18/08/2014 Asia Business Report

year, by remanding people in custody unnecessarily. They said the over

sentencing was adding to prison overcrowding.

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

As Thailand releases its latest economic record `` report card, we

look at how the bottomline is working under military rule.

Recent data shows India is losing visitor numbers. We find out why.

Welcome to Asia Business Report. In a short while we will hear whether

Thailand's economy has avoided slipping into recession. In the

first three months of this year, which saw political chaos and

thousands protesting, the economy shrank. All eyes are on what

happened in the second quarter up when the military took control of

the country in a coup. I spoke earlier to our South East Asia

correspondent Jonathan head. All the polls that have been taken suggest

that we won't have a second quarter of negative growth. That will be

better country in technical recession. That we will perhaps see

growth of close to 1%. And annual growth just name `` narrowly in

positive territory. These are not by south`east Asia numbers great

numbers but they indicate a positive trend. Remember the second quarter,

for most of it to the military was not yet in control. It only took

over towards the end of the quarter. It is not a test of how the military

is doing but it will give it some encouragement, if it believes the

trend is positive. It's not just growth going up, there's a small

uptake in export growth, although nowhere near the very energetic

rates we saw a bout 1.5 years ago. A small bounce back of consumer

confidence. But that was very low. If the trend follows these polls, it

usually pretty accurate, is encouraging but doesn't solve the

fundamental problems here. It will probably give us annual growth of

somewhere between 1% and 2% at best. Those aren't good numbers. But at

least it's going in the right direction. The generals can say they

can build on this and help to repair the damage done over the past year.

Indeed, as you've touched on, the military coup has been seen to have

stabilised the economic situation somewhat. But how will the economic

outlook continued to look under military rule? I think investors are

grateful for the stability. Consumers will be, to some degree.

There was extreme uncertainty during the many `` many months of political

turmoil. In the long`term, it's hard to know what is the most military

government with singing this country, or most parts of Asia, for

the past 30 years, how they will drive a very complex economy. The

generals have revived the enormous infrastructure spending plans of the

previous government. In many ways that almost augmented them. We will

see a huge amount of government spending. Jonathan Head in Bangkok.

In other news from around the region, one of the world's biggest

property developers in Shanghai has reported a boost in its first half

net profits. Results, despite a dent in the housing market in China and

government efforts to cool the sector. The firm's net profit rose

56% from the six months ending June. `` rose 6%. Many bolts were in

vehicles have been recalled on the mainland due to a problem with the

steering systems. China's state owned news agency said the recall

could affect more than 80,000 cars made between 2010 and 2012. Aux

wagon has a joint`venture with the Chinese auto group. `` Volkswagen.

They say they will replace the parts free of charge. Staying with

automakers, South Korea's top carmaker and the world's fourth

largest is preparing for its 47,000 unionised workers to strike. They

voted to take action after talks over wages collapsed last week but

it isn't yet clear when they will strike or for how lawn. South

Korea's car producers face rental stock workers by employees but it

doesn't mean they are immune to the damage that can be done. `` for how

long. Earlier I asked about the effect of the strike.

There will be quite a bit of damage, especially considering the

Korean industry and Korean exports are facing headwinds from both the

weakening Japanese yen and a more competitive environment. If the

unions' demand is met or diverted, the profits and product of Hyundai

will be not so competitive in relation to regional peers. If the

unions achieve what they want and get their higher wages, what impact

might this have on Korean manufacturing at large? With its

drive Korean companies to the heart seek lower manufacturing elsewhere?

It's very likely. In fact, there is an ongoing trend of relocation of

auto industry from Korea to China and now, with the US manufacturing

wage becoming more competitive in relation to the Korean wage rates,

it is likely that some of the manufacturing production will be

moved to the US, especially if that's going to be sold within the

US. For a long while India has admitted

it doesn't get as many foreign visitors as it might expect, even in

Asia it lacked behind Taiwan and Indonesia. Despite talk of trying to

change that, recent data suggest tourist numbers are falling,

possibly by as much as 30%. What is going on? In Delhi, our

correspondent tells us more. The fatal gang rape of a young

student here almost two years ago led to a countrywide protest and it

was reported worldwide, adding to an image that India, and especially

Delhi, was unsafe for women. The organisation running India's famous

monuments says since then they have seen a sharp fall in ticket sales to

foreign tourists. Tourism makes up about 7% of the country's GDP, about

the same as the IT sector. It is responsible for about 100 million

jobs. But official data from last year showed the entire country

attracted fewer than 7 million tourists. While cities like London

and Bangkok attract twice as much. But experts say not enough is being

invested in making tourism here attractive. There are clear

infrastructure issues, it is difficult to get to and from places.

It's poor connectivity between places, lack of hotel, quality

hotel, infrastructure is. And getting to India isn't the easiest.

These tourists have chosen India for their holidays. But with competition

increasing from countries across the region, encouraging more to do the

same is getting harder. And with an economy that is growing at its

slowest pace in a decade, India can't afford to lose out on precious

tourism dollars. Imagine knowing what you wanted to

do from about the age of eight. Well, Matt Grainger did. He started

working as a young surfing instructor at 12 before going on to

use `` to study sport at university. Now he runs one of Australia's most

successful surf schools on Sydney's Manly beach. He told the BBC more

about his operations. When we first started we only had about 15

surfboards and it was me and another guy. Now I have about 50 staff in

the summertime, in the peak `` peak period. We teach people from around

the world, local kids, we teach as part of the school curriculum as

well. It's turned into this really good business. Who would have

thought? At the end of the day, for me, surfing is about having fun,

getting stoked. Big wave surfer adrenaline. Let's have fun! We run

four session today at Manly. For group lessons. Then we have private

lessons from when the sun comes up until the sun goes down. In winter

we have about 12 staff. We have all things like trip adviser rating us.

It's a big operation in summer. We have other beaches as well. I'm

lucky because I loved teaching surfing. I pretty much hand`picked

most of my staff and trained them. 'Glee' we do lower ratios for

foreigners. `` trained them up. Our core business is foreigners. As

we've grown, we taken on local school groups which we don't charge

so much because they bring in about 60 kids at once. The seasonal thing

is the problem because we have this massive... Bank or bust. So many

customers through summer and business driving,

onto Alcor staff, keep them in the game. `` our core staff. Rather than

shutting down, we keep going. For the people to come and experience

the buzz of Manly beach, sand, surf, loose guys, Clearwater, we make it

happen. `` blue skies. This is a happen. `` blue skies. This is a

Sounds like a great job. That's it for this edition of Asia Business

Report. Thanks for watching.