singapore attracted the lowest

number of ticket sales since it was first launched

We wanted to take you to the Business Live page but we are having

a technical problem this morning. We can show it to you this way. This is

news from Greg Clark, all related to what we are expecting to hear in the

Autumn Statement on Wednesday. The Autumn Statement, you may know, is

the first tax and spending plans that we will hear from the new

Chancellor Philip Hammond when he takes to his feet on Wednesday. Ray

Clark is the Business Secretary. He is talking about the various stories

out there. -- Greg Clark. We will talk about that in more detail later

when we are joined by James. But first let's focus on the

Asia-Pacific region. They have closed their annual summit in Peru,

pledging to support global trade. But the conference was

overshadowed by fears the Trans Pacific Partnership trade

deal may not have a future Nice to see you. So much to discuss

there. Talk us through some of the key points. Remember, the

Asia-Pacific economic cooperation has always been for trade

liberalisation. They have a long-term goal to take the 21 nation

bloc to a free-trade zone including all of them. At the end of the two

day meeting the communiqu was to vow to keep trade borders open and

to fight protectionism, but really the media issue was what will happen

to the Obama backed transpacific partnership? Now that Donald Trump

is the US President elect he has talked about killing the deal which

is to be ratified by ComRes in the US, despite no support from the

incoming administration, some think it could go through. -- ratified by

Congress in the US. A modified version might still be possible.

Whatever is certain, whatever happens, China is standing by with a

trade deal for Asia, the regional comprehensive partnership. We will

watch that closely. Thank you for explaining it. It is a very

important issue for trade in the region and we will watch it closely.

Shares in Tokyo rose to a fresh 10-month high at the start

of a new week as the dollar soared against the yen on expectations

the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates next month.

In Europe, the numbers look like this.

This could be the start of another week where politics will dominate

proceedings. There will be more discussion over the President-elect

and what his Cabinet would mean and the French elections we have been

discussing and also the tax and spending plans from a new

Chancellor. We will talk about that in a moment but first let's get the

details about the day ahead on Wall Street. Thursday marks thanks giving

in the US, where family and friends gather, share a meal and share time

together. The day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday, the retail event of

the year. It is the time that traditionally kicks off the holiday

shopping season. But that comes at the end of the week. Before then,

Fed watchers will get a little gift in the form of minutes from the

policy reserve meeting. And also a Norman Rockwell painting depicting

an undecided voter during the 1944 presidential election between

Franklin Roosevelt and Republican candidate Thomas Dewey. That

painting is up for auction and it is called Which One? And Decided Man In

Voting Booth. And it has an estimate of $4 million. And I mentioned James

and here he is. How are you? I am magnificent. I am not crying off

today. No sickie pulled by James! Keep your text messages coming in on

that. Some good ones so far. What are you watching? In the UK we are

assessed with the Autumn Statement on Wednesday and we have got Theresa

May speaking at the CBI today. Absolutely and we have market

economies that have got to be focused onto element and

improvement. It is all very well to talk about growth but in a world

with shrinking populations and real challenges between the balance

between manufacturing and services, we have got to put economies on the

right path to greater prosperity. I do think Philip Hammond and Mrs May

will want to take the opportunity to try to set an agenda for forward

growth. We have talked about this a lot but central banks are running

out of options to kick-start growth. Are they passing this back to

government policy to kick-start growth? They have run out of

reducing interest rates and printing money. It was always wrong to assume

central banks can do anything other than push on a piece of string.

Monetary policy was always necessary but not sufficient to generate

growth. We need two initiatives, including fiscal support to get the

economy moving again with extra spending, but given the high levels

of government debt, we actually need the private sector to take up the

running. For that we need better infrastructure, good quality

education, both long-term investments, and a reduction in the

regulation and red tape that holds up businesses from creating wealth.

Will they deliver this week? I think we will see the first signs that the

government is focused on trying to engineer a longer-term solution to

the problems in the British economy. James Wilby back. Thank you. For now

he has got to respond to the sickie story. Theresa May will speak at the

CBI conference in exactly an hour from now, 9:45am local time, and

there will be full coverage from the BBC on that. Still to come: We will

be meeting the firm rethinking the way we get around. The boss of this

award-winning navigation firm will tell us why we will never look at

the map in the same way again. This is Business Live from BBC News. More

on that speech coming shortly from Theresa May one. She is at the CBI

annual conference today. And as well as that tax story we have been

talking about, expecting her to announce ?2 billion for science

funding, in a bid to convince business leaders that the UK is open

for business. She will face a sceptical audience of course and

delegates at the conference are likely to want more clarity on the

government's Brexit plans. Also their tone when it comes to big

business. Simon is at the conference for us, our business editor. It is a

tricky audience for her. It will be interesting to hear what she has got

to say. Well she rattled a few cages when

she called out bad behaviour and made thinly veiled reference to say

certain business leaders. What she is going to say is listen, there is

the bargain on the table here. I will make the UK a good place to do

business. A new commitment to keeping taxes low and small research

and development spending that ?2 billion that she will mention today.

Call out bad corporate behave yor and don't pay yourself too much.

Worker representations on board and things like that, but the other

thing that's hard to reconcile she is going around the world to say we

want to be a champion for international trade. That was the

problem. You saw that in the referendum in the UK and the

election result in the US. To resolve that conflict you need a

conventionalist industrial strategy. So the Government is saying we are

not going to step back and let you get on with it, we are going to step

up and make sure we give you the tools to do your job, but you have

to behave yourself in return. That speech will be live on BBC News

Channel when she does take to the stage at the CBI conference. That's

the Prime Minister, of course. A stoiyard from Bonmarche. It is

going to target women and it has come up with model customers, Susan,

Linda, Margaret and Joan and it will favour Lisa instead. It is ditching

the rest and going for Lisa! Not a Sally in sight!

Our top story, two former prime ministers in France will face each

other in a run-off election to decide who will be

the centre-right candidate in next year's presidential election.

They are Francois Fillon and Alain Juppe came first

and second in the first round of the presidential primary

We shall be covering that, the general election in the spring of

next year. Election fever everywhere.

A quick look at how markets are faring.

The FTSE 100 up a quarter of one percent.

You might have heard of augmented reality,

not least because of the Pokemon Go craze.

It's a mix of real life settings with computer generated elements.

But it's not just confined to games as our next guest can explain.

ViewRanger is a GPS company mapping app which provides users

with directions by superimposing information onto the image captured

The software currently covers around 80% of the globe and is used

by over three million users including search and rescue teams.

The app is free to download, though users can pay

Many of the maps are Ordnance Survey maps. That's the kind of map that

you will see on your device. Craig Wareham is CEO

and co-founder of ViewRanger. Good morning, Craig. Good morning.

You were showing me this app on various devices to sort of have a

sense of how it works. I was saying, being someone who tries to use

Ordnance Survey maps and sometimes it is successful and the fact that

there is one there on a device which will show me where I am an the map

is a huge benefit. Normally I have no idea where you are! That's the

beauty of using those kind of maps on the digital device is it can

instantly show you where you are so you know where you are, you know

where you're going. You know which mountain is in front of you. That's

what we're doing with the augmented reality, you can hold up your camera

phone and it automatically labels the hills and the lakes around you.

It answers that age old question of what is that hill over there? Is

that Ben Nevis or not? Well, exactly. It is about making the

outdoor trips more engaging and more interesting. It is about the

experience of going outdoors. How does this vary from Google Maps or

Apple Maps that can pinpoint where you are and tell you when you turn

around with a compass what you're looking at. Tell me the difference.

So we're targeted and we're focussed on the outdoor recognise rational

experience. Hopefully inspire you where you want to go, giving you

good navigation which is where the maps and skyline augmented reality

come in. Who is this aimed at? Is this for recreational users or

search and rescue teams who use it? Our users are spread across both of

those. We started as very map focussed and targeting the

enthusiast and the search and rescue teams have adopted it widely, but

just as the outdoor market is shifting to be about this active

outdoor lifestyle, you know, we are seeing that represented in our

community as well, and you know, this is a mainstream activity.

People go walking. People go hiking and people go cycling around the

world. A huge boost for your boost was in September when Apple had its

big launch event and you were there, you were part of it. Launched this

as a part of the Watch, as a part of its new devices, but you're on

android as well. How important was that moment? Presumably for a

company that I had not heard of, it was a big deal? It was a unique

experience, yes. An exciting experience. So we were invited to go

on stage as part of the Apple Watch launch and demonstrate our app on

the Apple Watch. I have been told we are the only UK company to have been

on stage with Apple in that situation. And you know, it is a

huge worldwide audience for us, great exposure and of course, we

have seen our community grow rapidly. That's important because

there is so many mapping apps out there? There are few that are doing

what we do and doing it on a global stage, but it was a fantastic

opportunity. What do you want to hear from the Chancellor on

Wednesday as far as tech business in the UK is concerned? More funding

support and bringing through better educated students. Wonderful. Thank

you. Really nice to see you, Craig. Best of luck with it.

It derided as "the worst" when Japanese start up

Seven Dreamers revealed a laundry folding machine at least

Some critics called it ridiculous, frivolous, and a waste

But Panasonic clearly think otherwise - they've invested

How about the laundroid, a robot that folds your laundry?

Apparently we can save 375 days over a lifetime by not having

So laundroid here can recognise the shape of the garment

This sleek wardrobe-sized carbon-fibre casing hides

The company says the clever bit is using image analysis

to recognise whether you've shoved in a sock or a shirt.

Then once laundroid knows what it's working with,

it can concentrate on the gentle art of folding!

Whatever it's doing, it's very quiet.

Would you use that machine? I wish I did. It looks impressive. Do you

iron your own shirts, James snr Nouf say no. The best excuses for calling

in sick according to your boss. They have gone through the excuses that

came in and compiled a list of the ones most feasible and most

reasonable and most believable. 42% of bosses think that flu is a good

reason to skip work. Flu, back pain. Migraine is high up there. Simon

says, "Someone I work with said they had a broken leg. They e-mailed in

an x-ray of the broken leg." But we searched online and found an image

of the broken leg. I imagine with a broken leg, that's some excuse. You

have got weeks in plaster pretending when it is broken and it is not. You

have got to be on a real trip of self indulgence to play that one!

James, let's look at some other stories. There is another story

about the French economy. The French hamburger, should I say. What are

they doing to make it more... There is a major divide between fast-food

and proper restaurant food and because many people grow up eating

fast-food, they want to go to a restaurant where there is something

that is similar to what they are used to and there have always been

up market hamburgers and the French are saying we're going to get more

customers if we play the game that the customer likes and instead of

having extraordinary things, we will give them a burger and it will be an

up market burger. It is also about competing with the more up market

chains. It is about the quite nearby and specific burger places that

charge a fortune just for a burger? And foot fall is high and people

want them. There you have it. France getting on board as it were. We have

a quick comment from you about the week on the markets. We've got that

statement on Wednesday. We have got Theresa May speaking today. How will

the UK markets fair this week, do you think? The markets are going to

be very focussed on not just the UK domestic agenda for trying to

generate growth, but also what is coming out of the United States

because we are clearly looking forward to hearing more of Mr Trump

he is agenda. We have the Federal Reserve on 14th December and that

will be a huge focus. Thank you James for coming in. I appreciate

it. We've never called in sick. Bye-bye.

Good morning, well, it is a hard frost at