:00:00. > :00:18.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:19. > :00:26.Higher sales tax, is Japan's Prime Minister on the right track and how
:00:27. > :00:27.will it impact consumers? We take a look at what impact this will have
:00:28. > :00:41.on businesses and residents? Great to have you with us for this
:00:42. > :00:47.edition of Asia business report. We will get to Japan in just a moment
:00:48. > :00:50.but first a potential reprieve for investors are the latest report from
:00:51. > :00:56.China shows the manufacturing sector is registering a mild expansion in
:00:57. > :01:04.the month of March, with the government's official PM are coming
:01:05. > :01:10.in at 50.3, with a reading above 50 indicating an expansion. Let's look
:01:11. > :01:24.at the reaction right now. So far, so good.
:01:25. > :01:32.This also adds to the positive mood, Federal reserve chair comments
:01:33. > :01:37.easing concerns of an early start to interest rate hikes. We move over to
:01:38. > :01:45.Japan where business confidence improved in the three months to
:01:46. > :01:49.March, marking five quarters or 15 months of positive sentiment among
:01:50. > :01:54.Japanese manufacturers, but according to the latest sentiment it
:01:55. > :01:59.is most likely to weaken over the next three months due to worries
:02:00. > :02:04.that the country's hike in sales tax will be heartening future growth.
:02:05. > :02:10.This was released as the country marks a brand`new financial year and
:02:11. > :02:16.effective today, the sales tax goes up to 8% from 5%. It was a campaign
:02:17. > :02:21.promise by Shinzo Abe when he was seeking the office more than one
:02:22. > :02:26.year ago. Here's hoping revenues from the sales tax will help reduce
:02:27. > :02:31.the debt load, over twice the size of the economy. They also want to
:02:32. > :02:37.use the sales tax as a means to provide for rising welfare costs.
:02:38. > :02:41.The last time the country made an adjustment to the sales tax was
:02:42. > :02:45.almost 20 years ago won a lot of people held back on spending,
:02:46. > :02:51.fostering a prolonged period of falling prices and the relation. I
:02:52. > :02:56.asked earlier whether the latest sales hike could have the same
:02:57. > :02:59.effect. Everybody was extremely worried about the impact in
:03:00. > :03:06.particular because of the bad impact of the last hike, almost 20 years
:03:07. > :03:12.ago, but this time it seems to be widely accepted. People have been
:03:13. > :03:19.picking up big`ticket items before and that is smart but we did not see
:03:20. > :03:25.any panic buying. That means that while demand is strong now it will
:03:26. > :03:33.not drop that much. Does hoarding raise industrial production but
:03:34. > :03:37.industrial production numbers saw a dip at the fastest pace for eight
:03:38. > :03:42.months, showing people are very nervous about the sales tax? It
:03:43. > :03:46.rather shows that companies as much as consumers seem to be quite a bit
:03:47. > :03:54.more relaxed about the impact and the negative impact on them of the
:03:55. > :03:58.sales tax. Countries have been preparing for the big rush but they
:03:59. > :04:03.did not expand production in terms of new investment, so they are just
:04:04. > :04:10.smoothing out the impact and otherwise business as usual. A lot
:04:11. > :04:13.of economists feared after the last hike that Japan lacks an engine of
:04:14. > :04:17.growth so there will be pressure to come up with additional growth
:04:18. > :04:28.policies and basically more reforms? We had a very strong year
:04:29. > :04:31.of Abenomics. The promised growth policies would be in place and they
:04:32. > :04:40.have been spending a lot and balancing. For this year, it becomes
:04:41. > :04:44.much trickier. Structural reforms are still very hard to implement so
:04:45. > :04:50.something has to be done when exports are slow as they already are
:04:51. > :04:53.and that is missing debt will be investments or companies are
:04:54. > :05:02.asking, what is there to invest in? What are the incentives? Thank you.
:05:03. > :05:11.Singapore's second`largest lender has made the formal offer to
:05:12. > :05:20.purchase Hong Kong's bank for $425 million. If they reach a deal with
:05:21. > :05:25.the biggest shareholder, the takeover, widely anticipated, will
:05:26. > :05:37.give OCBC a gateway to doing business in China.
:05:38. > :05:44.Chinese Rongshong heavy industries may be too big to fail. They
:05:45. > :05:50.received financing after reporting a loss for last year. `` Rongsheng.
:05:51. > :05:57.Rongsheng are leveraging loans that have not been paid worse in total 20
:05:58. > :06:01.million US dollars. Manufacturing activity is slowing in
:06:02. > :06:07.Australia with the latest survey for the private sector revealing the
:06:08. > :06:11.manufacturing index slipped to 47.9, well below the 50 level that marks
:06:12. > :06:16.the distinction between a contraction and an expansion.
:06:17. > :06:20.The survey of around 200 companies should businesses are complaining
:06:21. > :06:23.about the rising currency intensifying competition for
:06:24. > :06:27.exports. The Australian dollar hit a four
:06:28. > :06:31.month high against the US dollar last week.
:06:32. > :06:35.Electricity bills are set to go up for households and businesses in my
:06:36. > :06:44.own mark with the effect set to kick in today. `` Myanmar. Electricity
:06:45. > :06:51.bills could rise by as much as 50% which some feel will raise the price
:06:52. > :06:54.of goods and services. Only a quarter of the population has access
:06:55. > :07:01.to electricity aren't they are frequent power shortages. I asked
:07:02. > :07:08.earlier whether these power price rate hikes are indeed necessary?
:07:09. > :07:15.Deeply unpopular but very necessary and prices will rise 25 to 50%. This
:07:16. > :07:18.will affect heavy residential users on some businesses but the
:07:19. > :07:23.government also claims 55% of all households and businesses will not
:07:24. > :07:29.be affected, so they will continue to pay subsidised rates. Power
:07:30. > :07:36.demand is rising by 15% a year in a Myanmar. This is necessary to bring
:07:37. > :07:41.an adequate investment. In the medium term, could this stifle
:07:42. > :07:45.fledgling growth? It does not look as if it well because as I mentioned
:07:46. > :07:50.55% will not be affected than consumers will not be affected. You
:07:51. > :07:54.mentioned only a quarter of households are connected to the
:07:55. > :07:58.grid. Those households are probably not the lowest income households in
:07:59. > :08:04.the first place, so bringing more people onto the grid is probably
:08:05. > :08:06.more important. On the flip side, attract more foreign direct
:08:07. > :08:15.investments in to the country? Exactly. This sort of raising prices
:08:16. > :08:19.makes financing for an adequate supply possible and keeps the
:08:20. > :08:26.country of the diesel power generation bread, and that is
:08:27. > :08:32.better. Making that more viable means you get more foreign investors
:08:33. > :08:35.coming in and more factories and people connected to the grid.
:08:36. > :08:42.Next time you stream a movie or book a plane ticket you may well have our
:08:43. > :08:45.next guest to thank. He is the co`founder of possibly the biggest
:08:46. > :08:49.Internet company you have never heard of, and they delivered up to
:08:50. > :08:58.30% of global web traffic and keep it secure it. He told us how that
:08:59. > :09:01.works. We place our computer servers in thousands of locations around the
:09:02. > :09:09.world with the goal of being near every consumer. When they go to get
:09:10. > :09:14.the content, the browser is connecting to one of our servers and
:09:15. > :09:18.that makes it happened very fast. Proximity means fast but also means
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:09:30. > :09:35.distributing it and making it very fast, they arouse all sorts of
:09:36. > :09:40.security layered on top so we want to intercept any bad or malicious
:09:41. > :09:46.traffic right where the bad guy is. How do you do that and stay one step
:09:47. > :09:52.ahead of the attackers, those who are becoming increasingly
:09:53. > :09:55.sophisticated? It involves a lot of research and innovation and security
:09:56. > :10:01.expertise to try to figure out what vulnerabilities might be exploited,
:10:02. > :10:08.and also keeping track of who the bad actors are watching what they
:10:09. > :10:14.are doing. Particularly in this region, legislate away, companies
:10:15. > :10:20.are not required to notify of data breach. The last thing a company
:10:21. > :10:24.wants to do is speak publicly about security effort is particularly if
:10:25. > :10:28.they have been hacked. Some countries require disclosure but
:10:29. > :10:30.generally companies do not want to talk about that sort of thing.
:10:31. > :10:46.Thanks for watching. The main news stories this hour. New
:10:47. > :10:47.details have emerged about the final message sent from the cockpit