:00:00. > :00:00.decades, he targeted men, women and children, aged from five to 75. Now
:00:00. > :00:15.on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:16. > :00:19.UK discount retailer Primark is investigating allegations its
:00:20. > :00:24.clothes were made using Chinese slave labour. And defeating
:00:25. > :00:28.deflation. Japan's Prime Minister has an
:00:29. > :00:35.ambitious plan to revive the economy, but will it work?
:00:36. > :00:42.Welcome to this edition of Asia Business Report. Shoppers are rarely
:00:43. > :00:46.forced to think too hard about where their clothes are coming from.
:00:47. > :00:50.That's not the case for one shopper in Northern Ireland, who discovered
:00:51. > :00:56.what she described as a cry for help from a Chinese prison worker in a
:00:57. > :01:00.pair of pants she bought at Primark. This note came with a prison
:01:01. > :01:05.identity card and claimed inmates were forced to work 15 hours a day
:01:06. > :01:10.making clothes and were given food that was unfit for pigs or dogs. I
:01:11. > :01:15.spoke earlier to our Shanghai correspondent and asked if there had
:01:16. > :01:20.been any reaction to this in China. China has abolished the education
:01:21. > :01:25.through labour camps. They closed at the end of last year. They were the
:01:26. > :01:33.camps in which people were held, often for up to four years, without
:01:34. > :01:38.any proper legal trial. You could be sent there on the decision of the
:01:39. > :01:44.local police bureau. They have closed and there have been scandals
:01:45. > :01:49.in the past about products from those types of detention camps,
:01:50. > :01:54.making it into the international supply chain. What it looks like we
:01:55. > :02:01.are talking about here is a proper prison, if you like. In China it's
:02:02. > :02:05.not uncommon for these prisons to producing goods, to put the inmates
:02:06. > :02:10.to work, earning money for the prison and for themselves. But of
:02:11. > :02:14.course international companies will be working hard and Primark says it
:02:15. > :02:18.does exactly that to make sure that goods from these kinds of places
:02:19. > :02:22.don't enter its stores. The difficulty is often third`party
:02:23. > :02:29.suppliers. Those contractors that then send the work elsewhere. That
:02:30. > :02:34.might be what happened. But Primark says it is investigating. If it
:02:35. > :02:39.turns out this note is genuine, it will be deeply concerning. But on
:02:40. > :02:42.the part of Chinese authorities, are they trying to ensure that this
:02:43. > :02:47.doesn't happen again? That these clothes don't find themselves on the
:02:48. > :02:52.shelves of other countries? It's difficult to know whether there is a
:02:53. > :02:58.national policy about making sure what's made in the prisons in China
:02:59. > :03:02.don't end up overseas. If nothing else, you could argue it's
:03:03. > :03:07.embarrassing. But it is probably really down to the international
:03:08. > :03:10.companies themselves to make sure that their supply chains are free of
:03:11. > :03:15.this kind of thing. It's not the first time it has happened. Previous
:03:16. > :03:20.scandals have been related to these we education through labour camps, a
:03:21. > :03:24.slightly different category of camp. That in 2012, a box of Christmas
:03:25. > :03:28.decorations turned up in an American store with a handwritten note, a
:03:29. > :03:36.plea for help, asking the purchaser of the item to forward concerns to
:03:37. > :03:38.the world human rights organisation. International media eventually
:03:39. > :03:42.tracked down the author of that note. He said he had taken great
:03:43. > :03:49.trouble to avoid the attention of the guards writing ``, writing 20
:03:50. > :03:53.notes and putting them in boxes. It looks like the Japanese Prime
:03:54. > :03:59.Minister is making headway in his fight against inflation. Consumer
:04:00. > :04:03.prices rose 3.4% in May, following an increase in the sales tax
:04:04. > :04:07.nationwide. That's the fastest paced in more than three decades. But
:04:08. > :04:12.household spending fell by 8%, more than expected. Earlier I asked a
:04:13. > :04:16.market strategist for his take on those figures. These figures were in
:04:17. > :04:21.line with estimates. What you might draw out of them is if you take away
:04:22. > :04:24.the consumption tax, if it wasn't happening, he would make the
:04:25. > :04:30.conclusion that it's actually slowing down inflation at 1.4% from
:04:31. > :04:35.last month, 1.5%. The other part of the information, household
:04:36. > :04:40.spending, is still impacted quite severely by this tax. It dropped 8%
:04:41. > :04:46.year`on`year. That's another part. Maybe this month isn't the data we
:04:47. > :04:52.are looking for and they have had to slow down their outlook. It is a
:04:53. > :04:55.good thing to see that they are moving forward but a lot of people
:04:56. > :04:58.will question, in the market site anyway, whether or not they are
:04:59. > :05:05.doing enough. And are they trying to do their best to do that? It's a
:05:06. > :05:08.good step in the right direction. The issue now is whether or not the
:05:09. > :05:15.market will let them, over the two years, this could take up to five
:05:16. > :05:19.years, to actually reach that goal. What you are saying is the sales tax
:05:20. > :05:25.is artificially boosting but it is causing a little bit of a... It's an
:05:26. > :05:29.aberration, really. But in terms of what Shinzo Abe is doing, he spoke
:05:30. > :05:34.about the reforms he announced earlier this week, has there been
:05:35. > :05:39.evidence that what he has been doing has worked? Of course this comes
:05:40. > :05:44.after his first and second errors, fiscal stimulus, monetary policy, et
:05:45. > :05:50.cetera. Policy reforms, no matter what country, take a very long time
:05:51. > :05:54.to filter through. In a country like Japan it takes even longer a game.
:05:55. > :06:00.Look, the jury is still out. `` again. There has been bought
:06:01. > :06:06.swelling of euphoria, that things are getting better in Japan. You can
:06:07. > :06:11.see that in a market, the Nikkei had a 52% appreciation last year. There
:06:12. > :06:15.is a suggestion that he is doing the right thing. The bank of Japan is
:06:16. > :06:19.delayed in the economy. The core question is, does that generate
:06:20. > :06:23.inflation? The jury is out. If you look at what's happening in the Fed
:06:24. > :06:31.in the US, they are also struggling to make inflation.
:06:32. > :06:35.In other business news, shares of Nikkei jumped about 3% in late US
:06:36. > :06:40.trade after better than expected profits. `` shares in Nike. Net
:06:41. > :06:45.incomes rose to about $700 million in the three months from May, eating
:06:46. > :06:51.estimates. This was led by strong sales in North America and Europe.
:06:52. > :06:58.`` beating estimates. Shares of camera maker Oprah surged by more
:06:59. > :07:04.than 30% in its first day of trade. `` company GoPro. It uses its
:07:05. > :07:09.devices to film themselves doing activities like skydiving. Investors
:07:10. > :07:11.approved. GoPro raised more than $400 million from its over
:07:12. > :07:17.prescribed share sale. After speculation, Alibaba has confirmed
:07:18. > :07:21.that it will list on the New York Stock Exchange.
:07:22. > :07:26.It deals Broe `` blow to the NASDAQ, which has usually been favoured by
:07:27. > :07:32.tech firms. Alibaba's share sale is said to be the largest public
:07:33. > :07:35.offering by a tech company. More than $15 billion worth of loans tied
:07:36. > :07:43.to an illegal old transaction has been uncovered by China's national
:07:44. > :07:50.audit of all is to `` tied to illegal gold transactions. The
:07:51. > :07:55.discovery raises concerns over how it deals are financed in China using
:07:56. > :08:01.metals or other commodities. In the next decade, India's billionaire
:08:02. > :08:05.count is expected to double. Many of the country's superrich are
:08:06. > :08:11.expected to be from Mumbai. Well, as part of a new series on new
:08:12. > :08:18.billionaires, we met a few of the city's entrepreneurs to find out
:08:19. > :08:25.their ambitions. Young India is in the fast lane.
:08:26. > :08:32.This man is 27. Ever since he graduated five years ago, he started
:08:33. > :08:36.one company each year. Among his ventures is this Harley`Davidson
:08:37. > :08:43.franchise. The only one in more buyer. He has had the financial
:08:44. > :08:47.support of his family. But he is aiming to make his own mark. He is
:08:48. > :08:53.in a hurry to achieve his goals but is also realistic that sometimes not
:08:54. > :08:58.all goes to plan. I want to be the youngest billionaire in India. The
:08:59. > :09:04.other one was 31. That's why I say 30. But I think that's going to be
:09:05. > :09:11.possible. But you never know. India has a large young population.
:09:12. > :09:15.Youngsters in more by our first exposed to new technology and new
:09:16. > :09:25.ideas. It's also a city well known for entrepreneurial spirit, that's a
:09:26. > :09:30.culture experienced early on. This teenager started his first company
:09:31. > :09:34.when he was 16, providing software solutions to local businessmen. At
:09:35. > :09:39.19, he is still to graduate but has already started six ventures. If we
:09:40. > :09:47.found a great idea right now, it has amazing potential. India might grow
:09:48. > :09:52.faster than anyone has ever seen anywhere. This confidence to take on
:09:53. > :09:57.rapid rise over the past decade. rapid rise over the past decade.
:09:58. > :10:03.Even though growth has slowed over the past couple of years, these
:10:04. > :10:08.sorts of people believe that India still has miles to go and they want
:10:09. > :10:09.to make sure that they are riding along as it tries to make its way
:10:10. > :10:19.towards economic success. You can find out a lot more about
:10:20. > :10:27.the rise of the super rich on our online special report. That is at
:10:28. > :10:30.the BBC website. That's it for this edition of Asia
:10:31. > :10:37.Business Report. Thanks for watching.
:10:38. > :10:43.This is BBC News. The headlines: A Sudanese woman, sentenced to death
:10:44. > :10:44.for renouncing Islam, has been freed for the second