10/03/2014

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:00:00. > :00:00.Conference with an attack on UKIP. He said that the Liberal Democrats

:00:00. > :00:17.are the only party in favour of Europe. Now, Asia Business Report.

:00:18. > :00:23.As the search and rescue mission for the Malaysia Airlines jet enters its

:00:24. > :00:26.third day, we take a closer look at the company behind the missing

:00:27. > :00:41.aircraft. And how one man is making money from specialist farming in

:00:42. > :00:48.India. Welcome to the programme. As we have been reporting, the search

:00:49. > :00:55.for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight with 239 people on board has

:00:56. > :00:59.entered its third day. Vietnamese navy officials say that they have

:01:00. > :01:07.seen some debris that resembles a plane door in the water south of

:01:08. > :01:11.Vietnam. All possibilities for the disappearance of the aircraft are

:01:12. > :01:15.being considered. Flight MH370 was on its way to Beijing from Kuala

:01:16. > :01:18.Lumpur. More than two thirds of the passengers on board were Chinese

:01:19. > :01:23.nationals. Many countries are now involved in the search for signs of

:01:24. > :01:27.wreckage. Malaysia Airlines is one of Asia's oldest carriers and the

:01:28. > :01:32.disappearance of flight MH370 has cast a spotlight on the company. Its

:01:33. > :01:41.stock has fallen by as much as 80% today in Kuala Lumpur. Is it

:01:42. > :01:47.possible that the plane had been poorly maintained? I don't think so.

:01:48. > :01:52.Malaysia Airlines has a good record with regards to flight safety. In

:01:53. > :01:58.addition, it has an excellent maintenance crew. It has nothing to

:01:59. > :02:04.do with maintenance at all. The possibility is very slim. More than

:02:05. > :02:08.ten years ago, there was a possible merger between Malaysia Airlines and

:02:09. > :02:21.air Asia for a share swap deal of 20% of each of their shareholdings.

:02:22. > :02:24.Why did that not materialise? If there was a Air Asia ownership of

:02:25. > :02:29.Malaysia Airlines, could they have improved the financial situation? I

:02:30. > :02:33.think that it did not go ahead because it was a private enterprise

:02:34. > :02:39.trying to merge with a government enterprise. Would it have helped?

:02:40. > :02:43.That is debatable. Air Asia is well run and Malaysia Airlines is turning

:02:44. > :02:49.the corner. It's just speculation. With the airline losing money for

:02:50. > :02:54.three years now, this could be a fourth-year. What is the likely

:02:55. > :02:57.future of Malaysia Airlines. They will have to find a way to

:02:58. > :03:01.restructure the airline and turn it around in the right direction.

:03:02. > :03:10.Clearly, this case is not going to help much. Boeing is checking

:03:11. > :03:14.Dreamliner planes being produced in the US for potential hairline cracks

:03:15. > :03:19.in the wings. It comes after Mitsubishi heavy industries warned

:03:20. > :03:24.that the change in its manufacturing process may cause cracks. Boeing

:03:25. > :03:28.says the issue may impact 40 planes and that there may be some delays in

:03:29. > :03:35.the delivery of the new 787 aircraft. There has been a major

:03:36. > :03:40.drop in exports in China for the month of February compared to levels

:03:41. > :03:49.one year ago. Expectations were for an increase of 7%. The surprising

:03:50. > :03:51.fall in exports comes just days after Li Keqiang said the

:03:52. > :03:59.government's economic growth target for 2014 would remain at 7.5%. More

:04:00. > :04:05.than 1000 workers are on strike at an IBM factory in the south-eastern

:04:06. > :04:12.city of Shenzhen. They are demanding more money when their contracts are

:04:13. > :04:21.transferred to Lenovo, or a bigger payoff if they choose not to join

:04:22. > :04:27.the Chinese company. What does this strike say about labour conditions

:04:28. > :04:33.on the mainland? It's a very common example of what we have been seeing

:04:34. > :04:38.for the last few years. With the decline and transformation of

:04:39. > :04:40.China's manufacturing sector, many factories are being closed down and

:04:41. > :04:47.many factories are merging with other factories. Factories are being

:04:48. > :04:52.taken over. This has caused a lot of disquiet and discomfort among the

:04:53. > :04:59.workforce which does not know about its job security, pay all working

:05:00. > :05:04.conditions for the future. This is the only way they can express their

:05:05. > :05:10.grievances, going out on strike. Is this a rising trend of strike action

:05:11. > :05:14.in multinational companies? We have seen industrial action taking place

:05:15. > :05:25.over the past year, particularly in large companies like Nokia, and we

:05:26. > :05:30.have Pepsi as well. Multinationals are all part of the mix but we have

:05:31. > :05:34.seen an increasing rise in industrial action over the last five

:05:35. > :05:41.years not just in the manufacturing sector in China but in services,

:05:42. > :05:50.construction, sanitation, teachers. It's a broad-based movement at the

:05:51. > :05:54.moment. How do you turn around a company that has a 200 year history

:05:55. > :06:09.and more than 157 staff in nearly 80 countries? One man took on that

:06:10. > :06:19.mission years ago, joining a struggling company around. We had

:06:20. > :06:22.lots of managers but I explained to my leadership team that there is a

:06:23. > :06:27.big difference between being a manager and being a leader. A leader

:06:28. > :06:31.knows where he or she wants to go as an individual but also with the

:06:32. > :06:37.company. If you have not decided for yourself or for the company where

:06:38. > :06:42.you are aiming, you cannot lead. How do you qualify what is important and

:06:43. > :06:48.what is not important? Without a clear direction for the future, you

:06:49. > :06:52.cannot be a leader. This was a new way of thinking. It also means you

:06:53. > :06:57.have to spend more time thinking about what should be in the future

:06:58. > :07:05.instead of just working your daily issues out. This was a kind of new

:07:06. > :07:08.experience and a new endeavour but I feel that they liked it. It gave

:07:09. > :07:12.much more freedom. It's more challenging but it's much more

:07:13. > :07:17.interesting. Can you give us an example of success where

:07:18. > :07:26.restructuring has worked? First of all, it's a new style of directing.

:07:27. > :07:33.-- interacting. Our heritage was very hierarchical and that means you

:07:34. > :07:37.lose information and you are slow. Many expats enjoy living overseas

:07:38. > :07:41.but there is always a partial yearning for home. Maybe it's for

:07:42. > :07:48.kimchi, European cheese or American chocolate. A Frenchman living in

:07:49. > :07:52.India got so upset about the meat there that he has set up his own

:07:53. > :07:59.farm. It is now flourishing and its one of many businesses flourishing

:08:00. > :08:03.from the appetites of expats. Breeding animals for food is an

:08:04. > :08:10.extreme way to make sure that what ends up on your dinner plate is up

:08:11. > :08:17.to the standard you want but that is exactly why this farm was started

:08:18. > :08:20.almost 20 years ago, and, located just a few kilometres outside of

:08:21. > :08:25.Delhi, it has become one of the top sources of gourmet food for the

:08:26. > :08:32.expat community in the Indian capital. This French farm not only

:08:33. > :08:41.has hundreds of ducks, poultry and pigs but a huge range of organic

:08:42. > :08:45.vegetables. The market has grown and not because there are many

:08:46. > :08:50.foreigners and expats. The people understand that they have to pay a

:08:51. > :08:55.price to get the real taste of healthy vegetables. Whether it's

:08:56. > :09:00.guineafowl or the perfect test before roasting or even fresh duck

:09:01. > :09:05.for dinner, it's small businesses like this one catering to the top

:09:06. > :09:11.end of the market but it does not come cheap. Chicken in a regular

:09:12. > :09:15.market would cost under $2 per kilogram but a free range chicken

:09:16. > :09:22.from a farm like this would cost almost four times that much. Some

:09:23. > :09:27.grocery stores make this chain in Delhi now specialise in global

:09:28. > :09:34.food. Launched as a small gourmet shop, it is now a $150 million

:09:35. > :09:40.business with seven stores around the capital alone. But selling

:09:41. > :09:43.imported food is not easy. We have many challenges because with the new

:09:44. > :09:50.laws, the owners are very scared and they are quite restricted now to

:09:51. > :09:58.have a variety of food products. As a result, many of our cheese and

:09:59. > :10:02.meat counters are running dry. Demand for exotic produce is no

:10:03. > :10:08.longer restricted to just foreigners living in India. Increasing numbers

:10:09. > :10:13.of urban Indians also aspired towards the scene and food they

:10:14. > :10:21.think is higher quality. So you can expect to see more specialist farms

:10:22. > :10:24.like this to get up and running. Asian stock markets are down in

:10:25. > :10:28.Monday trading amid disappointing Chinese trade data and uncertainty

:10:29. > :10:46.in Ukraine. Thank you for your time. This is BBC News. The headlines:

:10:47. > :10:50.Search teams missing for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight archon and

:10:51. > :10:56.trading their effort on an area of the South China Sea where -- are

:10:57. > :10:59.concentrating their efforts on an area of the South China Sea where

:11:00. > :11:00.pieces