:00:00. > :00:00.been declared bankrupt. Tony Caplin was made insolvent in 2012. Now on
:00:00. > :00:15.BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore. Heading
:00:16. > :00:18.west: Why an increasing number of Chinese companies are looking to the
:00:19. > :00:21.US for their share sales. And too expensive: Vietnam says it cannot
:00:22. > :00:35.afford the multimillion`dollar cost of hosting the Asian Games. We start
:00:36. > :00:39.with the Chinese firm, Alibaba, who are due to file this week their
:00:40. > :01:00.highly anticipated share sale to the US. Its online business processes
:01:01. > :01:04.have more transactions than eBay. We look at why Chinese companies are
:01:05. > :01:07.now looking to the west. It was just last week when China's answer to
:01:08. > :01:16.Twitter, Weibo, made its debut in New York. And in its first week of
:01:17. > :01:20.trading, the stock shot up 20%. `` first day. The success of Weibo has
:01:21. > :01:23.investors even more excited about Alibaba. The Chinese e`commerce
:01:24. > :01:29.giant has more sales and net income than both Amazon and eBay combined.
:01:30. > :01:34.It is China's largest internet company, and operates in the world's
:01:35. > :01:41.largest internet market. Alibaba accounts for 80% of all Chinese
:01:42. > :01:44.online consumer shopping. But why are Chinese companies choosing to
:01:45. > :01:49.list in New York instead of Hong Kong? In the case of Alibaba, much
:01:50. > :01:53.of it has to do with ownership structure. American rules allow for
:01:54. > :01:58.executives to retain much more control of their company. Alibaba's
:01:59. > :02:03.successes have even lifted some US companies. Yahoo has benefited from
:02:04. > :02:07.a 24% stake in Alibaba, and it has been boosting Yahoo's shares, which
:02:08. > :02:16.have gone up by more than 40% this year. It is all the more reason why
:02:17. > :02:29.many investors will be watching just how Alibaba does in the coming
:02:30. > :02:41.months. In other business News, General Motors plans to invest $12
:02:42. > :02:44.billion in China this year They made the announcement at the Auto China
:02:45. > :02:48.show in Beijing, which opens to the public today. Many of the world's
:02:49. > :02:50.leading carmakers are at the event, and companies like Peugeot and
:02:51. > :02:59.Hyundai are expected to unveil new mini SUV models. In Japan, exports
:03:00. > :03:03.have been growing. It is a heavy importer of oil and gas. Recent
:03:04. > :03:06.weakness in the Japanese gas market has increased costs. They have a
:03:07. > :03:15.deficit of $14 billion, which is a record 21 straight months of
:03:16. > :03:18.deficits. For more on the state of the Japanese economy and other
:03:19. > :03:24.business stories around the world, check our website. As many of you
:03:25. > :03:31.may have heard, the decision by Vietnam to withdraw as the host of
:03:32. > :03:34.the 2019 Asia games has again put the spotlight on the pressure put on
:03:35. > :03:46.countries that bid for sporting events. They budgeted 150 million
:03:47. > :03:49.dollars. The bill was forecast to be several times higher. This year's
:03:50. > :03:56.games in Korea are expected to top $1 billion. Our correspondent
:03:57. > :04:02.explained the reasons which led to Vietnam giving up its claim. When
:04:03. > :04:06.you look at how much money they are going to end up spending on the
:04:07. > :04:09.games, it will be a massive amount, which at this moment I think the
:04:10. > :04:13.government of Vietnam can't justify to the people. You just said, Korea
:04:14. > :04:15.will spend over $1 billion, but statements coming out of the last
:04:16. > :04:20.games, where they spent almost $17 billion, which was spent on
:04:21. > :04:23.infrastructure. I think at this stage Vietnam, which has one of the
:04:24. > :04:36.worst debts in Asia, they can't justify this kind of expenditure.
:04:37. > :04:39.You said $17 billion, that is a staggering amount. A lot of that
:04:40. > :04:43.going into infrastructure. Doesn't the infrastructure go on to benefit
:04:44. > :04:48.the country beyond the games? Yes, but not sporting facilities. It
:04:49. > :04:55.tends to become a white elephant after the games are over. Of course,
:04:56. > :04:58.if you are building roads and housing, all of that is a legacy
:04:59. > :05:01.programme, but sporting facilities, unless you are really driven,
:05:02. > :05:09.otherwise it will be sitting there for nothing. We know this is a
:05:10. > :05:12.crucial year, with the football World Cup coming up in Brazil, also
:05:13. > :05:16.a lot of complaints about whether they are up to scratch. Do you think
:05:17. > :05:19.it is important for countries to host games like this? Does it add
:05:20. > :05:29.prestige or do you think the run`ups are more of a problem? If you really
:05:30. > :05:32.plan properly, and in the case of Brazil they really needed it. It is
:05:33. > :05:36.a double`edged sword. If you don't do a great job all of the negativity
:05:37. > :05:39.is amplified. With the help of social media at the moment, instead
:05:40. > :05:45.of gaining positive publicity, it all becomes negative in the end.
:05:46. > :05:48.This is something that countries or cities really need to pay attention
:05:49. > :06:00.to, and we are seeing what is happening in Brazil. The rising
:06:01. > :06:06.number of people out of work in India is one reason the economy is a
:06:07. > :06:09.key issue. The picture is not the same across the country. In the east
:06:10. > :06:17.of India, a strong manufacturing sector has brought much`needed jobs.
:06:18. > :06:27.Is it an example for others to follow? This man is 24, and comes
:06:28. > :06:34.from a village of 300. `` a village 300 kilometres from the city he now
:06:35. > :06:37.calls home. His father is a farmer, but following in those footsteps
:06:38. > :06:41.would have been an option, he wasn't keen on joining him at the farm.
:06:42. > :06:44.TRANSLATION: For as long as I can remember, my father has been riding
:06:45. > :06:52.a bicycle. Recently, I bought him a new motorcycle to make travelling
:06:53. > :07:03.easy for him. This job pays me well, which has helped in improving our
:07:04. > :07:12.quality of life. This factory belongs to Nissan. Like him, there
:07:13. > :07:18.are thousands of young people in Tamil Naidu who have jobs in
:07:19. > :07:21.factories like this. And there are more than half a dozen other
:07:22. > :07:24.international car companies that have set up similar factories in the
:07:25. > :07:27.vicinity, prompting many to dub Chennai as the Detroit of South
:07:28. > :07:30.Asia. Cars manufactured here are sent to over 100 countries. Easy
:07:31. > :07:33.access to a port and availability of qualified workers has made the state
:07:34. > :07:34.an attractive destination. Most companies hire students from
:07:35. > :07:38.technical training institutes like these. In Tamil Naidu it is fairly
:07:39. > :07:41.easy for workers to find a job, that is not the case in most parts of the
:07:42. > :07:44.country. India's unemployment rate has been rising, especially among
:07:45. > :07:50.low`skilled workers, which make up the bulk of India's population. It
:07:51. > :08:00.has also become a hot election issue, with the Congress Liberal
:08:01. > :08:03.government taking a lot of flak. They have not expanded
:08:04. > :08:06.manufacturing. While it might be true, is it fair? Experts say the
:08:07. > :08:09.owners are attractive manufacturers, and it falls on individual states,
:08:10. > :08:15.because it is them who get involved in the most critical decisions. Land
:08:16. > :08:18.problems, labour laws, and also the infrastructure problems. But I feel
:08:19. > :08:25.that I'm positive about it, because states have realised it now, that
:08:26. > :08:29.manufacturing growth is important. That realisation has to become a
:08:30. > :08:31.reality. Because with 12 million people entering the Indian workforce
:08:32. > :08:34.every year, only huge growth in sectors like manufacturing will
:08:35. > :08:50.offer some hope of work for its job hunters. Getting something for
:08:51. > :08:53.nothing is so tempting that many people would rather download pirated
:08:54. > :08:56.software than pay for it, and it is a big issue in this region. A new
:08:57. > :08:59.study by Microsoft and the national University of Singapore has said
:09:00. > :09:13.that Asia accounts for nearly half of the world's pirated software. I
:09:14. > :09:15.asked just how big the problem is. Financial implications of breaches
:09:16. > :09:21.based on pirated software are devastating for consumers and
:09:22. > :09:24.software themselves. We now know that it is more prevalent here in
:09:25. > :09:35.Asia, and the financial consequences of that may be much more
:09:36. > :09:38.significant. So, for example, the study we recently released
:09:39. > :09:40.identifies the fact that of the computers analysed running pirated
:09:41. > :09:43.software, over 60% of them also running various kinds of spyware,
:09:44. > :09:46.worms, viruses, the kinds of things that criminals are trying to use to
:09:47. > :09:51.take people's money away, to steal their identity. Incidents of that
:09:52. > :09:57.can be magnified for sure, and you can have high piracy rates. In Asia,
:09:58. > :10:02.there are piracy rates at a north of 85%. As a result, the financial
:10:03. > :10:05.losses from that will be very significant. Losses are greater in
:10:06. > :10:18.Asia than anywhere else in the world. A very quick look at the
:10:19. > :10:23.markets. They have opened marginally higher here this Monday. It is
:10:24. > :10:28.incredibly quiet, as many markets are still shut for the Easter
:10:29. > :10:33.weekend. The biggest weekly loss in a month for the yen. So despite
:10:34. > :10:41.trade numbers which were not too good, Japanese stocks have been
:10:42. > :10:43.helped. That ends this edition of Asia Business Report. Thank you for