12/03/2014 Asia Business Report

Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.

As China moves to open up its financial sector, it is asking too

big Internet firms to help it set up private banks. And all jobs in

Asia, we take to the skies with the pilot of a hot air balloon business

in Myanmar. Welcome to Asia Business Report. Two

of China's biggest Internet companies have been picked either

government to help set up private banks. The two companies have been

chosen for a pilot project to set up five banks owned completely by

private companies. As part of China's move to further open up its

financial sector. Earlier I spoke to our correspondent in Hong Kong. I

asked her about the significance of this move. Your Mac is extremely

significant, in fact the market are quite surprised by how quickly this

trial programme has been announced. The idea was floated last year but

no one had any idea that they would be announcing it during the national

peoples Congress around that time. What is less surprising I should say

is that it involves two of China's biggest Internet companies. One of

those companies is already playing into space. They announced they

would be launching a credit card and they have already started offering

an online sort of fund management programme. Tens of billions of US

dollars has already been invested. The company put out a statement

yesterday saying they are still in the process of looking at the

details of the kind of private tank that they would like to set up. So

they do not have much more to say aeons that. They did confirm that

they are working with an auto parts of the, also based in the eastern

Chinese city. Are there any concerns about how these banks will be

regulated? We know there has already been a situation of debt in China.

Yellow mac I do get the sense that debt are left of a focus. What they

really want to achieve is to make banking more friendly for the little

guy. That just means individual depositors and a smaller,

medium-sized companies who want access to credit. Right now, the

banking sector is dominated either big four state owned banks. Of

course there are private layers but at the moment, interest rates are

extremely low. Many small companies who wish to expand, it is difficult

for them to get credit. According to one of the regulators who briefed

journalists in Beijing, he said that one of the company 's proposals

focuses on smaller companies. Italy is biggest bank UniCredit has

recorded a large loss. The bank put aside more than $18 billion to cover

losses from loans in 2013. It will take stock of its position before an

industry wide health check is conducted. For more business News,

visit the BBC website. In Thailand, a state of emergency may be lifted

from its capital of Bangkok due to pressure from businesses, according

to reports of a top government official said an proved the security

situation would create a high chance the emergency would be removed.

Protesters have been trying to remove President Yingluck Shinawatra

for quite sometime now. Tourism is a key industry for Thailand, it has

also suffered. Many related businesses are feeling the pinch.

The Central Bank meets later and they are widely rumoured to cut

rates. I asked our correspondent if Loring interest rate would address

the country 's problems. Book when consumer confidence is low, it may

not filter through. Businesses as well. One of the thing that the

Central Bank will do is to boost confidence. They want to send out

the right signal. You can't even get the infrastructure rolling at this

point. That is worth 17% of the GDP. What else be expected to hear from

the bank today? What is the outlook for growth this year versus what you

are projecting? We lowered our forecast in the midst of the

political turmoil. At the last time the Central Bank was in the ballpark

of 4%. We think it is going to move lower. They might lower it to be 3%

range. What does this mean for Thai assets? Surprisingly, it has not

been that hard hit. If you have eat Thai bat, it has dropped 6%. We

think that the underlying confidence in Thai economy remains. They are

just waiting for the political storm to blow over. We would rather be

cautious about these assets and we are looking at the Thai bat

deteriorating. Do you think a lot of the directionless that we are seeing

in the markets, this caution, is due to be political turmoil?

Unfortunately, that seems to be the situation because they are waiting

for things to happen, infrastructure projects, businesses investing,

clarity in policy. None of this will happen until we have a stable

government. Asked each child what they want to be when they grow up

and what careers today as a? Astronauts, football stars even

teachers. What are the coolest jobs in Asia? As part of our new series

our correspondent met the pilot of a hot air balloon.

If you have a burning desire to be a hot air balloon pilot, you had

better be an early riser. I have set the alarm and come to meet men whose

professional lives also involve a lot of hot air. How long does it

take to become a hot air balloon pilot? Yellow mac for the private

licence, that is not too long, usually within a year. At the

professional level, pilots before they get into the highest group,

three or four years. The pilot view our all European. They are flying

full basket of tourists, each paying at least 300 dollars for 45 minutes

looking down on the ancient temples of Myanmar. The view up here is

amazing. Do you sometimes look at yourself and say, wow! I have equal

job I have to pinch myself occasionally. Every flight is

different. You never know where you will end up. It is one of the last

real adventures. You never know where you will end up. But

everything when you do it a lot has the potential to get a bit boring.

You have been doing this for six years, are you getting bored? Not

really. It is an amazing place around here. You see the sunrise,

you see all the temples. What the friends say have boring desk jobs?

When the raising season starts in April, the balloons are grounded. --

rainy season. The pilot had back to Europe for the summer season there.

What is the worst thing about this job? There must be something. Your

Mac is a stunning place to be but of course, it has downsides as well

because it is quite remote. The logistics of getting your family out

he can become placated. My family were here for three months. I wish

they could have been here for eight bit longer. But it is an amazing

place to fly. It is hard to complain. During Myanmar's dark

days, only one company flew here. With reforms and more tourists are

not there is now competition. The skies have never been so busy. I

will have to take you back down to earth because the market are seeing

a huge sell-off this morning. It is weak after China's first

onshore default. Disappointing data from China. That is fuelling

concerns in Hong Kong. Over in Japan, we are seeing the yen high

against the dollar. That means stocks are being sold. In Australia,

we saw fall in metals prices. BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto being sold

off. Thanks for watching. I'm Mike Embley. The top stories

this hour. The search for the missing Malaysia and airliner

reaches its