11/02/2014 Asia Business Report

of a Labour-supported amendment by a majority of 269. Now on BBC News,

all the latest business news live from Singapore. It's the first day

of Singapore's Airshow. We get a sneak peek at Airbus' new plane and

speak to Boeing about competing in Asia. It's a dirty business -

authorities are doing their best in Asia to stop money-laundering but

it's an uphill battle. Hello and welcome. The Singapore

Airshow opened today, with more than 1,000 companies from 50 countries

there this year. We can go live to our reporter on the scene.

Good morning. Here we have many planes on show. Asia-Pacific has

become a key battleground for the two main rivals, Boeing and Airu. --

Airbus. Airbus has revealed its new plane. We went to take a look. If

you want to know what $15 billion worth of research and investment can

get you, it is right here behind me. This is what is claimed to be the

most modern type in its category. More than 50% of the plane is made

up of carbon fibre. Meanwhile, other parts of use titanium and special

alloys to further bring down weight. Rolls-Royce has custom-designed and

engine for the plane, to help fuel efficiency. Airbus claims all of

this means it will use 25% less fuel than the current generation of

similar aircraft, offering the airlines capabilities to offer long

haul services and better fuel efficiency. The demand for such

planes is expected to rise, with more than 7,000 such aircraft are

forecast to be sold over the next 20 years but Airbus is facing

competition, not least from the Boeing Dreamliner, which is had a

two year head start and, as Boeing found out, new technology can create

issues. The A350 is expected to lead the commercial services in the

middle half of this year. Airbus will be hoping for takeoff.

Boeing is already losing ground in some of its key markets in Asia,

like Japan. But the $10 billion deal was signed last year with Airbus and

Boeing says it is unfazed by the condition.

There's no question that the A350 is a response to our 787. Today, there

are 121 Dreamliner is flying. 88 of those fly in Asia and they are

delivering great fuel efficiency. We have taken every precaution with the

Dreamliner and the battery situation. We have a solution that

we are confident with. We are confident in the reliability and

capability. And our customers are confident as well. Much of the

demand for new planes in Asia is coming from low-cost carriers. They

want small bodied single aisle planes. It isn't just are bus and

Boeing trying to do this but one of the key players is a Brazilian

manufacturer. -- Airbus and Boeing. We can talk to the CEO of one

Brazilian company. Tell us about the prospects for this airline? We have

got so far 152 orders. The largest regional airline in the world. It is

a continuation of this family, which has been a success in the world. But

of the growth comes from emerging markets. What is your strategy to

deal with that? Emerging markets play a key role in our strategy.

Most of the demand in the next year will come from emerging markets. We

have a very good presence in China and we are implementing and growing

our presence in other countries in Asia. Are you worried about the

potential slowdown? We see wicked and in some emerging markets. Not

really. -- we see weakening demand. We have been seeing some bumps but,

when we look at the trends, they are going up. You operate in China and

you are relying on that for growth. Tell us about doing business there.

What are some of the challenges you face? China is a very important

market to us. We have been there for 11 years. We have a lot of aircraft

there now these days. We have 130 jets in China already. However, we

believe there is a shortage of pilots in China. It is very costly.

This is something of course that the airlines will have to face and find

a way to get more pilots over time. And in terms of China, where else

would you like to build your business that? -- there. India is a

huge market. We are going back there now. And Indonesia, another huge

market. And we believe the jets will do very well in that market. And all

over the Asia-Pacific. We want to have a good presence in China but

there are also very good opportunities. Great. Thank you.

Obviously a very optimistic outlook. For this company and for Boeing. We

expect that to continue over the days ahead.

Quite exciting. Thank you. Of course we will ring you live all of the

latest from the airshow throughout the day. You can go to our website

for more analysis. We have a story about how the Chinese are not big in

aerospace yet. In other news making headlines,

Toyota is to end its vehicle production in Australian by the end

of 2017. The decision marks the end of Australia's carmaking industry.

Last year, Ford and General Motors also announced plans to stop

producing cars in Australia. Investors are watching shares of

Nissan today because flat earlier. The firm posting nearly a 50 this --

57% rise for the October- December period last year. That constantly

beat expectations. Results were lifted by the weaker yen and

improving sales in the firm's biggest market, China.

The dark underbelly of many financial systems, the process of

money laundering is made easier by countries that allow anonymous

banking or fail to clamp down on fake companies. It is estimated that

in developing countries alone, around $1 trillion is laundered

every year. These tax havens are displayed by criminals but the bulk

of the money comes originally from countries like China and Malaysia

and India. I asked why authorities identify what is illicit. Much is

paper-based. In the Asia-Pacific region, in Singapore, we have

140,000 vessels going through this port every day. What is on those

vessels? How is that paid? What countries are they going to? Other

things on it that should not be that? -- there? Right now, it is

paper-based. It allows them to move services and take something from the

site. You are right, about $1 trillion. Between China and Hong

Kong in the last year, about $155 billion of laundered money. These

are staggering numbers. What is being done to clamp down on this?

Many large companies are now pursuing this and many of the large

banking associations are pursuing solutions. What they are trained to

do is use data to automate this trail. The paper trail alone is $138

billion just to manage the paper. Surely they could use some of that

money to take a look at this. The countries you have named, China,

Malaysia, India - what makes these countries particularly prone to

-- to delete prone to money-laundering? The problem is

worldwide. But all three countries are booming. Their trade finance is

booming. Where you will have more trade, there will be more money

laundering. More ships going into more ports. We know that in China

there has been a huge crackdown on corruption, so what is being done

specifically their? Have you seen major improvement? Significant

improvement from China. It recently issued a risk warning for all of its

banks, so that when they do business they must be sure. Chinese

regulators look at the material coming in and they know which ones

to pay special interest too. -- interest to.

Thanks for watching. This is BBC News. The headlines:

Hundreds