18/04/2014 World Business Report

life. Those are the latest headlines. Now it is time for World

Business Report. Brace yourself. One of the motor industry 's most

iconic cars. It turns 50 to date and celebrating it birthday. The Ford

Mustang opened the New York auto show. More than 1000 feet above the

city. And France's newcomers that comes under fire after unveiling a

benefit freeze. All part of a plan to cut government spending by $70

billion. Hello everyone. Welcome to the

programme. It is a fascinating and exciting snapshot of all the latest

in the world of business and money. It is brief but good. We will also

talk about Cambodian garment workers. They are striking and we

will go live to our correspondent. With the Detroit and Geneva shows,

they are behind us. The car industry 's attention is turning to the

yorker the show. `` New York auto show. Ford revealed a special

limited edition. To prove America's love affair with the car, Ford took

it to new heights. Literally. Just have a look. We've got it. This is

how they did it. How do they get a Mustang on top of the roof of the

Empire State. They cut it up in five pieces, shoved it in elevated and

assembled it late at night. This is exactly what they are doing. And

they were very speedily. This is why the public viewing platform was

closed. This is how they did it. Almost there. I don't think there is

an engine in there but that is OK, it will not drive around. There we

go! The 50th edition of the Ford Mustang. Before the whole... New

York auto show, the CEO, he was in town to promote its latest model.

Our correspondent caught up with him. She began by asking him, given

Ford has three factories in Ukraine, she asked about what impact

sanctions would have. Clearly we take the long view in

Russia. We view it as an important market and potentially, in the next

couple of years, could be the largest market in Europe. We do have

three facilities there and are watching the situation very closely.

Has there been any backlash? No. Actually, when you look at our

business there, what impact it more is just the general economic

performance of the economy there. We have had to match our reduction to

demand that we have had to take some production out. Just looking at the

business environment and reacting appropriately. We have not seen any

backlash against our business. Where are most of the jobs being added?

Yarmouk we will be adding 11,000 jobs around the world. 5000 of those

jobs will be here in the US and the remaining 6000 will be in the

Asia`Pacific. Europe has not been doing well but other regions are

growing. How do you decide where to allocate resources? When you look at

our footprint, the great news is the Ford business is growing around the

world. When you look in our market share, we were going in every region

of the world. Our approach as a company is to make sure we match

capacity to demand. We have done that here in the US. We are exactly

on plan on our transformation plan in Europe. We did have to close some

facilities to match the demand to the production. We are starting to

see the market comeback. Our shares are growing. I think we are

satisfied there. Most of our capacity growth is in Asia`Pacific.

There you go. From Hume, to this man. Manuel Valls, the new tough

talking Prime Minister of France. He has been brought in to reform the

economy. It certainly is needed. And at the same time, said his party. It

is quite a challenge because an implement in France is now over 11%.

It is an astonishing number. Growth is that in France and the debt

continues to rise. Last week, the French and announced they would miss

the deficit target they pledged to the rest of Europe. Manuel Valls,

known as a social democrat is not popular with the left of his party.

There have been angry reactions to the cuts he has put forward. They

call him the French Tony Blair. A plain talking politician who tells

his party in must change if it wants to survive. His appointment as Prime

Minister suggests that Francois Hollande is serious about the new

Veszpremi policy he announced in January. But can Manuel Valls sell

it to the left wing of the party? He knows that the Prime Minister 's

office is not a gift. It is a pain. Extremely painful and difficult.

Particularly now. He knows what he is doing. It helps that Manuel Valls

was formerly a spin doctor and while interior Minister, he had a

reputation for delivering what he promised. The president does not

have the same reputation. This is a big gamble for the president. In

recent weeks, Francois Hollande's approval rating has fallen. While

the rating of Manuel Valls is at a stratospheric 58%. It's as if, in

the eyes of the French, the new Prime Minister is a real leader of

France while Francois Hollande has been delegated to the rank of

ceremonial president. Manuel Valls has no experience of running the

economy but he is winning plaudits. In Berlin, he announced cuts of 50

billion euros in gunmen spending over three years. And he has

promised solutions to the soaring cost of French labour. You'll it has

been extremely painful. It means that now there is such a gap that

there are question marks, where will they go? Those on the left estate

Manuel Valls should not be cutting spending and a time when growth is

stagnant. The concessions he is offering to employers are dismissed

as the policies of the right. The kind of reforms that could split the

party. We are hoping for an extension of confidence. For each

vote when we are not in agreement, we will vote against. So, Manuel

Valls, will have to tread a delicate lime. His first test comes in a fume

weeks when spending goes to wait Parliamentary vote of confidence.

Manuel Valls may find he has left move `` room to manoeuvre. It might

explain why Francois Hollande appointed him. He has a tough job.

It took about trade unions in Cambodia. They are hoping as many as

half of the country would he showing up to work starting from today.

There's coffer in nationwide strike to demand a higher minimum wage and

the release of 21 protesters who were imprisoned in the last round of

strikes back in January. That go to the man himself in our Singapore

office. I don't get enough time to talk to you these days. Let me talk

about this, we have talked about the problems facing the Bangladeshi

garment workers. What are we seeing in Cambodia? Is this part of a wider

movement in the region with what's going on with garment workers? If

you look at Cambodia, it is just like a good bash. A major garment

factory have. Groups say that workers there, just like Bangladesh,

are underpaid. Thousands of garment workers are staying home as part of

protest actions demanding higher salaries. Cambodian workers are

demanding an increase in the minimum wage to 100 and 60 US dollars per

month. Versus the current 100 US dollars. The organisation

representing workers claimed none of the workers today are protesting but

are just taking extra time of due to the New Year. One analyst said this

strike is a litmus test on the strength of the unions. If they

could follow through with these demands after the violence in

January and saw the arrest of 21 demonstrators. Very briefly,

investors... They jumped on the Weibo bandwagon yesterday? They did.

It was up by 20%. There have been worries that the company 's

performance would be affected by the recent sell`off of technology stocks

and censorship. Traders say what makes Weibo attractive to investors

is that it trades at a major discount to Twitter. Thank you.

Treat me and follow me. I have got to go. I will be back shortly to

take a look at the newspapers. I told you to brace yourself. Let's

have a look at some UK stories. The two biggest teachers union in

England and Wales are holding their annual conferences and both are

likely to step up their campaign of industrial