20/06/2014 Asia Business Report

Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.

Rising wealth in Asia. What is driving the growth and how are they

investing their riches? Singapore turns The 1`2`3 Kid technology to

reduce reliance on foreign labour `` 3`D technology. Welcome to this

edition of Asia Business Report. A new global report says Asia has

almost as many millionaires as North America. The number in Asia has

increased by 70% over the last year. Where is Asia's newfound wealth

coming from? I spoke with the writers of the report alongside the

Royal Bank of Canada. 2014 is the year that Asia will have a higher

number of high wealth individuals than North America. When it comes to

the size of the wealth, it should be in 2015. That is staggering. What

are they putting in terms of their investments and where are they

putting their money? We have seen a globalisation of investments last

year, meaning that part of the portfolio they allocate outside the

domestic market has increased massively. It was one quarter of the

size of their portfolio and now it has come up to one third. For Asia,

it goes to and America, Europe, all over the world. That globalisation

is across all the world, though notably in Asia. When it comes to

where they invest their money, outside of Japan in Asia, most of it

is in real estate, in cash as well. And, in equities. Asia has the

highest gaps between rich and poor, so the huge income inequality is

growing. There's more money for the rich mean less for rest of us? What

we see is that the high net worth individuals in Asia are

entrepreneurs, they are younger than elsewhere. They create employment.

They contribute to GDP, giving out in that way. They give the

opportunity for others to get wealthier. One section of the report

is focusing on the social impact. This is tremendously important for

most. Notably, in Asia. They are concerned about giving their time,

money, promoting health, education and child welfare. Taiwan's computer

will start mass production of the Apple smartwatch. That is according

to reporters. Apple is targeting the availability of the product by

October. The contract is a boost for the company, considering its work

for Apple has been based on laptops and iPods, the lines that are

declining. Argentina 's stock market closed lower by 5% after the cabinet

chief said there would be no delegation sent to the US to

negotiate with bondholders over a $1.3 billion debt. Earlier, a US

Supreme Court sided with bondholders, demanding Argentinians

pay the amount in full, following the default on the national debt in

2001, which came to a record $100 billion. More on that and other

stories from around the world on our website. Singapore 's government

plans to cut the number of foreign construction workers employed by up

to 30% by 2020. It is ambitious. Foreign workers play a key role in

the growth of the country for decades. Our correspondent reports

on how 3`D technology is used to help achieve the goal. The pace of

construction is relentless. This year, new projects worth $30 billion

are in the pipeline. This is our mother most complex design country

has seen. A $1 billion sports arena, a challenge to build. When

you look at the trusses, you can see it one intersects differently. This

is where 3`D modelling helps. This is what 3`D modelling looks like,

allowing the team to inspect every angle of the design, even before the

foundations were laid. Before the foundations were laid. You can see

the whole picture in 3`D, with better design, because you have the

built model in 3`D already. This was created by one of the many 3G tools

now on the market. . It makes a significant difference, because you

can do it on time and on budget. 3`D helped to cut costs and reduce the

amount of steel needed by one third. 4000 people were employed, 80% were

foreign workers. The government has been so impressed with what

modelling has achieved, it is offering financial assistance and

subsidies to developers who use it. The goal is to make Singapore more

competitive and efficient, so it can reduce the number of foreign

construction workers it uses. With good technology and processes, they

not only cut down the foreign workers, they can build up

competency and with that they can become more competitive. That might

not be good news for the legions of foreign workers who make a living

here. The government is determined to make 3`D technology a pillar of

the country's expanding building industry.

The World Cup football is on, though for many fans around Asia, watching

on TV is too expensive. Many scattered around the system and

watch pirated streams of their matches. There were more than 18,000

illegal broadcast games over the internet during the 2010 World Cup.

The problem is just as serious now. The CEO of a company specialises in

piracy control and he has spoken to our correspondent. Streaming are

challenging. For the Germany and Portugal game, we detected 110

streaming sites worldwide. Not all published their view figures, though

eight of them did and those totalled 660,000 viewers. If you extrapolate

that to the full 110 sites, it is 9 million viewers on those streaming

sites. It is an incredible number. It detracts from the amount of

legitimate revenue that the rights holder, who has paid FIFA, has come

from. What loss does this amount to? If you take the Singapore package

for the World Cup, currently in this World Cup, 112 Singapore dollars for

the bundle of games. You times that by the number of people, 9 million,

and you have a big loss. They are different costs around the world,

though it gives you a sense of the magnitude that is missed out on. How

do you stop it? Is it impossible to stay a step ahead of these online

hackers ? There is no silver bullet. Though, we can disrupt it to make

the pirating model an economic and make, more importantly, the

experience one that they don't want to watch `` uneconomic. No one wants

to miss the crucial goal because we disrupt the service. It causes

people to drift towards legitimate services. Not everyone will, because

not everyone can afford it, but at the same time, it will move the

problem away and we will be able to get more of the revenue back to

those that legitimately holds the rights. Oscar della Renta gowns are

warned by actresses and celebrities around the world and among other

brands, such as Prada, Oscar is run by the man himself. And, his family.

Our correspondent caught up with the son`in`law of the designer and asked

how hard it is to compete with the big players. There are times when I

look at the advertising budgets and the ability to command real estate

that some of the conglomerates can do, that I am envious of. By and

large, a proposition to people that is different. Our family approach is

something that not only applies to our family, but those who work with

us. Our independent company attracts people and we are happy proceeding

as a family owned business. You can watch more of that interview on BBC

World News at the times you see on your screen. A quick look at the

market. We saw huge gains earlier and interest rates might remain near

zero around the world, driving markets to new highs. They are all

in decline now, succumbing to profit taking. That is it for this edition

of Asia Business Report. I'm Mike Embley. The top stories

this hour: President Obama says the United States will send up to

three`hundred military advisors to Iraq to help combat the threat of

the militant Islamist group, ISIS. Luis