23/06/2014 Asia Business Report

`` police investigating the murder of a student in Colchester our

calling for witnesses. The race to be Indonesia's next president heats

up. Will the strongest economic candidate win the vote? India is

facing severe power shortages and blackouts are affecting many of its

factories. Hello and welcome to Asia Business Report. Election day in

Indonesia is drawing closer and polls suggest that a largely

one`sided race has turned into a genuine competition. Indonesians had

another opportunity to CD main presidential candidates in action

last night as the men debated the major issues facing their country.

Earlier I asked an economist what each candidate would do for

Indonesia's economy. The candidates are quite similar if you look at

their policies. The governor has proved his worth in politics before

but he has said that he will cut subsidies if he comes to power. He

way we read it is that either government that comes to power will

have to have some level of subsidies. We know that Indonesia's

economy route at its slowest pace since 2009 and so both are really

under pressure to perform. What can they do? When they come to power, a

monetary tightening agenda will have to continue. They have to lead the

country with an effort to rebalance the economy. They need to focus on

infrastructure and growth and things like that. The best thing they can

do is to fast`track some of the infrastructure projects and to

foster a level of manufacturing growth which has been lacking to an

extent so far. We know that there has been a little bit of market

uncertainty now because of this increased politician between these

men so how are the markets expected to perform heading into these polls?

We will probably see a bit of a dip but the risk around elections is

quite high. On July nine and 10th when the elections start, we will

probably see some of the restraint to start to come off because the

risk is frankly lower at that time. In the latest group stages of the

World Cup, Portugal and the USA have battled to a draw following a

last`minute goal by the Portuguese side. Many of the viewers travelled

in from abroad and they are providing a huge spending boost to

the host economy. I spoke to the vice president of visa. We have

found that tourists coming 60,000 of them are coming into Brazil for the

World Cup and over a four`day period around the opening of the World

Cup, we found that they increased spending by 73% of which is $20

million. That is an extraordinary amount. Where is this spending

come? `` coming from? It is the countries would expect. The USA

coming France, the UK and Mexico. If you look at the Asia`Pacific

numbers, the Australian tourists are dropping massive amounts. We know

that they have a team in the World Cup but does it all comes down to

the bigger increase from countries who have 18 represented? `` a team.

Soccer is a world sport and everyone is excited about it and interested

in it. Australia is seeing a big jump in Asia but also New Zealand

with a 90% jump. Singapore has had a 70% jump in tourist spending in

Brazil. It is a universal thing and the Asians have caught the fever. If

we take a look at this spending, obviously it is a big boost to

Brazil's economy but it is eventually offset by the cost of

hosting the event so what is the determining factor in a country

hosting an event like this? There are many different reasons why a

country made choose to host a sporting event like this or the

Olympics and they do tend to be expensive but what I can tell you is

that it relates to the benefits of tourists coming in. 600,000 tourists

are expected in Brazil and $27 million has been spent over four

days which certainly helps the local economy. We are seeing spending in

hotels, of course and hotels and other merchants so it does help the

local economy. In other business news, shares of Australia's Ten

Network has jumped over speculation of a takeover bid from a US private

equity firm which is considering a bid for the struggling network.

General Electric has taken the assets of Alstom after it was agreed

that 20% of its stake would be sold to the French government and that

was a key condition for the GE deal to go through. They will be paying

OEMs of dollars for their assets making it one of their biggest

acquisitions. A Chinese company has pulled out of Paramount's upcoming

movie Transformers four over a Ontrack dispute and has demanded

that its logo and properties be edited out of the film. They have

also asked the Chinese government to suspend screening of the film. Asos

have to Cash suspended new orders after a fire at its warehouse in

northern England which contained millions of packages of clothes.

They hope to be up and running again in a day or two. India is facing

severe power shortages which should become particularly acute after

increased demand in the summer months. Many in Delhi have been

asked to do without power for a few hours a day and many others also

have to tackle a lecture city cuts. Now we go to our correspondent. This

upscale shopping mall like all the others in Delhi has no electricity

supply after ten o'clock at night. The regular power outage is a

planned move by the government to reduce the pressure on the creaking

power grids. So this is what they rely on, a network of diesel powered

generators that keep them running. The head of the operation says they

have to store over 60,000 L of diesel to fuel just the backup. This

is the economy at work and we cannot afford to have a power cut. Power is

fundamental for any economic development. India has frequent

power cuts because demand often outstrips supply causing grades like

this one to fail. 300 million people across the country lack access to

electricity and are not even connected to a grade of any kind

which makes consumption of electricity in India among the

lowest in the world. In spite of the low consumption, India is still

unable to power its industry. Factory owners say it hurts their

global competitiveness. If you look at countries like China and others,

we are competing with them and their electricity is 20 47 and we have to

rely on generators. It does impact our costings and our buyers don't

understand that. Powerplants generated by coal supply much of

India's electricity. There is sufficient to Mystic coal but the

country's rail system cannot transported quickly enough ``

domestic. As India's economy expands, the shortfall will

increase. We have had a slump in industrial growth and the demand is

being moderated but as soon as it picks up, these shortages will prop

up again. Unless urgent action is taken, this could stifle India's

growth and business. For more news and analysis, you can log onto our

website but that is pretty much it for now. Don't forget to follow us

on Twitter. We will have all the latest from the World Cup up next.

The headlines on BBC News. ISIS fighters have taken full control of

Iraq's border with