:00:00. > 3:59:59in court in the morning. Now on BBC News all the latest
:00:00. > :00:15.business news live from Singapore. Ups and downs in the car industry.
:00:16. > :00:20.We go through the latest earning numbers from the US and Japan.
:00:21. > :00:21.What do businesses want from Indonesia's next president? One
:00:22. > :00:33.entrepreneur shares his wish list. Welcome to Asia Business Report. We
:00:34. > :00:39.start off with the automotive sector. Investors have to buckle up
:00:40. > :00:42.for an interesting ride. The US carmaker GM posting a profit of $125
:00:43. > :00:46.million for the first quarter. Its worst financial result in four
:00:47. > :00:52.years. Its image has been dented by much`publicised recalls. Here,
:00:53. > :00:55.things have gone better for Mitsubishi, which shrugged off
:00:56. > :01:06.sluggish sales in some Asian markets to post a significant increase in
:01:07. > :01:09.profits. GM ended last year positively, with
:01:10. > :01:19.a multimillion dollar profit and its fourth straight year in the black.
:01:20. > :01:22.It seemed like a true reversal of fortune for the automotive giant
:01:23. > :01:25.which, a few years earlier, filed for bankruptcy protection and needed
:01:26. > :01:27.a government bailout. This year, it has been far more challenging. GM
:01:28. > :01:32.recalled seven million vehicles over faulty ignition systems that have
:01:33. > :01:41.been linked to over 12 deaths. Now, it is looking to China to secure its
:01:42. > :01:45.fortunes. It will invest $12 billion in the coming years to take on its
:01:46. > :01:48.European rivals, who have more of a foothold in the market there. China
:01:49. > :01:51.was a bright point for Japanese carmaker Mitsubishi in its annual
:01:52. > :01:54.earnings as well. Sales in Asia, its biggest market, dropped by 4% over
:01:55. > :02:12.the past year. China and the Philippines bucked the trend.
:02:13. > :02:15.Overall, the carmaker did well. Its net income was 104.7 billion yen, an
:02:16. > :02:20.increase of 176% over the previous year. Mazda and Honda are hoping for
:02:21. > :02:32.equally positive results when they report later today. Over to Japan.
:02:33. > :02:36.Prices remain static for a second straight month. That suggests the
:02:37. > :02:41.government still has some way to go when it comes to meeting their
:02:42. > :02:50.target of 2% inflation. This morning's data showed the price of
:02:51. > :02:54.things has increased. CPI in Tokyo rose by 2.7% in April, meaning the
:02:55. > :03:00.national CPI gauge could soon follow suit.
:03:01. > :03:03.Tokyo has ordered for bankruptcy proceedings to begin against the
:03:04. > :03:06.bitcoin exchange that collapsed earlier this year. That is expected
:03:07. > :03:11.to lead to a liquidation of the currency exchange. The court
:03:12. > :03:14.appointed trustee will look at how much the company's remaining bitcoin
:03:15. > :03:17.holdings are worth and will sell`off of assets to raise cash. It is
:03:18. > :03:26.unclear at this stage if investors will get back any of their
:03:27. > :03:29.investments. Within a few months, Indonesia will
:03:30. > :03:32.have a new president and many businesses have been hoping that the
:03:33. > :03:35.election will bring to power the government that is in favour of
:03:36. > :03:38.economic reform. So, how much will the election change the business
:03:39. > :03:51.environment and will it be a change for the better? Recently I spoke to
:03:52. > :03:55.an Indonesian entrepreneur. He is the head of a company which
:03:56. > :03:58.holds the franchise for more than 100 711 stores in the country.
:03:59. > :04:07.We are in the mostly food and beverages sales. With 240 million,
:04:08. > :04:11.people will still need to eat and drink. We are optimistic. Indonesia
:04:12. > :04:14.will have a new president by the middle of this year. What are your
:04:15. > :04:31.expectations? What will you need from the new president? The most
:04:32. > :04:34.important thing is stability. As long as Indonesia is stable and
:04:35. > :04:38.secure, the business and the people will grow. Number two is the
:04:39. > :04:41.policies. Indonesia is growing so fast and the government policy has
:04:42. > :04:45.to catch up with the changing needs of customers, as well as people. And
:04:46. > :04:56.businesses. So, more stable, secure and better policies towards the
:04:57. > :04:59.businesses. What are some of the problems of Indonesia that still
:05:00. > :05:03.need to be fixed? Number one is infrastructure. In Jakarta, traffic
:05:04. > :05:06.jams are everywhere. The roads aren't as equipped to accommodate
:05:07. > :05:15.the growth of the automotive is here. So, the infrastructure is
:05:16. > :05:31.clearly the number one priority for the government. In Jakarta, they are
:05:32. > :05:34.building a monorail, busway. Clearly the number one thing for everyone in
:05:35. > :05:37.the business and government sector is to build infrastructure. You have
:05:38. > :05:50.hundreds of stores but only in Jakarta. When do you plan to expand
:05:51. > :05:57.to the other islands? We continue to study the other islands but 70% of
:05:58. > :06:00.the population live in Java. 70%. So, our eyes are currently focusing
:06:01. > :06:16.on Jakarta. In the short distance, it will be in Java. In other
:06:17. > :06:19.business is making headlines, Barclays bank will pay $280 million
:06:20. > :06:21.to US companies to settle claims that it sold them faulty
:06:22. > :06:24.mortgage`backed securities during the housing bubble. Other banks that
:06:25. > :06:26.have reached settlements with US regulators include Citigroup and
:06:27. > :06:29.Deutsche bank. Mortgage`backed securities referred to investment
:06:30. > :06:36.products at the centre of the recent global financial crisis. For major
:06:37. > :06:39.technology companies in America, including Apple and Google, have
:06:40. > :06:41.agreed by some to settle a lawsuit that accuses them of conspiring to
:06:42. > :06:44.hold down salaries in Silicon Valley. According to Reuters, the
:06:45. > :06:55.settlement took place just weeks before the trial was scheduled to
:06:56. > :06:57.begin. Tech workers filed a class action suit against misty Apple,
:06:58. > :07:00.Google, Intel and Adobe, alleging they tried to solicit one another's
:07:01. > :07:04.employees in order to avoid a salary war. The jury could amount up to $3
:07:05. > :07:12.billion in damages. The loss could have been tripled to $9 billion, US.
:07:13. > :07:18.For more on that story and other news around the globe, please visit
:07:19. > :07:24.our website. Once the chief executive of Apple and the man
:07:25. > :07:30.thought to be behind the resignation of Steve Jobs in 1985. He now runs
:07:31. > :07:35.the company investing in other IT firms. He was in Singapore recently
:07:36. > :07:38.and spoke with our correspondent about opportunities in Asia and how
:07:39. > :07:44.he has moved on since his time there. This is the right time to be
:07:45. > :07:47.in Asia. The past five decades, the American middle class model has been
:07:48. > :07:51.the aspiration and has been exported around the world that it is no
:07:52. > :07:54.longer affordable for us in the US. In Asia, we have this rapidly
:07:55. > :07:57.growing emerging middle class. With a more frugal model of what that
:07:58. > :08:00.aspiration will be. I believe not only can we learn from that and be
:08:01. > :08:04.able to bring products and services to the Asian market but I think we
:08:05. > :08:16.can bring a lot of new ways of thinking back to the West. You are
:08:17. > :08:19.known as the guy who fired Steve Jobs. It has since emerged that he
:08:20. > :08:22.was pushed out of the company. What would you do differently in
:08:23. > :08:27.hindsight? First of all, Steve Jobs was brilliant. Unquestionably, maybe
:08:28. > :08:36.one of the best entrepreneurs of our generation. But Steve Jobs in his
:08:37. > :08:45.20s was not the same Steve Jobs as we saw in his later years. I think
:08:46. > :08:50.that I didn't understand well enough what it meant to be the founder of a
:08:51. > :08:54.company. As a professional manager who was brought in, I wish I had
:08:55. > :08:57.better coaching, probably from the board. In hindsight, there's no
:08:58. > :09:01.reason why we had to break up. I think the board could have taken a
:09:02. > :09:10.more proactive role. I never wanted to take Apple away from him. His job
:09:11. > :09:13.was to launch the Macintosh. It just so happened he was a few years too
:09:14. > :09:17.early, the technology wasn't ready to do all the things that it was
:09:18. > :09:20.later able to do. Those are problems that could have been solved in other
:09:21. > :09:26.ways. What kind of advice would you give Apple now? They have been
:09:27. > :09:29.embroiled in several legal cases against rivals like Samsung. How
:09:30. > :09:38.would you change the many? ``the company? The management is doing a
:09:39. > :09:41.brilliant job now. It is an extremely well`run company. But I
:09:42. > :09:44.think it probably lacks the creative leap that it had when Steve was
:09:45. > :09:48.alive running the company. Those things only come along once every
:09:49. > :09:52.five or six years. So we will have to wait and see as to whether there
:09:53. > :09:54.is an opportunity for Apple to do another creative leap under the
:09:55. > :09:57.current leadership or whether it will be one of those really
:09:58. > :09:59.well`managed companies, like BMW, that turns out very high`quality
:10:00. > :10:22.products but doesn't necessarily do creative leaps. A former Apple chief
:10:23. > :10:25.executive, John Scully. A volatile session on Wall Street overnight.
:10:26. > :10:32.Investors await the results of more earning numbers. The Nikkei is up by
:10:33. > :10:41.90. Thank you for investing your time with us.
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