14/12/2012 World Business Report


14/12/2012

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Those are the latest headlines. Now for the latest financial news in

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Hello. Welcome to the program, your chance to catch up on latest in the

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world of business and money. The headlines: Who should control the

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internet? Talks on a global treaty break down, with Western nations

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refusing to hand power over cyberspace to the UN.

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Japan goes to the polls on Sunday but can a new government solve the

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old problems and revive a slumping We will talk about Japan shortly. A

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big challenge for whoever the next Prime Minister is in that country.

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Who should control the internet? Governments? Private companies?

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United Nations officials? Or nobody? It is a question that has

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been the subject of fierce debate between some 193 countries for the

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last two weeks in Dubai. But the meeting of the UN's International

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Telecommunications Union looks like breaking up without a global

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agreement. China, Russia and some Gulf and African states want to see

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more UN power over the internet and a reduction in what they see as

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Western dominance. But a bloc led by the US and including the UK and

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Canada has refused, saying it could limit web commerce and play into

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the hands of authoritarian regimes. Our business reporter in Dubai has

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been at the negotiations. What happened last night? The talks

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continued until about 2am this morning. The UK, the US and

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Australia, and apparently India as well, say they will not be able to

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sign the treaty. This treaty has been an update of an original

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treaty that was drafted 24 years ago. The internet was very much in

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its infancy. It's a divide whether it -- between whether the internet

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should be included in the treaty, which is what the US and Australia

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do not agree with. But Arab states believe it is part of

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telecommunications. Is it part of it all it took -- is it just about

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content and should it be governed by national governments or by a

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different approach? You mention Arab states. The region where you

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are well known for control over the internet. How is it influencing

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something like the Arab Spring? There is a divide. There are two

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sides to the internet. Before the revolution, there was censorship

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and afterwards there was none. They would rather have the second. There

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is a real divide. The UAE updated their intimate restrictions and

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made punishments tougher. There is a real divide in the Middle East.

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It seems like the Arab Spring states seem to prefer the freedom

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of the internet as a good thing. But the Gulf states like Saudi

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Arabia see it as more of a threat. Thank you.

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Dr Jerry Sanders is an independent analyst on telecoms and internet

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issues. He joins us now. We will talk about the internet shortly.

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But this gathering is more than just the internet, it is about

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Telecoms, isn't it? We do not think about it but I can pick up the

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phone anywhere in the world and call any other part of the world

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and there is a lot of stuff behind that. How does it work at the

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moment? It is nothing to do with the internet in terms of content.

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It is only to do with communications. Connecting eight to

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be. 25 years ago when this started, imagine now if 70% of all phone

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calls you got was rubbish? -- A to B. 70% of emails currently are span.

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So you may say the internet needs sorting out. One of these things

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the treaty is hoping to do is get people to talk about how to get rid

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of Saddam. But what it does not want to do, or what major players

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do not want it to do, he's had it get involved of content. -- is have

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it get. Is it currently controlled at all? It 70% is rubbish? It is

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not controlled. When you send an e- mail, you have no right to expect

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it to be delivered because all the connections are free. When you buy

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you internet servers, you are buying a connection. But everything

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you could over that service is getting there for free. There is

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nothing that guarantees somebody has to receive it. But with

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Telecoms, when you buy a phone system, you have to get what you

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paid for - a connection. Correct me if I'm wrong but there is no

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taxation Birsay on the internet? And given the current economy, some

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governments may say it's a nice tasty revenue earner? -- -- per say.

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Many countries would like to have more control because they may be

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able to it tax more. If a nation state owns the right to give you a

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Web name it could also tax it. At the moment, it is an international

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body. Thank you for coming in. In Japan, voters go to the polls

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this Sunday to elect lawmakers for the lower House of Parliament and

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decide who'll become the next Prime Minister. They want a leader who

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can pull the world's number three economy out of what many are

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calling the worst crisis in a generation. Mariko Oi reports from

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Tokyo. Vegetables are sizzling. Just like

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the election campaign. Ever since this 73-year-old started a small

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restaurant 35 years ago, he has seen the ups and downs of the

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economy. But as he helps his son today, he says things have never

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been worse. TRANSLATION: The economy is at its worst now. In

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good times, we could all make five or ten times more money. I do not

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mind who is the new leader but I want things to be better, or at

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least not become worse. The three main economic policies that he and

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other voters are concerned about are: The sales tax. Will shoppers

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have to pay on everything they by? It is currently 5% but the plan is

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to double it by two dozen 15. Secondly, a huge free trade pact. -

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- 2015. If Japan joins it, it could mean cheaper rice and vegetables

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but there is strong opposition from Japanese farmers. Finally, the

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future energy policy. Whether Japan should ditch nuclear power. Without

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it, people have to pay more for electricity. But since the accident

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at the Fukushima power plant, the anti-nuclear movement has been

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gaining momentum. But if you ask the companies that dominate the

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corporate landscape, particularly exporters, they tend to disagree

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with small business owners and consumers, who oppose the three

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main economic policies. They say unpopular moves are necessary to

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fix the economy. TRANSLATION: Those policies may be unpopular but they

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would eventually support the country's economy. We need the

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sales tax hike to fund the social security system because our

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population is ageing quicker than anywhere else in the world. We also

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support Japan to join the trade agreement because having free trade

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with the growing economies of Asia is important. Around the corner

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from the restaurant, the Prime Minister is appealing to voters.

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Some of the economic decisions have been tough on consumers. He says

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they are needed to fix the economy. But he will find out if voters

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agree with him when they could to the polls on Sunday.

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Japanese voters coming to grips with difficult economic choices but

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they may be needed to get the country out of the ongoing

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stagnation. But it is not what many want to hear. The big challenge for

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lawmakers is to make tough decisions without losing their

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votes. In the last few hours, an

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indication of the worries Japan's business committees have about the

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state of the economy. The quarterly survey, are a very important survey,

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showed confidence among business leaders slumped in the last three

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months to its lowest reading in almost three years. Much worse than

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what was expected. In other business news,

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Switzerland's biggest bank UBS may be fined more than $1 billion for

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its role in trying to rig the Libor interbank lending rate. That is

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according to several reports which suggest UBS will settle with US and

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