13/03/2014 World Business Report

At least 25 people have died since protests started a month ago. Those

are the latest headlines from BBC World News. Now for the latest

financial news with World Business Report. As the National People's

Congress comes to a close, many people are looking to see whether

China rebalance its economy? And Obama overtime - the US President

wants overtime pay for more salaried workers. Welcome to World Business

Report. In a minute we'll be talking about the global commodity markets.

But first, is it changing times in China? And pollution in China. After

ten days of high-level meetings and talks, China's National People's

Congress has come to a close. It seems after many years of

stagnation, the leaders of the world's second biggest economy want

to overhaul China's financial system. In a work report presented

at the start of the NPC, China's premier unveiled some key proposals

for reform, including a measure to insure bank deposits, a move to

allow local governments to issue bonds and a plan for the Chinese

currency to be traded more freely. In addition, the Premier confirmed

that the growth target for the year remained at 7.5%. But after 30 years

of rapid economic growth that has lifted millions out of poverty,

while also polluting the country's air and water and saddling the

nation with high debt levels, China wants to change tack and rebalance

its economy. But how much of this will actually get implemented? Let's

talk about that 7.5% growth target. Some would argue that it's not

taking as big a risk as the Chinese government should be taking. How

realistic is that targets? We think that given the current momentum for

growth, the economy could slow to around 7.4%. The momentum could

continue to slowdown in the second quarter as well. In that sense,

without further policy stimulus such as additional fiscal stimulus or

quantitative easing, this target will be difficult to achieve at this

moment. We are talking about financial policy, looking at the

short-term. How long-term do you think these financial policies will

be? We believe that the central bank will have to think about whether

they should ease the reserve requirement ratio, which is

currently around 20%, on commercial banks. They have become more

proactive over the last few months by injecting more liquidity. As a

result, we have seen the money market rates falling. All of these

measures are short term. Without a cut in China 's reserve economic

ratio, perhaps this is in cannot be sustainable for long. One last

question. You are in Hong Kong. We have heard from the Chinese

Premier, talking about continuing to promote Hong Kong as a global

financial hub. How important is that for the investment economy to hear

that? This is reassuring. The central government is saying that

China will support Hong Kong as China 's international financial

centre. That means that whenever there are any policies, Hong Kong

will be the first. In particular, Hong Kong has benefited a great deal

from China 's internationalisation. Indeed, this policy will not

change. Hong Kong will remain its status as an offshore trading centre

at this stage. Staying with Asia, Sharanjit Leyl joins me from

Singapore. Japanese electronics firm Panasonic has said it will pay its

employees working in China a premium to compensate them for the country's

high pollution. That's right. It was one of the many things that Li

Keqiang was addressing today at the National People's Congress. China 's

air pollution. He says that the war on air pollution will be waged in

the long-term. In the meantime, it seems that companies like Panasonic

are taking matters into their own hands, paying employees to work in

that country. Basically, many overseas employees receive hardship

pay increases but Panasonic is really the first company to

explicitly paying more money because of China 's air quality problems. We

know that smog has been an ongoing problem in many Chinese cities. It

was announced as part of Panasonic 's pay negotiations. They have

refused to say how much Japanese staff would receive in additional

money. As recently as last month, we know that monitors in Beijing said

the readings were at 15 times the daily maximum recommended by the

World Health Organization and that has made many people quite reluctant

to want to move to China. Panasonic says it will do this through

compensation but they will also increase based gallery for all of

their workers by around $20. Panasonic is one of a number of

Japanese companies announcing pay increases this week. Carmakers among

them. These are the first pay increases since the financial crisis

in 2008. Australia has had some very strong Australian -- the job

figures. Yes. Australia saw its full-time payrolls go up by the most

in almost 20 years. The number of people employed full-time rose by

over 80,000. That's the biggest increase since 1991. Overall

employment climbed to over 47,000, that is three times more than

forecast, and all of this has helped the Australian dollar, boosting it.

Having said that, the jobless rate is still at 6%. Does this sound

familiar? Your boss tells you to stay late or work over the weekend

for no extra pay. Well, President Obama hopes to change this as part

of his drive to reduce income inequality. Using his executive

power, he wants to extend overtime payments, a move that's likely to

upset many businesses. How many hours per week do you work? Is its

over 40 hours, do you get paid extra? I work over 40 hours but I

don't get overtime. Overtime would be nice but I'm not entitled to it.

I work 60 hours per week. No extra pay? It's the new America. Work

harder, make less money! Because of something called the white-collar

extension, many salaried professionals don't get paid

overtime if they make more than $455 per week. The president wants to

increase this threshold and force businesses to pay more for longer

hours. This is a great step by the president to address economic

inequality and lift up the middle class in this country because we

really have a problem, which is that working people are putting in extra

hours but are not being paid for it. The restaurant industry is

well-known for designating many of its workers as managers so that they

can avoid paying them over time. Their supporters say that the new

rules would add to their already growing cost. We have already seen

lots of cost pressures put on employees in places like McDonald's.

That will be helpful for business. Now we are seeing new pressures put

on the salaried envoys. This will hurt our ability to create jobs.

Well workers see a difference? 5 million to 10 million employees may

benefit, at least in the short-term. President Obama wants to force

businesses to pay their employees more for working longer hours but is

companies end up cutting the base pay of their salaried workers, they

will see very little difference. Looking at the market at the

moment... We had those positive jobs figures from Australia earlier.

That's it from me. Goodbye. The NHS in England says new standards are

needed to ensure families who lose a child are treated with compassion. A

report into the children's heart surgery unit at Leeds General

Infirmary found examples of a lack of compassion,