:00:00. > 3:59:59semi`final in 1989. Now on BBC News, all the latest business news, live
:00:00. > :00:17.from Singapore. Climate change. We look at it impact
:00:18. > :00:22.on people's lives and the global economy. Find out why entrepreneurs
:00:23. > :00:25.are choosing to launch start`ups in India.
:00:26. > :00:37.Welcome to Asia Business Report. I'm Rico Hizon. The intergovernmental
:00:38. > :00:41.panel on climate change has released its latest report on possible
:00:42. > :00:47.impacts on the sea levels and the weather, not just on the world's
:00:48. > :00:50.environment but the economy as well. Report says climate change could
:00:51. > :00:53.potentially stifle economic expansion and some of the most
:00:54. > :01:03.significant effects will be felt in Asia. Earlier, I spoke with an
:01:04. > :01:10.author. The impacts don't strike very large. The global aggregate
:01:11. > :01:18.impact is in the order of .2% of GDP. That in the global aggregate.
:01:19. > :01:23.For individual countries, like low`lying countries, the impact
:01:24. > :01:28.would be much higher due to the combined pressures of sea level
:01:29. > :01:30.rise, published in pressures and other vulnerabilities in the
:01:31. > :01:36.ecosystems and the economic basis. It is understood that coastal areas
:01:37. > :01:43.in Asia will be among the worst affected. What kind of impact will
:01:44. > :01:49.it have on the region? It will have a strong impact. Most of the
:01:50. > :01:56.world's most densely populated areas are in Asia, south`eastern and
:01:57. > :01:59.eastern Asia. The impact this will have will very much depend on how
:02:00. > :02:04.society decides to respond to climate change. Both in terms of
:02:05. > :02:11.whether we collectively produce gas emissions, and therefore produce the
:02:12. > :02:15.sealevel rise rate, but all of the adaptation measures. We can either
:02:16. > :02:21.fortify seawalls or adopt more flexible response mechanisms that
:02:22. > :02:24.ultimately might mean that in some areas are managed strategic
:02:25. > :02:28.relocation of the most vulnerable settlements might be needed. But it
:02:29. > :02:33.always comes down to a local decision`making process, that needs
:02:34. > :02:38.to be connected with national and in some cases incident at ``
:02:39. > :02:42.international strategies. More signs of a slowdown in Japan, as the
:02:43. > :02:50.latest numbers reveal industrial production falling by more than 2%.
:02:51. > :02:54.That was in February. The slowdown suggests visitors are placing fewer
:02:55. > :02:59.orders in factories due to slowing demand ahead of a planned sales tax
:03:00. > :03:05.hike. Effective tomorrow, Japan's consumption tax `` tax goes up 2%.
:03:06. > :03:10.China's largest privately owned ship will do has posted a loss of $1.4
:03:11. > :03:16.billion for last year. It is a second straight annual loss for the
:03:17. > :03:21.company. It blamed the losses on declining orders during a downturn
:03:22. > :03:23.in the shipping sector. The company turned to the government for
:03:24. > :03:26.financial help last year and warned it would report a substantial loss
:03:27. > :03:31.due to its conservative sales strategy.
:03:32. > :03:35.In Taipei, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on
:03:36. > :03:39.Sunday near the presidential palace to protest at government policy
:03:40. > :03:41.which aims to bring the island economically closer to the
:03:42. > :03:46.mainland. The deal would allow service sector companies on both
:03:47. > :03:51.sides to open up in each other's territories. The protest have been
:03:52. > :03:55.going on for two weeks and shows no signs of letting up.
:03:56. > :03:59.In Thailand, Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has been summoned to
:04:00. > :04:03.appear before the country's national anticorruption body to date to
:04:04. > :04:07.defend herself against charges of being negligent up with the
:04:08. > :04:11.controversial rice subsidy scheme. The plan paid farmers above market
:04:12. > :04:16.rates for their crops at political opponents allege that the initiative
:04:17. > :04:22.hurt the country's rice reduction industry and fostered corruption. It
:04:23. > :04:24.found guilt `` if found guilty, she faces an impeachment in the upper
:04:25. > :04:30.house of a possible five`year ban from politics.
:04:31. > :04:33.Over the weekend, tens of thousands of anti`government protesters were
:04:34. > :04:36.marching through Bangkok in a fresh attempt to unseat the Prime
:04:37. > :04:40.Minister. It was the biggest show of force from the demonstrators since
:04:41. > :04:42.the court ruled earlier this month that February's general poll was
:04:43. > :04:49.invalid. Voting in India begins in over one
:04:50. > :04:54.week and for whichever party comes into power, kickstarting growth will
:04:55. > :04:58.be the biggest challenge. Despite the slowdown over the past couple of
:04:59. > :05:02.years, the number of start`ups in India has been on the rise. And it's
:05:03. > :05:08.not just local entrepreneurs setting up his nurse.
:05:09. > :05:14.This might look like a car park but in fact it is the home of one of the
:05:15. > :05:18.first companies in India that lets you hire a car and then drive it
:05:19. > :05:21.yourself. Unlike most developed countries, until recently anyone
:05:22. > :05:24.wanting to rent a vehicle here to hire a driver as well. But the new
:05:25. > :05:32.alternative is already proving successful. A lot of people thought,
:05:33. > :05:35.these white Americans, they think they are going to come here and
:05:36. > :05:40.start a company. But as soon as things turned tough, they are going
:05:41. > :05:44.to run right back to good job opportunities in San Francisco and
:05:45. > :05:49.New York. There is really no official figure but it is estimated
:05:50. > :05:52.that over 1 million new small and medium `` medium`sized firms are
:05:53. > :05:56.launched in India every year. According to the World Bank, this is
:05:57. > :06:03.one of the toughest races to start a business. Mark's journey in India
:06:04. > :06:07.began six years ago when he and his wife decided to move here from the
:06:08. > :06:10.UK to start branding and corporate communication company. This was the
:06:11. > :06:16.time that the Indian economy was the toast of the world, growing at about
:06:17. > :06:21.10% annually. But Mark feels this is still the place to do business. I've
:06:22. > :06:26.seen other people who have looked at the same opportunity we've seen, who
:06:27. > :06:29.have come and may be invested 18 months or two years and not been
:06:30. > :06:34.able to make the returns they expected. They say, fine, we will do
:06:35. > :06:39.something else. I think the next 5`10 years could be very exciting.
:06:40. > :06:44.We remain pretty bullish about it. Clearly not without its challenges.
:06:45. > :06:48.And it's not only individuals who are optimistic about start`ups here.
:06:49. > :06:54.But investors as well. Last year, backers put $1.6 billion, US, into
:06:55. > :06:59.Indian start`ups with the e`commerce sector most popular. Industry feels
:07:00. > :07:03.this will encourage more ex` patriots to look at India for new
:07:04. > :07:06.opportunities. It is good to see this reverse kind of migration
:07:07. > :07:10.happening. It's good because you suddenly have very open, very
:07:11. > :07:18.entrepreneurial thinking, where many of us in India don't have that
:07:19. > :07:21.openness of mind. Hats off to them. Making it easier for ex` patriots to
:07:22. > :07:25.start a business here is something the government has been talking
:07:26. > :07:30.about for a while. And, if that happens, that might tempt more
:07:31. > :07:34.foreigners like Mark to come here, not just to sample the culture and
:07:35. > :07:40.science and food but to have a go at being an entre `` Indian
:07:41. > :07:45.entrepreneur. In the movie industry, films about
:07:46. > :07:49.superheroes are as American as apple pie that new technology means that
:07:50. > :07:55.film production is no longer tied down to Hollywood studios. Movies
:07:56. > :07:57.are becoming a global industry and increasingly Asia is becoming a
:07:58. > :08:02.major hub, especially for postproduction work. I caught up
:08:03. > :08:07.with a director of the Amazing Spiderman II film. He said some of
:08:08. > :08:14.the postproduction was done in India. I think there is something
:08:15. > :08:18.important with a large movie, you have to appeal to a massive
:08:19. > :08:21.audience. That requires often a pre`existing awareness of the
:08:22. > :08:27.character. But with a character like Spiderman, there are so many
:08:28. > :08:31.different inflections. It can withstand so many different
:08:32. > :08:37.interpretations, that you can find something new in something familiar.
:08:38. > :08:45.How much of the film production is made in Asia? There are parts of the
:08:46. > :08:54.visual effects that were done in India, in more buy. There was a
:08:55. > :08:59.whole team of artists. `` in Mumbai. They worked on the effects. Asian
:09:00. > :09:05.headquarters have been opened for postproduction work in India. What
:09:06. > :09:10.is the prospect of work there? From what I experienced, postproduction
:09:11. > :09:14.has expanded across the globe, because of the way it the into
:09:15. > :09:25.networks and the way information transfers so quick and powerful. ``
:09:26. > :09:28.the. You can be working on many different things simultaneously. So
:09:29. > :09:39.much of my post production work has been gone `` been going on in India,
:09:40. > :09:41.Korea. Given the nature of visual effects, incredibly elaborate and
:09:42. > :09:47.requires thousands of people sometimes, you have to spread that
:09:48. > :09:52.out across the world. What would it take for an Asian film to make it
:09:53. > :10:00.really big in Hollywood? There have been great cinema from Asia. Like
:10:01. > :10:09.Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Asian influence is massive. It goes
:10:10. > :10:14.beyond martial arts films. What Kurosawa was able to achieve has had
:10:15. > :10:22.a profound influence on things like Lucas Films, Stephen Spielberg.
:10:23. > :10:26.Asian stock markets are mostly trading higher this Monday. News of
:10:27. > :10:31.promising economic darter and signs that China will step into support
:10:32. > :10:42.its cooling economy. `` data. That's it for now.
:10:43. > :10:43.This is BBC News. The headlines: There has