:00:00. > :00:00.sandbags and assist in evacuating residents from their homes. More
:00:00. > :00:16.than one inch of rain overnight is predicted. Time for Asia Business
:00:17. > :00:19.Report. As the US gets set to release its
:00:20. > :00:28.latest job numbers today, we find out what that data means for Asia.
:00:29. > :00:35.How one Japanese carmaker is making the most of India's growing car
:00:36. > :00:42.market. Welcome to the programme. We begin
:00:43. > :00:52.with the world's largest economy, where there is better economic news.
:00:53. > :00:56.Workers retained their jobs, with jobless claims essentially dropping
:00:57. > :01:01.by 20,000. However, we have other figures out later today, which will
:01:02. > :01:08.give us an indication of America's latest monthly job numbers. It will
:01:09. > :01:13.be a busy day for politicians in Washington, who will also be talking
:01:14. > :01:23.about raising the debt ceiling to avoid any risk of default. Thank you
:01:24. > :01:30.for joining us. How important is the economic recovery to us in Asia?
:01:31. > :01:37.Over the last few weeks, the data out of the US has not been as
:01:38. > :01:41.strong. There are questions about whether the US economy, the biggest
:01:42. > :01:49.in the world, is starting to stall at a time when the Japanese yen is
:01:50. > :01:51.beginning to become more volatile. It's important we get decent numbers
:01:52. > :01:59.otherwise there will be more questions. You mentioned emerging
:02:00. > :02:05.markets. We saw huge stock sell-off earlier this week. You remain
:02:06. > :02:10.optimistic about the chances, particularly in Asia? I would say
:02:11. > :02:13.there is too much media hyperbole at the moment about emerging markets
:02:14. > :02:19.and it could escalate into a full-blown crisis. Currencies in
:02:20. > :02:24.Asia have been adjusting since April last year and it's starting to turn
:02:25. > :02:29.around their trade positions in Thailand, India and Indonesia. The
:02:30. > :02:38.second thing is Asia's fundamentals are not as bad as they were during
:02:39. > :02:42.the Asian crisis. Most have more flexible currencies and huge
:02:43. > :02:47.financial reserves. Also, this is something of a blessing in disguise.
:02:48. > :02:51.Investors focusing on risk puts pressure on policymakers in Asia to
:02:52. > :02:55.get their houses in order and we are beginning to see that in Asia. Moves
:02:56. > :03:05.towards fiscal consolidation and interest rate increases.
:03:06. > :03:08.Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has posted better-than-expected
:03:09. > :03:16.profits, despite advertising revenues continuing to fall at the
:03:17. > :03:20.company's newspaper divisions. Falling sales at the media
:03:21. > :03:27.company's Australian newspapers saw revenue drop by 4% to just over $2.2
:03:28. > :03:34.billion. The shares of linked in, the social networking website for
:03:35. > :03:37.professionals, fell by as much as 10% after its first quarter and
:03:38. > :03:47.full-year forecast fell short of expectations. The company forecast a
:03:48. > :03:51.revenue of $2 billion. In India, despite a recent drop in car sales,
:03:52. > :03:57.Japanese carmakers have been investing steadily in recent years.
:03:58. > :04:06.Companies like Nissan, Toyota and Suzuki are all contenders in the
:04:07. > :04:11.market. But Honda is now in third place in the league table, up from
:04:12. > :04:19.eighth place ten years ago. We spoke with the president and chief
:04:20. > :04:27.executive of Honda in India. We are very lucky. We believe the market is
:04:28. > :04:33.still growing. However, customers are waiting for attractive orders.
:04:34. > :04:39.We will support to be supplied to customers for the best product as
:04:40. > :04:43.well as the best service. The Indian market is highly skewed towards
:04:44. > :04:51.diesel engines. How has that switch worked for you? We have come up with
:04:52. > :04:54.a diesel engine for the first time and there has been a tremendous
:04:55. > :04:59.response from customers. That is driving consumption. You are
:05:00. > :05:05.competing with well-established giants, and they have dealerships
:05:06. > :05:10.across the country, saying that growth is coming from rural India.
:05:11. > :05:18.But your dealerships are in urban India. How can you compete? We will
:05:19. > :05:23.have more dealerships in rural India. We will increase those
:05:24. > :05:30.tremendously. Will be focused domain on small cars or our customers ready
:05:31. > :05:38.for the bigger models? 50% of our sales come from smaller models, but
:05:39. > :05:45.we are certain that there will be more emphasis on the larger models
:05:46. > :05:50.in the future. In any case, we expect a continuation of fast growth
:05:51. > :05:55.in the Indian market. You use India for production and export to South
:05:56. > :06:03.Africa and other markets. How is that working? We started that two
:06:04. > :06:06.years ago. The expectation is good but we do not plan to expand the
:06:07. > :06:20.export number sharply because our focus is on India. Shares of
:06:21. > :06:24.Japan's Sony are climbing in trade today after the company said it was
:06:25. > :06:30.selling off its PC division to concentrate on smartphones and
:06:31. > :06:35.tablets. It will also cut 5000 jobs and split its television making arm
:06:36. > :06:38.into a separate company. The restructure comes as the struggling
:06:39. > :06:42.company warned it would lose more than $1 billion this financial year,
:06:43. > :06:55.despite its earlier forecast of a $3 million profits. In the long-term,
:06:56. > :07:00.it's important for them to continue with their exit strategy. The only
:07:01. > :07:05.real comparison is with companies like Panasonic. That is building a
:07:06. > :07:13.spectacular foundation based on exit strategy. Sony would find salvation
:07:14. > :07:27.if they started exiting Consumer Electronics Show. -- consumer
:07:28. > :07:32.electronics. Unless they exit in the long-term, it's going to be very
:07:33. > :07:36.difficult for them. This is still a huge loss. Getting rid of the PC as
:07:37. > :07:43.well as the television business. This does not leave Sony was all
:07:44. > :07:47.that much left. Yes, but if you look at Apple, it does not have many
:07:48. > :07:53.products. It's all about focusing on a few products and that has worked
:07:54. > :07:58.very well. In the case of Sony, they are not focused. They are doing too
:07:59. > :08:04.many things. Content and content delivery. Not just television alone.
:08:05. > :08:14.There are many different ways to provide services. Focusing on that,
:08:15. > :08:18.they can do well. As the economic recovery continues to be sluggish in
:08:19. > :08:22.many parts of the world, it's being asked whether increasing the number
:08:23. > :08:26.of women in the workplace is the answer. One woman at the top is
:08:27. > :08:30.Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International
:08:31. > :08:37.Monetary Fund. She told us about her brush with gender discrimination and
:08:38. > :08:41.the secret to her success. I have succeeded and I'm here where I am
:08:42. > :08:47.because I was not aggressive, because I relied on teamwork and
:08:48. > :08:53.because I acknowledged the team and the support that they have given me.
:08:54. > :08:57.And because we worked together. I'm not ashamed of saying that. Other
:08:58. > :09:02.types of management and leadership 's are fine but if women can
:09:03. > :09:09.exercise leadership, exercise leadership by being inclusive, team
:09:10. > :09:17.minded, paying back to the team, if we can contaminate a few male
:09:18. > :09:20.leaders on that who don't succeed in reaching peace settlements, that's
:09:21. > :09:26.fine. I'm prepared to fight for that. The worst discrimination I
:09:27. > :09:35.have faced? My first interview with a major law firm in Paris. I had
:09:36. > :09:41.qualified on all fronts and the managing partner said to me, we are
:09:42. > :09:48.giving you a job but don't expect to make partner. I asked why that was.
:09:49. > :09:55.He looked at me with contempt. He said, because you are a woman. That
:09:56. > :10:01.was about 35 years ago. Things have not changed enormously in many
:10:02. > :10:07.areas. Now, the law firm I have lived my life with was not that
:10:08. > :10:17.awful. You can catch the rest of that discussion on a special report
:10:18. > :10:27.later today. Looking at the markets again, they are all going up this
:10:28. > :10:35.Friday. The Nikkei is up well over 200 points. It's all about strong
:10:36. > :10:47.gains on Wall Street. Thank you for joining us for this edition of Asia
:10:48. > :10:50.Business Report. A senior American diplomat has
:10:51. > :10:53.apologised for a leaked recording that shows her insulting the EU.
:10:54. > :10:55.Washington blames Russia for the