:00:00. > :00:00.second of their televised debate on Europe. Early polling data suggest
:00:00. > :00:00.that Nigel Farage won the debate. Time now for the Asian business
:00:00. > :00:20.report live from Singapore. Black markets in dolphin meat. We
:00:21. > :00:24.bring you a special investigative report. Election rallies. My
:00:25. > :00:33.emerging markets like Indonesia and India are surging ahead of national
:00:34. > :00:40.polls. Welcome to this Thursday edition of Asia Business Report. We
:00:41. > :00:43.begin a programme with an exclusive report: Catching, selling, and
:00:44. > :00:52.eating dolphins which has been banned in Taiwan for 20 years is
:00:53. > :00:54.continuing because many are breaking the law. Dolphin meat can often be
:00:55. > :01:08.bought openly on the black market. This is western Taiwan where there
:01:09. > :01:12.is a tradition of eating Elphin. It is an open secret among locals.
:01:13. > :01:17.Because it is illegal, we went undercover and order dolphin meat at
:01:18. > :01:21.the stall. `` dolphin. They said that they no longer sold at that and
:01:22. > :01:22.we asked why the raw meat look like dolphin flash, she laughed. At one
:01:23. > :01:40.point, she admitted it. Just to be sure, we asked a friend
:01:41. > :01:45.who grew up in the area and has eaten it many times, to help. A few
:01:46. > :01:51.days later, he was able to order dolphin cakes with no problems. At
:01:52. > :01:55.Taiwan's fishing ports, coastguard officers checked both returning from
:01:56. > :02:01.sea to see if the legal marine life has been caught. Despite fines, dead
:02:02. > :02:06.dolphins have been found. These three bags of dolphin meat were
:02:07. > :02:08.recently found in a fishing boat. The fishermen said he had
:02:09. > :02:13.accidentally caught it and hadn't intended to kill it. The dolphin has
:02:14. > :02:20.been chopped into pieces with the head, tail, and fins cut off to mask
:02:21. > :02:24.what it is. In another case, 7.5 tonnes were found in a rich
:02:25. > :02:32.retreated warehouse, the largest stockpile discovered recently. ``
:02:33. > :02:38.refrigerated warehouse. The vendor told police that he could make $3
:02:39. > :02:44.every 500 grams, more than $6,500 if he had sold all of it. Experts
:02:45. > :02:50.believe that many cases are not discovered. In as many as 1000 ``
:02:51. > :02:54.and as many as 1000 are killed each year. They do not intentionally hunt
:02:55. > :02:59.for dolphins but they are often caught in fishing nets and many
:03:00. > :03:02.think it is a wasted two then through the dolphins into the ocean.
:03:03. > :03:05.There is a sign of hope for dolphins. Commissioned by the
:03:06. > :03:09.government, this professor has developed the first test of its kind
:03:10. > :03:12.which detect whether the meat is dolphin within minutes. With this
:03:13. > :03:17.test, the authorities hope to police the illegal trade more effectively.
:03:18. > :03:22.The jury is still out on how far this will go to end the illegal
:03:23. > :03:26.trade in dolphin meat. Demand for dolphin meat still exists in Taiwan.
:03:27. > :03:32.That means that more dolphins will this grisly fate.
:03:33. > :03:43.Australia continues to bleed jobs. Boeing has announced a 300 will be
:03:44. > :03:47.cut from Port Melbourne. The US air plane maker says that the movies in
:03:48. > :03:51.line with the long`term financial forecast. The announcement comes a
:03:52. > :03:54.day after American tobacco company Philip Morris says it will close the
:03:55. > :03:59.last cigarette factory in Australia and in six years of production. The
:04:00. > :04:05.closure was blamed on restrictive export opportunities and decline of
:04:06. > :04:12.local sales. BP said that it will shut down a refinery in Brisbane.
:04:13. > :04:16.This is a moment that hundreds of lives were upended. It is anything
:04:17. > :04:20.but business as usual. They are being told that their refinery will
:04:21. > :04:26.close and their jobs are lost. I had no understanding about it like to
:04:27. > :04:33.work. Shattered. I've been here 15 years. To start again in my mid`
:04:34. > :04:38.40s... More than 300 jobs will go by next year. Hundreds of contractors
:04:39. > :04:42.are also in limbo. This decision is not really driven so much by local
:04:43. > :04:48.costs or government policies or anything like that. A decade ago,
:04:49. > :04:53.Australia boasted eight refineries. Four remain. There is the? Over the
:04:54. > :04:56.long`term future of one. Here is the reason why it. This state`of`the`art
:04:57. > :05:02.facility in Singapore can pump out more than 600,000 barrels each day.
:05:03. > :05:06.That is four times more than a bigger strain refinery. Put simply,
:05:07. > :05:12.other countries in Asia can produce more fuel at cheaper prices.
:05:13. > :05:18.China has unveiled stimulus measures to spur growth in the second largest
:05:19. > :05:20.economy in the world. Dubbed a mini stimulus package, the government
:05:21. > :05:24.will boost spending on infrastructure to create jobs and
:05:25. > :05:29.offer tax relief to support the economy. They say that China will
:05:30. > :05:34.sell $24 million worth of bonds to help build railways, mainly in the
:05:35. > :05:38.less`developed central and western regions. The measures were unveiled
:05:39. > :05:40.as stated in recent weeks showed slowing activity in various sectors
:05:41. > :05:46.of the economy including construction, manufacturing, and
:05:47. > :05:49.retail. Investors are buying into shares of railway related stocks as
:05:50. > :05:55.news of more government spending on rail projects increases.
:05:56. > :06:01.India has issued two new backlight is as the first time in a decade.
:06:02. > :06:09.This comes as the country looks to bring more Indians into the banking
:06:10. > :06:13.system. `` to new bank licences. One is an infrastructure project lender
:06:14. > :06:18.and the other is a micro` finance company located in eastern India.
:06:19. > :06:24.Under the license terms, these banks must open 25% of their branches in a
:06:25. > :06:28.areas. India has a population of over 1 billion but only one
:06:29. > :06:33.household in two has access to formal banking services.
:06:34. > :06:37.Elections are inside for both Indonesia and India next week.
:06:38. > :06:40.During the run`up, pre`election fever has centred the stock markets
:06:41. > :06:44.in both countries are sprinting ahead. In India, the stock market is
:06:45. > :06:51.one of the best performance in the region, up 6% so far. In Indonesia,
:06:52. > :06:56.the gains are higher. 14%. This is as we go into the second quarter.
:06:57. > :07:05.The regional markets are covered by this man. In this case, the stock
:07:06. > :07:08.market run a little bit over. In terms of valuation, they are
:07:09. > :07:14.expensive. It is predicated on one person coming into power. Right.
:07:15. > :07:19.That wouldn't really help India a great deal? They already known for
:07:20. > :07:27.turning around the economy but on a federal level, does... Largely
:07:28. > :07:31.because in India people work with the State Government and not the
:07:32. > :07:34.Federal Goverment. A fantastic job has been done but the state itself,
:07:35. > :07:40.whether you can repeat that miracle with the Indian economy itself is an
:07:41. > :07:45.open question. OK, this will rise as in anticipation of some of that.
:07:46. > :07:48.Something which may never happen. The hippies markets, we know that
:07:49. > :07:52.they were badly hit last year when the Federal Reserve started to
:07:53. > :07:56.signal that they would start to taper but we know that the Fed is
:07:57. > :08:04.beginning that taper. How are these markets bearing. Last year was
:08:05. > :08:08.before the adjustment and the tapering actually began. They are
:08:09. > :08:19.after the two economies here. In Indonesia's case, it shrunk from
:08:20. > :08:26.4.4% to 3% of GDP. They increased interest rates by 1.75%. Domestic
:08:27. > :08:33.imports shrank sharply. This would help with the exports. They rose as
:08:34. > :08:35.a result. In a matter of six months, the Indonesian economy has turned
:08:36. > :08:45.around. Online retail giant Amazon looking
:08:46. > :08:52.to enter your living room with a device to stream media to your
:08:53. > :08:57.television. I'm standing in a living room to
:08:58. > :09:01.check out this device. It is a new streaming device which lets you
:09:02. > :09:06.might even the Internet, stream television music and also play
:09:07. > :09:10.games. The smaller moat has an interesting feature packed in which
:09:11. > :09:20.is this voice search. Let's give it a test. Doctor Who. It's thinking
:09:21. > :09:24.about it. Let's see if it can find it. There you have it. It has pulled
:09:25. > :09:28.up the show. The battle for the living room is heating up at the
:09:29. > :09:38.moment. You see lots streaming devices on the market, from Apple
:09:39. > :09:42.TV, Google's Chrome Cast. Everybody wants to deliver you content over
:09:43. > :09:44.the Internet. They don't want to just provide devices but also
:09:45. > :09:46.content. But look at the markets. More gains
:09:47. > :09:59.in Asia. This is the longest rally this year.
:10:00. > :10:02.Stocks are up to the seventh day. The Japanese yen is at a two`month
:10:03. > :10:12.low which helps the Japanese stock market. It is boosting export
:10:13. > :10:15.reliant stocks. Markets are being boosted regionally as well. We know
:10:16. > :10:20.that China said that they were planning to boost spending on
:10:21. > :10:23.construction of railways. That means that construction companies even in
:10:24. > :10:24.Japan are seen gains today. That's it for this edition of Asia Business
:10:25. > :10:27.Report. Thanks for watching.