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Now for the latest financial news and World Business Report. | :00:00. | :00:15. | |
Not exactly - but French bosses could get more | :00:16. | :00:20. | |
rights under a controversial shake-up of labour laws. | :00:21. | :00:25. | |
Premier Li Keqiang says China won't resort to devaluing | :00:26. | :00:29. | |
We've the latest from the Boao economic forum. | :00:30. | :00:40. | |
I'm Sally Bundock - also in the programme. | :00:41. | :00:50. | |
Singaporeans are awaiting the latest budget news. | :00:51. | :00:53. | |
We start in France - where a fierce debate is raging over | :00:54. | :00:59. | |
the length of the working week - and the rights of workers. | :01:00. | :01:02. | |
Bosses have long complained France's labour laws are far too restrictive | :01:03. | :01:04. | |
- and deter them from creating new jobs. | :01:05. | :01:06. | |
Later today President Francois Hollande and his Labour Minister | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
will unveil their plan for a shake-up at a cabinet meeting. | :01:12. | :01:15. | |
Let's take a look at the details: In France the working week is capped | :01:16. | :01:19. | |
by law at 35 hours - it's the only country in Europe to do this. | :01:20. | :01:22. | |
So is France about to abandon its cherished 35 hour week? | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
The government wants to let bosses negotiate longer hours with | :01:26. | :01:28. | |
They could ask them to work 48 hours - which is the official EU limit - | :01:29. | :01:43. | |
or even 60 in special cases - as long as they still average 35 - | :01:44. | :01:47. | |
calculated over a three month period. | :01:48. | :01:50. | |
Companies won't be able to impose flexible working | :01:51. | :01:52. | |
The idea is to make the law less rigid - but critics say the reforms | :01:53. | :01:57. | |
have been watered down Still more big protests are expected today. | :01:58. | :02:00. | |
These were the scenes in Paris earlier this month when the reforms | :02:01. | :02:03. | |
And an online petition against them has gathered more than | :02:04. | :02:06. | |
Since then - small companies have been excluded from the reforms - | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
which some argue are the very firms that need flexibility the most. | :02:11. | :02:22. | |
Let us get some analysis from the director of European economics. It | :02:23. | :02:33. | |
is not sound like reforms to me. Is a whole range of measures about | :02:34. | :02:39. | |
working hours and holidays and also about the cost of companies firing | :02:40. | :02:43. | |
people and the flexibility of companies with hiring people. Is | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
putting a lot of triggers in terms of making labour law more flexible. | :02:49. | :02:52. | |
Something that we have seen in other European countries in recent years, | :02:53. | :02:56. | |
which is worked in recent years. The French reforms aren't that ambitious | :02:57. | :03:03. | |
by European standards. And they are saying that it is to water down to | :03:04. | :03:17. | |
have any impact on the -- too wanted down to have any impact on the | :03:18. | :03:21. | |
economy. In the end, they are likely to be quite modest and not strong | :03:22. | :03:32. | |
enough to boost the economy and lower unemployment. When you compare | :03:33. | :03:35. | |
to Spain, for example, they are seeing their unemployment rate fall | :03:36. | :03:41. | |
significantly and job creation climb where they are pushed to quite | :03:42. | :03:44. | |
difficult reforms. Where the French unemployment rate has hardly changed | :03:45. | :03:51. | |
around 10%. Indeed, the reforms may be in Spain and Italy, and they are | :03:52. | :03:54. | |
the blueprint as to what is happening now in France. They've | :03:55. | :04:04. | |
taken a blueprint, they have introduced some measures from these | :04:05. | :04:10. | |
reforms to improve flexibility and reduce labour costs so that | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
companies hire more and bring down unemployment. As I mentioned, they | :04:15. | :04:18. | |
aren't as ambitious and they come very late and we aren't going to | :04:19. | :04:23. | |
have elections in 2017 and whether these reforms which cost them a lot | :04:24. | :04:27. | |
of clinical capital are going to be strong enough to boost job creation | :04:28. | :04:32. | |
is ahead of the elections for the president to get a benefit in 2017, | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
that is highly doubtful. Thank you so much for your time. When they get | :04:38. | :04:47. | |
an outfit from France we will update you. | :04:48. | :04:48. | |
We are also in China where Premier Li Keqiang has been | :04:49. | :04:51. | |
delivering his keynote speech at the opening of the annual Boao Forum. | :04:52. | :04:54. | |
The event for top business leaders on the island of Hainan is | :04:55. | :04:57. | |
Mr Li has been telling them that China must face up to | :04:58. | :05:04. | |
its economic problems - and not resort to devaluing | :05:05. | :05:06. | |
The BBC's Asia Business correspondent Karishma Vaswani is | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
This was clearly an attempt by a China's Premier to reassure the | :05:11. | :05:22. | |
financial community that China is aware of its economic problems and | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
has the ability to deal with them. He sat to address all the concerns | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
that have been raised about China recently ranging from the slowdown | :05:31. | :05:35. | |
of economic growth to the volatility in China's currency growth. Whether | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
they can push past this transition as well. He also spoke at the world | :05:40. | :05:45. | |
economy is going through a turbulent pack and that is having an impact on | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
China's fortunes as well. TRANSLATION: Domestic leader are | :05:51. | :05:54. | |
deep-rooted problems and an increasing downward pressure on the | :05:55. | :05:58. | |
economy. In particular we are experiencing some unavoidable and | :05:59. | :06:02. | |
temporary problems in the process of transformation and upgrading. He | :06:03. | :06:08. | |
stressed that they have enough policy tools left to deal with the | :06:09. | :06:11. | |
risks that the economy is now facing. He also addressed implicit | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
worries that baiting is try to manipulate the Chinese currency by | :06:17. | :06:24. | |
boosting imports. This was very much about China putting on a good show | :06:25. | :06:29. | |
for the rest of the world. But the Premier has made the statement | :06:30. | :06:33. | |
before and it is doubtful whether they will be convincing enough for | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
those who still have concerns about China's economy. | :06:38. | :06:40. | |
That slowdown in China has hit some of its trading | :06:41. | :06:48. | |
partners particularly hard - one of those is Singapore, where Sharanjyt | :06:49. | :06:51. | |
Sharanjit - it's budget day today - what are Singaporeans expecting? | :06:52. | :06:57. | |
It is by -- budget day. Singapore's economy is so exposed to trade and | :06:58. | :07:12. | |
growth patterns around the world and it is often the first to be | :07:13. | :07:19. | |
impacted. So, this year, there are a lot of accreditations focus on | :07:20. | :07:23. | |
helping businesses deal with the regional slowdown emanating from | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
China. And indeed, there are a lot of big challenges, and one of which | :07:28. | :07:32. | |
is the high cost of labour and the rise of labour costs last year. That | :07:33. | :07:35. | |
is something that is impacting businesses and one of the options | :07:36. | :07:38. | |
from the government is to try to adjust restrictions on the hiring of | :07:39. | :07:46. | |
foreign workers. There's expectations that they may continue | :07:47. | :07:55. | |
to defer levies. This is saying that the budget is unlikely to | :07:56. | :07:59. | |
significantly affect economic growth forecasts. There's been a budget | :08:00. | :08:10. | |
surplus almost every year. But no huge tax breaks expected, so | :08:11. | :08:11. | |
certainly none for me. A 50-year-old Chinese man has | :08:12. | :08:12. | |
pleaded guilty to being involved in a plot to hack into | :08:13. | :08:15. | |
the computer systems of US defence Su Bin is believed to have been part | :08:16. | :08:21. | |
of a group targeting data relating to fighter jets, | :08:22. | :08:28. | |
cargo aircraft and weapons. The US Department of Justice said | :08:29. | :08:30. | |
Mr Su sought "commercial gain" from his actions - but stopped short | :08:31. | :08:34. | |
of saying the Chinese government Mr Su was arrested while working | :08:35. | :08:38. | |
in Canada in 2014. He faces five years in prison | :08:39. | :08:43. | |
and a $250,000 fine. Swiss drug company Novartis has | :08:44. | :08:49. | |
agreed to pay more than $25 million to the US Government to settle civil | :08:50. | :08:52. | |
charges that it bribed healthcare professionals | :08:53. | :08:56. | |
in China to boost sales. That's according to the US | :08:57. | :08:59. | |
Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC says the violations | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
of the US law barring bribery of foreign officials occurred from 2009 | :09:03. | :09:05. | |
to 2013 - and that Novartis settled A quick look at markets with a mixed | :09:06. | :09:23. | |
picture emerging in Asia today. Japan we have 20 minutes left. They | :09:24. | :09:31. | |
are slightly down as you can see. Or oil is just above $40 a barrel. This | :09:32. | :09:37. | |
is how trade was like in the United States. Pessimism is coming in | :09:38. | :09:48. | |
again. Is going to the Easter weekend and the long break, I will | :09:49. | :09:49. | |
see you soon. -- as we go into. For the first time junior doctors | :09:50. | :09:58. | |
in England will refuse to cover emergency care during a 48 hour | :09:59. | :10:01. | |
strike at the end of April. It's a dramatic escalation in | :10:02. | :10:04. | |
the row between the British Medical | :10:05. | :10:08. |