22/05/2014 Asia Business Report

never been broadcast before. Now on BBC News all the latest

business news live from Singapore. China signs over $400 billion gas

deal with Russia after a decade of talks. Singapore is ranked the world

's best place to do business for its sixth year. Thank you for joining

us. The Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Shanghai to witness a

landmark deal that will see Russia supplied China with natural gas for

30 years. It marks a political triumph for Vladimir Putin who faces

economic isolation in the West because of his actions in Ukraine.

What exactly brought about this last`minute deal? Earlier I post but

question to an energy expert from the University of Singapore. Russia

has gas to sell, and it needs those dollars. China needs gas. Both sides

have won overall. Until we know the price and how much China has to pay

up front, we cannot say who was the winner. As of yesterday, when you

were on the programme, there was no certainty as to whether a deal would

be sealed, and it was only signed and delivered early evening Asia

time. Could the deal have been, let's sign now, discuss price

later? It looks that way, pricing is not something you can finalise in

two or three hours. Maybe they agreed a price at the last minute,

regardless of commercial considerations, or the president

stood in and said, we have a deal, sort out the details later.

Currently, no one knows. What does this agreement mean for the Chinese?

It gives the Chinese in five years time and additional supply of gas

which, at that time, will account for maybe 20% of their total

consumption. It is good for them, and helps their energy consumption

and will tackle the serious pollution problem. For the

Russians? For the Russians, it gives them the money to develop the far

Eastern gas fields which will support local developments and means

they have new customers for their gas which, if Europe starts to turn

away from Russia, works. These relations between the Chinese and

the Russians, what does it mean for the geopolitical system? Going on in

Asia now? I would not read too much into that. There has been an oil

pipeline for nearly ten years running between both countries. It

is a fairly pragmatic relationship, although they do share certain

strategic concerns. Singapore is the best place in the

world to do business, that is according to the latest survey by

the Economist intelligence unit. It sees the city retain its number one

spot as I am inventor `` as an investor friendly location. It looks

at a number of indicators, including political stability and corporate

tax rates. The cost of living and practical

costs attract Singapore as a place for foreign companies to invest.

However, it is not only about costs. When you think of the business

environment, it is also about how easy it is to do business and what

the quality of the business environment is. When we measure

this, we look at ten different aspects of the business

environment, ranging from political stability, through commercial laws

and competition policy, all the way to the labour market and

infrastructure and taxation. With Singapore, the cost is a constraint,

but in other areas, it performs. In other business news making

headlines, the US central bank has started discussing ways to exit

their massive stimulus policy, to save it from a record low. According

to the April minutes, they are exploring tools they could use to

return the policy to normal by next year. The Fed has spent more than

four daily `` $4 billion on purchases over the last five years

to support the economy. EBay is asking its users to change as

passwords after the company was hit by a cyber attack. The e`commerce

giant said that the database containing personal information was

compromised. It says no credit card information or financial information

was stolen. JD .com has raised billions of dollars. The demand

exceeded expectations with shares being priced at $19 per share at its

debut on the technology heavy index. Shares have risen after the firm

posted a 29% jump in profits, Lenovo have been making efforts to diverse

away from the PC business. They bought motorail from Google for just

under $3 billion. Will those bets pay off? `` Motorola. Looking at

these numbers, it seems that smartphone sales are the name of the

game. It is, they need to play into all of these markets. With mobile

phones and tablets, to have a holistic strategy. How can motorail

help? To help the business going forward `` Motorola. What Motorola

brings to the table for them is a lot of batons that Motorola has in

the telecom space. That can help them. They can work on their

business. Motorola is a strong brand in the US market. Will it help them,

basically, to narrow the gap at the top? With Samsung and Apple? I

cannot say that right away they can narrow that gap, but it can help

them get a bigger player in the market, with Motorola, the brand in

the US. What about the personal computer business? How has Lenovo

been successful in that declining market over the last two years? They

have the supplied chain discipline to drive these high volume and low

margin businesses, it has helped them to grow successfully in this

market space, when a lot of them does have been struggling. Everyone

has spoken about personal computers and tablets, smart phones, but the

enterprise business has basically included storage and server

business. How can Lenovo get through this business? The acquisition of

these new businesses gives Lenovo the capability to expand into the

server business outside of China. They have always had a server

business in China, and have been pretty successful, but it can help

them get access to enterprise customers outside of China. Thank

you for your insights. Just over six months and is

experiencing one of the world 's worst ever typhoons, the Philippines

continues to expand at a fast pace. Growth rates in 2012 and 2013 are

the quickest since the 1950s, how can that be after it was struck by

such a devastating natural disasters so recently? Our correspondent

explains. Six months ago, the Philippines was struck by one of the

worst national disasters to hit land.

The typhoon caused a massive loss of life and had a huge impact on the

economy. It is estimated to cut the economic growth of the entire

country by a huge one percentage point. But, the Philippines is still

forecast to grow at 6.5% which would be the fastest in Asia except for

China. How can that be? This outcome is due to reconstruction, rebuilding

homes, and could add 3.5% GDP, that is from only what the government

spends. The damage from the typhoon will be felt, especially towards the

front of the year. But, with the offset from the government and

driving reconstruction, the government `` the economy as a whole

is expected to recover by the end of the year. Headline GDP figures will

reassure businesses that the economy will be all right. But for those who

have lost their homes and their livelihoods, rebuilding will not be

easy when they do not have private insurance. For them, it does not

matter what the big headline figures are but rather how quickly the

growth can translate into means with which they can reconstruct their

lives. For more stories from the

Philippines, make sure you log on to the BBC website where we have a page

dedicated to its people, and culture. Let's have a look at the

Asian markets. All of the stocks are in positive territory after US

equities bounced back from a previous sell`off. The I'm Mike

Embley, the headlines: A man has been arrested in the United States

after a woman, who says she was kidnapped a decade ago as a

teenager, is found safe and well in California. Boko Haram militants in

Nigeria are accused of killing at least 27 people, it comes after 122

people died in two explosion in the city of Jos on Tuesday. The Home

Secretary Theresa May has