03/04/2014 Asia Business Report

second of their televised debate on Europe. Early polling data suggest

that Nigel Farage won the debate. Time now for the Asian business

report live from Singapore. Black markets in dolphin meat. We

bring you a special investigative report. Election rallies. My

emerging markets like Indonesia and India are surging ahead of national

polls. Welcome to this Thursday edition of Asia Business Report. We

begin a programme with an exclusive report: Catching, selling, and

eating dolphins which has been banned in Taiwan for 20 years is

continuing because many are breaking the law. Dolphin meat can often be

bought openly on the black market. This is western Taiwan where there

is a tradition of eating Elphin. It is an open secret among locals.

Because it is illegal, we went undercover and order dolphin meat at

the stall. `` dolphin. They said that they no longer sold at that and

we asked why the raw meat look like dolphin flash, she laughed. At one

point, she admitted it. Just to be sure, we asked a friend

who grew up in the area and has eaten it many times, to help. A few

days later, he was able to order dolphin cakes with no problems. At

Taiwan's fishing ports, coastguard officers checked both returning from

sea to see if the legal marine life has been caught. Despite fines, dead

dolphins have been found. These three bags of dolphin meat were

recently found in a fishing boat. The fishermen said he had

accidentally caught it and hadn't intended to kill it. The dolphin has

been chopped into pieces with the head, tail, and fins cut off to mask

what it is. In another case, 7.5 tonnes were found in a rich

retreated warehouse, the largest stockpile discovered recently. ``

refrigerated warehouse. The vendor told police that he could make $3

every 500 grams, more than $6,500 if he had sold all of it. Experts

believe that many cases are not discovered. In as many as 1000 ``

and as many as 1000 are killed each year. They do not intentionally hunt

for dolphins but they are often caught in fishing nets and many

think it is a wasted two then through the dolphins into the ocean.

There is a sign of hope for dolphins. Commissioned by the

government, this professor has developed the first test of its kind

which detect whether the meat is dolphin within minutes. With this

test, the authorities hope to police the illegal trade more effectively.

The jury is still out on how far this will go to end the illegal

trade in dolphin meat. Demand for dolphin meat still exists in Taiwan.

That means that more dolphins will this grisly fate.

Australia continues to bleed jobs. Boeing has announced a 300 will be

cut from Port Melbourne. The US air plane maker says that the movies in

line with the long`term financial forecast. The announcement comes a

day after American tobacco company Philip Morris says it will close the

last cigarette factory in Australia and in six years of production. The

closure was blamed on restrictive export opportunities and decline of

local sales. BP said that it will shut down a refinery in Brisbane.

This is a moment that hundreds of lives were upended. It is anything

but business as usual. They are being told that their refinery will

close and their jobs are lost. I had no understanding about it like to

work. Shattered. I've been here 15 years. To start again in my mid`

40s... More than 300 jobs will go by next year. Hundreds of contractors

are also in limbo. This decision is not really driven so much by local

costs or government policies or anything like that. A decade ago,

Australia boasted eight refineries. Four remain. There is the? Over the

long`term future of one. Here is the reason why it. This state`of`the`art

facility in Singapore can pump out more than 600,000 barrels each day.

That is four times more than a bigger strain refinery. Put simply,

other countries in Asia can produce more fuel at cheaper prices.

China has unveiled stimulus measures to spur growth in the second largest

economy in the world. Dubbed a mini stimulus package, the government

will boost spending on infrastructure to create jobs and

offer tax relief to support the economy. They say that China will

sell $24 million worth of bonds to help build railways, mainly in the

less`developed central and western regions. The measures were unveiled

as stated in recent weeks showed slowing activity in various sectors

of the economy including construction, manufacturing, and

retail. Investors are buying into shares of railway related stocks as

news of more government spending on rail projects increases.

India has issued two new backlight is as the first time in a decade.

This comes as the country looks to bring more Indians into the banking

system. `` to new bank licences. One is an infrastructure project lender

and the other is a micro` finance company located in eastern India.

Under the license terms, these banks must open 25% of their branches in a

areas. India has a population of over 1 billion but only one

household in two has access to formal banking services.

Elections are inside for both Indonesia and India next week.

During the run`up, pre`election fever has centred the stock markets

in both countries are sprinting ahead. In India, the stock market is

one of the best performance in the region, up 6% so far. In Indonesia,

the gains are higher. 14%. This is as we go into the second quarter.

The regional markets are covered by this man. In this case, the stock

market run a little bit over. In terms of valuation, they are

expensive. It is predicated on one person coming into power. Right.

That wouldn't really help India a great deal? They already known for

turning around the economy but on a federal level, does... Largely

because in India people work with the State Government and not the

Federal Goverment. A fantastic job has been done but the state itself,

whether you can repeat that miracle with the Indian economy itself is an

open question. OK, this will rise as in anticipation of some of that.

Something which may never happen. The hippies markets, we know that

they were badly hit last year when the Federal Reserve started to

signal that they would start to taper but we know that the Fed is

beginning that taper. How are these markets bearing. Last year was

before the adjustment and the tapering actually began. They are

after the two economies here. In Indonesia's case, it shrunk from

4.4% to 3% of GDP. They increased interest rates by 1.75%. Domestic

imports shrank sharply. This would help with the exports. They rose as

a result. In a matter of six months, the Indonesian economy has turned

around. Online retail giant Amazon looking

to enter your living room with a device to stream media to your

television. I'm standing in a living room to

check out this device. It is a new streaming device which lets you

might even the Internet, stream television music and also play

games. The smaller moat has an interesting feature packed in which

is this voice search. Let's give it a test. Doctor Who. It's thinking

about it. Let's see if it can find it. There you have it. It has pulled

up the show. The battle for the living room is heating up at the

moment. You see lots streaming devices on the market, from Apple

TV, Google's Chrome Cast. Everybody wants to deliver you content over

the Internet. They don't want to just provide devices but also

content. But look at the markets. More gains

in Asia. This is the longest rally this year.

Stocks are up to the seventh day. The Japanese yen is at a two`month

low which helps the Japanese stock market. It is boosting export

reliant stocks. Markets are being boosted regionally as well. We know

that China said that they were planning to boost spending on

construction of railways. That means that construction companies even in

Japan are seen gains today. That's it for this edition of Asia Business

Report. Thanks for watching.