:00:00. > :00:00.serving their sentences. Now on BBC News, all the latest
:00:00. > :00:19.business news live from Singapore. Shifting strategy. Protesters in
:00:20. > :00:26.Thailand but the tactics to bring down the current government.
:00:27. > :00:35.From mining boom to dining boom. We see in on Australia's economic
:00:36. > :00:39.transition. Welcome to the programme.
:00:40. > :00:44.Anti-government protesters in Thailand are trying to hit the Prime
:00:45. > :00:49.Minister weight has most. In her business interests. They have been
:00:50. > :00:55.protesting outside companies linked to the Prime Minister's or the
:00:56. > :00:57.family. Yesterday, it affected shares of many companies with ties
:00:58. > :01:02.to the Prime Minister. Our correspondent has more.
:01:03. > :01:09.Not a ministry building this time or a city centre intersection. In a bid
:01:10. > :01:12.to keep their three-month-old campaign fresh, protest movement
:01:13. > :01:15.shifted its attention to the business interests of Yingluck
:01:16. > :01:23.Shinawatra and their family. Placating the headquarters of the
:01:24. > :01:25.asset, the property arm. This follows successful pressure on the
:01:26. > :01:30.government savings bank earlier this week to withdraw an interbank loan
:01:31. > :01:35.it offered to help with overdue payments to rice farmers. The
:01:36. > :01:39.government has been unable to raise the funds since it dissolved
:01:40. > :01:43.Parliament last December. The protest seems more simple than
:01:44. > :01:47.substance. The shares of the bank a falling this week. There is not much
:01:48. > :01:54.they can do to have a businessmen in the hotels and apartment blocks.
:01:55. > :02:00.This is a more serious threat. A convoy of tractors heading into
:02:01. > :02:05.Bangkok. Onboard, farmers who are yet to be paid for the last rice
:02:06. > :02:09.crop. Most of the areas traditionally unsympathetic to the
:02:10. > :02:12.governing party. It still enjoys support from those in the north and
:02:13. > :02:15.north-east. That could drop off thanks to a price purchase scheme
:02:16. > :02:24.that has proved unsustainably expensive and corrupt. I've had all
:02:25. > :02:29.of my suppliers, as is this woman. Wherever we have to go, I can stay
:02:30. > :02:34.and sleep in my trailer. The theatre on Bangkok streets is just that. The
:02:35. > :02:42.rule pressure on the Prime Minister comes not from the antics of protest
:02:43. > :02:45.leaders but from the independent state bodies like the electoral
:02:46. > :02:54.commission and most of all from an unsympathetic army.
:02:55. > :03:01.Many have questioned the price. Few have questioned the significance of
:03:02. > :03:04.Facebook's purchase of WhatsApp. One of the industry's biggest ever. It
:03:05. > :03:15.will have an impact across the industry, including many messaging
:03:16. > :03:22.services based in Asia. We speak to a technology analyst at how Asian
:03:23. > :03:26.companies can defer from WhatsApp. It was meant to be a messaging
:03:27. > :03:35.service. Simple, plain old text messaging. The new Asian Japanese,
:03:36. > :03:41.Korean players have expanded beyond that into more advanced services.
:03:42. > :03:47.Late payments or ticketing or booking services. So the Asian
:03:48. > :03:52.counterpart are more at first, technology wise? We have the
:03:53. > :03:58.e-commerce option. You could say that. There are more at West in
:03:59. > :04:03.terms of functionality. You see the social platforms like Facebook, even
:04:04. > :04:09.down in the messaging. Facebook actually has quite a lot of
:04:10. > :04:17.functionality is. They have the emoticons and transactions. On the
:04:18. > :04:20.other hand, you have the messaging players coming in anti-social media.
:04:21. > :04:31.You are seeing an all-out confrontation between the two.
:04:32. > :04:42.A Japanese company bought into Viber as well. This is a trend. Will there
:04:43. > :04:50.be a higher price tag for this apps in Asia? You might see that. The
:04:51. > :04:55.players who are owned by private and is looking to sell my take advantage
:04:56. > :05:00.of the fact that if elections are high and trying to sell. On the
:05:01. > :05:05.other hand, there is a lot of speculation going on, whether the
:05:06. > :05:10.valley is right, with a $19 billion is the price tag is Silicon Valley
:05:11. > :05:14.and Asia. India is one of the world 's largest
:05:15. > :05:22.growing markets for mobile phones. It has none hundred million
:05:23. > :05:32.subscribers. One company has bought rights to the airwaves. Our
:05:33. > :05:35.correspondent has more. This person has been running this
:05:36. > :05:42.electronics shop for more than two decades. Five years ago, he latched
:05:43. > :05:49.on to the telecoms revolution and started selling mobile phones and
:05:50. > :05:51.SIM card 's and handsets. These cards and recharge key points are
:05:52. > :05:56.faster selling. There is one clear reason. Mobile phone rates in India
:05:57. > :06:05.among the cheapest in the world. TRANSLATION: It could cost around
:06:06. > :06:11.half a dollar to use a mobile phone. Now it costs less than 2 cents.
:06:12. > :06:14.Rwanda the number of the bottom end users in India went into the
:06:15. > :06:20.hundreds of millions. There has been a few hurdles. In 2010, the rapid
:06:21. > :06:27.growth hit a roadblock. The government had misallocated spectrum
:06:28. > :06:32.and it led to losses of nearly $30 billion. Many politicians and those
:06:33. > :06:37.men were accused of corruption but they have denied any wrongdoing. The
:06:38. > :06:41.court cases are still under way. Industry has already felt the
:06:42. > :06:46.impact. In 2012, the country's Supreme Court cancelled spectrum
:06:47. > :06:51.licences. They ordered the government should hold auctions to
:06:52. > :06:54.distribute the rights. Vodafone is one of the largest service providers
:06:55. > :06:59.in India. It continues to grow despite being in a long and bitter
:07:00. > :07:06.tax dispute with the government. In the latest auction, it spent big
:07:07. > :07:13.money buying spectrum. Why did participate this time? Our licences
:07:14. > :07:18.were already coming to the end of 20 years. The government didn't want to
:07:19. > :07:24.extend their licences. It was for us, a situation where we needed to
:07:25. > :07:29.buy the same thing. Over time, shareholders would return on the
:07:30. > :07:34.money. They want it to translate for consumers. Is device has been
:07:35. > :07:39.embraced by India like nothing else before. There is a risk many will
:07:40. > :07:46.not be able to use their phones as often. Even the volume of users,
:07:47. > :07:50.there are still profits to be made, even when charges are low. Operators
:07:51. > :07:59.are likely to hold back from ringing the changes on pricing for as long
:08:00. > :08:02.as they can. The financial world is focused on
:08:03. > :08:07.Sydney this weekend for the G20 summit. One person who will be
:08:08. > :08:16.keeping a place I on proceedings is Tim Harcourt, and economist. -- a
:08:17. > :08:23.close eye. He said the isolation that wants to find Australia is no
:08:24. > :08:32.longer as relevant as before. -- wants the find. And it economist
:08:33. > :08:35.in Sydney, embarking on the latest troubles around Asia.
:08:36. > :08:41.I've been in 58 different countries in the past five years. I go
:08:42. > :08:47.everywhere for three days. After some of the economy pretty quickly.
:08:48. > :08:51.For many years, we talked about distance and how far Australia was.
:08:52. > :08:57.Down Under, away from the rest of the world. It is now Down Under the
:08:58. > :09:04.down wonder. The power of proximity has changed. It is partly because of
:09:05. > :09:10.the rise of Asia. We have strong economic links. Geography is not
:09:11. > :09:14.difficult as it once was. When I go to a country, I go to the key
:09:15. > :09:20.decision-makers. The government, Central Bank, trade unions, this
:09:21. > :09:25.newsgroups and get a feel for their take on their own country. I try to
:09:26. > :09:29.talk to the Australian businesses, American and British Chambers of
:09:30. > :09:35.commerce to find out what foreign investors are opportunities or are
:09:36. > :09:44.up to. We signed an agreement with Korea.
:09:45. > :09:54.We will have one soon with Japan and China. We are moving from the mining
:09:55. > :09:56.boom to the dining boom, due to the great demand for agricultural
:09:57. > :10:05.produce and a shot from Australia, where we have clean green supply.
:10:06. > :10:11.When you look at the commercial sector, and architecture building up
:10:12. > :10:17.all over Asia, a lot of the professional services we provide in
:10:18. > :10:27.the region is different. This is an exciting century.
:10:28. > :10:29.This is the end of our edition of Asia Business Report. Thank you for
:10:30. > :10:45.watching. These are the headlines: War scenes
:10:46. > :10:51.of bloodshed on the streets of Kiev. Many have been killed in clashes.
:10:52. > :10:52.The EU