Browse content similar to 02/05/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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regarding his speeding points. Now on BBC News, all the latest business | :00:00. | :00:10. | |
news live from Singapore. Political crisis and a shrinking economy, how | :00:11. | :00:12. | |
much more damage than Thailand's political stalemate do to the | :00:13. | :00:18. | |
country's finances? And Air Asia revs up for take`off in India, we | :00:19. | :00:28. | |
find out how it plans to compete. Welcome to Asia Business Report. | :00:29. | :00:36. | |
Thailand may be a step closer to ending its long`running political | :00:37. | :00:38. | |
crisis. PM Yingluck Shinawatra's caretaker government has agreed to | :00:39. | :00:41. | |
hold a new election in July, following months of street protest. | :00:42. | :00:48. | |
However, the PM still faces the risk of being removed from office by the | :00:49. | :00:51. | |
courts. She has been given until today to submit her defence against | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
allegations of abuse of power, but she is not expected to testify in | :00:55. | :00:59. | |
court. The crisis has taken its toll on Thailand's economy, and we speak | :01:00. | :01:09. | |
to an Asian economist. I asked him how long the turmoil will last. The | :01:10. | :01:15. | |
key factor will be to what extent we see a rebound in domestic | :01:16. | :01:18. | |
confidence, and there has to be some clarity on the political front. | :01:19. | :01:21. | |
Without clarity, investment can't take place, and commerce will | :01:22. | :01:29. | |
stagnate. So that is really the main drag. Political certainty is still a | :01:30. | :01:34. | |
long way away. Are you as confident as the finance ministry, which is | :01:35. | :01:37. | |
sticking to its forecast of growth of 6.4% for this year? It has only | :01:38. | :01:40. | |
forecasting one quarter of contraction, you think it could get | :01:41. | :01:49. | |
to two quarters of contraction? I think it is optimistic. I think | :01:50. | :01:53. | |
officials like to be optimistic, on the assumption that hopefully | :01:54. | :01:55. | |
political clarity could become clearer in the next weeks and | :01:56. | :01:58. | |
months. For that to happen, export has to recover, the global economy | :01:59. | :02:01. | |
has to be firm, and investment and consumption has to take place. I'm | :02:02. | :02:07. | |
not quite sure that will happen just yet. How big an impact has it had on | :02:08. | :02:13. | |
investment and consumption? What are companies and businesses doing? | :02:14. | :02:20. | |
Particularly given the government having live limited powers. `` | :02:21. | :02:28. | |
having limited powers. We are not quite sure how the political | :02:29. | :02:30. | |
uncertainty can drag on, let's hold onto investment decisions, holding | :02:31. | :02:33. | |
onto expansion, because if consumers are not doing anything, the | :02:34. | :02:36. | |
companies are not going to take the lead. What are the risks that a new | :02:37. | :02:43. | |
election will not resolve anything? If companies are still set on the | :02:44. | :02:46. | |
goal, but they do not want Yingluck Shinawatra in power, then it is | :02:47. | :02:49. | |
something that could go on for months. Who knows? Uncertainty is | :02:50. | :02:55. | |
the keyword for the next few months. After eight years at the | :02:56. | :03:02. | |
helm, the boss of the Ford Motor Co, Alan Mullaly, is stepping down. His | :03:03. | :03:06. | |
era came to an end with much fanfare, as he is credited with | :03:07. | :03:08. | |
rescuing the country from the Global Financial Crisis. And setting it on | :03:09. | :03:15. | |
the road to expansion. Mark Fields is set to replace him. He has vowed | :03:16. | :03:24. | |
to continue the legacy. My plan is to build on their success, we would | :03:25. | :03:27. | |
like to accelerate our pace of progress, because we are just | :03:28. | :03:31. | |
starting to see the benefits and the power of the One Ford plan. | :03:32. | :03:55. | |
Opponents to the government have demonstrated in Kuala Lumpur. | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
Malaysian Budget carrier Air Asia is thought to be the first | :03:59. | :04:00. | |
international brand to fly domestic routes in India. Low`cost airlines | :04:01. | :04:03. | |
have struggled in India, so how does Air Asia plan to compete? We caught | :04:04. | :04:07. | |
up with the chief executive of Air Asia India, Mittu Chandilya, to find | :04:08. | :04:11. | |
out. We're dealing with a cost structure that is significantly | :04:12. | :04:15. | |
higher than most other countries. We have fuel, which is extremely | :04:16. | :04:17. | |
expensive, tax on fuel, which is very expensive. Bundle those | :04:18. | :04:27. | |
together, and 50% of your P is locked in. Then, we have issues | :04:28. | :04:38. | |
around payroll, salaries, and infrastructure costs. There are no | :04:39. | :04:50. | |
low cost airlines. We are dealing with a cost structure significantly | :04:51. | :05:01. | |
higher than most other countries. The areas in which you can optimise, | :05:02. | :05:05. | |
that had to do with pushing revenues up, and that is not by raising | :05:06. | :05:08. | |
fares, but by making sure the volumes are being catered to. It is | :05:09. | :05:17. | |
by constantly looking at your costs in bringing back down. How has the | :05:18. | :05:27. | |
competition welcomed you? They weren't happy when you announced | :05:28. | :05:30. | |
your plans of entering India. That is a good question! I think we | :05:31. | :05:34. | |
welcome the competition, and I truly believe in that. I think competition | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
is a great thing, and no competitor is going to just let us walk in | :05:38. | :05:44. | |
through the front door. It has not been easy, there has been a lot of | :05:45. | :05:48. | |
fighting going on, and I think it is going to be a beautiful thing, and | :05:49. | :05:51. | |
the only people who will benefit other people of India. `` are the | :05:52. | :06:14. | |
people of India. You can see more on that and other business stories from | :06:15. | :06:17. | |
across India this weekend on our India Business Report. To China, | :06:18. | :06:24. | |
where possible new rules on the use of commodities to back loans are | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
pushing down the price of iron ore, and could in turn cause problems for | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
the steel mills. Steel mills have been one side of China's dynamic | :06:31. | :06:33. | |
economy. They are the backbone of China's skyscrapers and factories. | :06:34. | :06:36. | |
The key ingredient of steel is iron ore, which has seen its price pushed | :06:37. | :06:42. | |
up by China's insatiable demand. Until now. China is the biggest | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
importer of iron ore in the world, taking approximately 60% of the iron | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
ore market. At the moment it is very much demand`driven, rather than the | :06:51. | :06:59. | |
supply side of the balance sheet. Which would be exports out of | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
Australia, that is fine, and we are really looking at what is happening | :07:04. | :07:06. | |
in China. We are looking at macro growth, whether China can maintain | :07:07. | :07:09. | |
its growth targets, which have been set above 7%. So the market is very | :07:10. | :07:14. | |
set on what is happening, and whether it can be facilitated, which | :07:15. | :07:23. | |
is the availability of credit. But as growth in the economy slowed, | :07:24. | :07:28. | |
stocks of iron ore built up, and prices fell. The problem is, many of | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
these steel mills not only possessed iron ore, but used it as a form of | :07:33. | :07:39. | |
trade finance. `` process. In other words, they used it as collateral | :07:40. | :07:42. | |
for loans. Authorities are now concerned about the risks behind | :07:43. | :07:45. | |
such deals. To address these fears, regulators have asked banks to | :07:46. | :07:48. | |
re`examine how iron ore imports are paid for. But that could make | :07:49. | :07:55. | |
matters worse. On the back of this announcement, the price of iron ore | :07:56. | :07:58. | |
futures fell dramatically in recent days. Investors are now concerned | :07:59. | :08:01. | |
that a flood of iron ore stocks may be dumped in the market, which would | :08:02. | :08:10. | |
push prices down even further. Microsoft says users of its Windows | :08:11. | :08:13. | |
XP operating system will also get the security update it has issued to | :08:14. | :08:17. | |
fix a flaw in the Internet Explorer browser. It issued the update on | :08:18. | :08:20. | |
Thursday to fix the bug, that could let hackers gain access and user IDs | :08:21. | :08:23. | |
to computers. Microsoft ended support for Windows XP earlier this | :08:24. | :08:26. | |
month, which means no bug fixes and security updates for it. Apple and | :08:27. | :08:35. | |
Samsung could get the verdict in their crucial patent infringement | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
case as early as this weekend. The world's two largest smartphone | :08:40. | :08:42. | |
makers have been battling it out in a Californian court over the past | :08:43. | :08:50. | |
month. As Richard Taylor reports from San Francisco, billions of | :08:51. | :08:53. | |
dollars are at stake. This is just the latest feud between these | :08:54. | :08:56. | |
technology Titans, and unlike the trial of a few years back, this one | :08:57. | :08:59. | |
is focused much more on the software inside the devices. At stake are | :09:00. | :09:21. | |
five patents, which Apple value at over $2 billion. Because the | :09:22. | :09:23. | |
arguments have centred around software, another Silicon Valley | :09:24. | :09:26. | |
giant, Google, has been invoked. Google make the Android operating | :09:27. | :09:28. | |
system that runs inside the Samsung handsets. As such, a primary strand | :09:29. | :09:31. | |
of Samsung's argument is in effect that Apple are fingering the wrong | :09:32. | :09:34. | |
target. Google executives have taken the stand to argue that they | :09:35. | :09:37. | |
developed the software, not Apple. Apple have disagreed with that, and | :09:38. | :09:40. | |
tried to convince the jury that Samsung are to blame, because they | :09:41. | :09:43. | |
are wilfully using it inside their handsets. Regardless of the verdict, | :09:44. | :09:46. | |
you can be sure that, if past experience is anything to go by, | :09:47. | :09:49. | |
this trial will run on a lot longer, with appeals and counter appeals set | :09:50. | :09:53. | |
to ensue. Even when the saga ends on the West Coast of America, you can | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
ensure it will continue in courtrooms around the globe. `` you | :09:57. | :10:09. | |
can be sure. Before we go, a quick check on the markets. And Asian | :10:10. | :10:13. | |
shares have started the date relatively subdued. The Hang Seng up | :10:14. | :10:21. | |
151. A lot of investors will have an eye on the key US payroll numbers, | :10:22. | :10:27. | |
which are due out later today. That's it for Asia Business Report. | :10:28. | :10:36. | |
Thank you for watching. The top stories this hour: Police in Nigeria | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
say 19 people have been killed and 60 injured in | :10:41. | :10:41. |