:00:00. > :00:16.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:17. > :00:21.After the first free election in a quarter of a century, what will a
:00:22. > :00:30.new government mean for Myanmar's economy? And, taking the pulse of
:00:31. > :00:45.rapidly rising grain costs in India. We will look at why farmers are
:00:46. > :00:51.hoarding their crops. Good morning. I'm Rico Hizon in Singapore.
:00:52. > :00:53.Counting is currently under way in Myanmar's first openly contested
:00:54. > :00:59.national election in a quarter of a century. Millions have cast their
:01:00. > :01:03.ballots in the polls, with the turnout thought to have been at 80%.
:01:04. > :01:09.Aung San Suu Kyi's party is expected to win the most seats, but the final
:01:10. > :01:17.results could be days away. What will the election mean for
:01:18. > :01:20.Myanmar's economy and investors? When investors first started
:01:21. > :01:24.seriously looking at the market in 2011, and a lot of them came in
:01:25. > :01:29.across the economic spectrum, and a lot went back. This is a frontier
:01:30. > :01:34.market, not all of the country is powered at any one time. Myanmar
:01:35. > :01:38.wants to be open for business, but the question is whether business
:01:39. > :01:42.will come. We have seen before it has been a bit of a barbel economy.
:01:43. > :01:49.You have oil and gas and hydropower and infrastructure, and then things
:01:50. > :01:53.like smart consumables, shampoo and toothpaste, and not much in between.
:01:54. > :01:57.They need to do as much as they can to absorb that, and attract it in
:01:58. > :02:02.and create jobs. For we get ahead of ourselves and look at the economic
:02:03. > :02:06.development of Myanmar, we have to look at the election results, and
:02:07. > :02:13.everybody is looking at the National League for democracy to win maybe
:02:14. > :02:19.67% of seats. The question is whether the military will respect
:02:20. > :02:23.the results. I think they will, it is an interesting question and not
:02:24. > :02:27.completely solve. The military has been planning this transition for a
:02:28. > :02:30.long time, they know they have two open up and they know they
:02:31. > :02:34.desperately need investment. It wouldn't be beyond comprehension, we
:02:35. > :02:42.don't think they will shut the door now. They have interests in the
:02:43. > :02:47.transition, they want managed democracy but not too much. If Aung
:02:48. > :02:49.San Suu Kyi's party leads the government, do they have the
:02:50. > :02:53.experience to run the economy? That is the challenge. Revolutionaries
:02:54. > :02:59.don't always make the best governments. The capacity in the
:03:00. > :03:03.party is a serious problem, she is the party, there is not a lot of
:03:04. > :03:07.bench behind her. That is one big outstanding question. Great
:03:08. > :03:14.intentions, but not a very deep bench when it comes to policy.
:03:15. > :03:19.China's imports falling for the 12 month in a row in October, raising
:03:20. > :03:27.fresh concerns about the world's second-largest economy. Imports
:03:28. > :03:30.dropping nearly 19% to more than $130 billion. Exports also slipping
:03:31. > :03:36.for a fourth straight month, leaving China with its highest trade surplus
:03:37. > :03:41.on record. It closed at about $62 billion. Passengers of German
:03:42. > :03:44.carrier Lufthansa are due to be hit by more than 900 flight
:03:45. > :03:50.cancellations on Monday as cabin crew staff strike over cost cuts.
:03:51. > :03:54.Lufthansa is locked in a long-running dispute with unions
:03:55. > :03:58.over retirement benefits. Flights were also cancelled on Friday and on
:03:59. > :04:04.Saturday. It has been 14 years since the
:04:05. > :04:08.collapse of Enron, which led to a wave of fraud prosecutions and a
:04:09. > :04:14.tightening of governance. For how long? The chief financial officer of
:04:15. > :04:18.the companies spent more than five years in prison for financial
:04:19. > :04:22.crimes. Speaking in Singapore, he gave a scathing assessment of the
:04:23. > :04:48.current state of fraud detection and enforcement. He says...
:04:49. > :05:01.Is he right? We spoke with the chief executive of the Association of
:05:02. > :05:08.Certified Fraud Examiners. I think our business system is set up to
:05:09. > :05:14.encourage people to push stock options and bonuses based on
:05:15. > :05:18.performance. It is now possible for companies and organisations to do
:05:19. > :05:26.business throughout the world, and the amounts of data they collect our
:05:27. > :05:32.massive, and it poses a great problem for professionals that
:05:33. > :05:38.certified fraud examiners, to monitor that, and to know what to
:05:39. > :05:44.look for. You talk about accountants, this is another area we
:05:45. > :05:49.refer to. This army of people who are designed to try to work around
:05:50. > :05:57.the rules. Very much so. Their fees count on it, nobody wants anybody
:05:58. > :06:00.bringing bad news up. I have seen time and time again where
:06:01. > :06:05.accountants were transferred off a particular assignment as they were
:06:06. > :06:11.agreeing with what the company was doing. They were the negative force
:06:12. > :06:17.and in effect the whistleblower. You paint a very depressing picture, if
:06:18. > :06:21.you like. It seems nothing has changed, no lessons have been
:06:22. > :06:26.learned. People are people, and you're in good economic times people
:06:27. > :06:32.don't question good news, and what you will see is the economy, when
:06:33. > :06:36.they do come into a slow economic time, you will see a lot of these
:06:37. > :06:42.frauds are exposed at that point. We will have a period like we did post-
:06:43. > :06:45.Enron when a lot of people are prosecuted, but eventually the
:06:46. > :06:49.memory of that faith and we will go back to the good times. How
:06:50. > :06:56.widespread do you think it is today in 2015? The average corporation
:06:57. > :07:02.today is losing about 5% of their gross revenue, that is after they
:07:03. > :07:08.pay expenses and taxes... It is very widespread. That is through fraud?
:07:09. > :07:16.5% of gross revenue through fraud? Yes, through fraud. 51% of business
:07:17. > :07:22.failures can be directly attributed to fraudulent behaviour. What about
:07:23. > :07:29.the big end? The Enron kind of fraud? How much do you think that is
:07:30. > :07:35.going on? As long as there is enough money to keep the ball in the air,
:07:36. > :07:43.it will keep going. When that stops, that is when the fraud is exposed.
:07:44. > :07:47.Moving to India, and the cost of basic staple foods is out of reach
:07:48. > :07:55.for some people, and rising prices are major political issue. Recently,
:07:56. > :08:00.the value of lentils and other pulses have been affecting the
:08:01. > :08:03.poorest of them all. We report on efforts to prevent deliberate
:08:04. > :08:16.stockpiling. From Currys to dahl, lentils are
:08:17. > :08:22.important ingredient. But now, the prices of lentils have surged in the
:08:23. > :08:27.last few months -- curries. They are double what they were a year ago.
:08:28. > :08:30.They are a main source of protein for the large vegetarian population
:08:31. > :08:36.of India, and those who can't afford to buy meat. That price rise is
:08:37. > :08:40.being felt in many households. Part of the problem is a shortage of
:08:41. > :08:49.pulses. Many farmers only grow them as a second great crop, with rice
:08:50. > :08:55.and wheat getting priority. And farmers like this one have stopped
:08:56. > :08:58.producing pulses to sell. TRANSLATION: This year there was so
:08:59. > :09:03.little rain we barely produce enough for ourselves so we had nothing to
:09:04. > :09:07.sell and made no money from its. At wholesalers like this one, the
:09:08. > :09:12.government is trying to limit price rises by restricting how much stock
:09:13. > :09:16.can be held, and while here it is an entirely legal operation, over the
:09:17. > :09:20.last few weeks authorities have raided thousands of their houses,
:09:21. > :09:26.where so-called hoarding is going on. People storing pulses in the
:09:27. > :09:30.hope that shortages will push up prices. It is estimated India needs
:09:31. > :09:34.22 million tons of pulses every year, but in the last financial year
:09:35. > :09:44.just over 17 tons were produced. -- 70 million tons. I think rightly
:09:45. > :09:54.crop is something we have to do work on if it is not already being done,
:09:55. > :09:58.and giving cash incentives. The prices of pulses do tend to come
:09:59. > :10:05.down after the Diwali Festival, which opens this week. But with
:10:06. > :10:12.demand expected to keep going, these problems seem here to stay.
:10:13. > :10:18.Most Asian stock markets are weaker with a strong jobs report and
:10:19. > :10:24.prospect of higher interest rates as early as December. The All
:10:25. > :10:29.Ordinaries is in negative territory. There is a weaker yen, meaning
:10:30. > :10:33.exporters are gaining at 1.5% in the Nikkei 225. Thank you for investing
:10:34. > :10:50.your time with us. Our top stories: The counting of
:10:51. > :10:51.votes in Myanmar's first clearly contested elections in