:00:00. > :00:15.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:16. > :00:27.Malaysia and the chairmanship of ASEAN to Laos. Chicken chow mein and
:00:28. > :00:36.beef broccoli. We will look at the appetite for US style Chinese dishes
:00:37. > :00:39.in the motherland. Good morning Asia and hello world. Thank you for
:00:40. > :00:47.joining us for Asia Business Report. A new free trade area called
:00:48. > :00:51.the ASEAN economic community is set to come into force at the start of
:00:52. > :01:01.the new year. It is the next stage in the development of the
:01:02. > :01:05.Association of Asian Nations. It will allow the freedom of movement
:01:06. > :01:07.and the breaking down of trade barriers across the region. The
:01:08. > :01:16.Prime Minister of Malaysia have hailed the benefits. It will ensure
:01:17. > :01:22.a truly great single market and production base with freer movement
:01:23. > :01:28.of goods and services with common standards, far greater connectivity
:01:29. > :01:34.and the removal of the barriers that make our borders a hindrance to
:01:35. > :01:38.growth and investment. Earlier I asked a representative from the
:01:39. > :01:44.Asian Trade Centre when the capital impact on economies and jobs will
:01:45. > :01:49.begin? It is a tough question because in part it has already had a
:01:50. > :01:52.big impact. The big part of the AEC is the dropping of tariffs to zero
:01:53. > :01:57.but that happened a long time ago for nearly all countries and
:01:58. > :02:01.commodities. There is not a whole lot new that will be coming and that
:02:02. > :02:05.makes this question kind of tricky. Some of the benefits are already
:02:06. > :02:10.there and some are still to come. When we get to the first of January
:02:11. > :02:16.when this goes live, the differences will be fairly modest. A lot of
:02:17. > :02:23.politically sensitive industries in ASEAN are still protected, such as
:02:24. > :02:28.agriculture and steel. Yes. Also the movement of people and many services
:02:29. > :02:33.sectors and areas of all different kinds. It is a work in progress,
:02:34. > :02:39.even though they will announce the conclusion of the AEC at the end of
:02:40. > :02:45.this year come and now we are looking towards 2025 which is the
:02:46. > :02:50.next part of this process. In the short-term, many critics are saying
:02:51. > :02:55.there are many impediments to this whole integration process such as
:02:56. > :02:59.transparency, accountability and corruption? Yes, it depends which
:03:00. > :03:02.country you are talking about. The benefits for a country like
:03:03. > :03:08.Singapore are very modest in that Singapore is quite open so it
:03:09. > :03:12.doesn't get many benefits but for the left (trees, is huge benefit for
:03:13. > :03:18.them to get their domestic house in order -- the last open countries.
:03:19. > :03:24.The benefits could be more substantial in that case. In other
:03:25. > :03:29.business news making headlines, China and Japan are stepping up
:03:30. > :03:33.their battle for strategic infrastructure projects in Southeast
:03:34. > :03:36.Asia. China has pledged to add another 10 billion US dollars to
:03:37. > :03:40.fund projects in the region while Japan has vowed to cut by half the
:03:41. > :03:47.time it takes to approve loans and take on more financial risk.
:03:48. > :03:51.Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is reportedly on the brink of striking
:03:52. > :03:57.a 150 billion dollar deal to take over another company. It would
:03:58. > :04:00.create the world's biggest drug maker by sales and if the deal goes
:04:01. > :04:09.ahead come of the chief executive of Pfizer will be the CEO of this
:04:10. > :04:15.combined company. The French company CMA CGM is in talks to make the
:04:16. > :04:20.biggest acquisition in the shipping container industry in years. The
:04:21. > :04:31.talks are expected to run until early next month. Taxi booking
:04:32. > :04:35.services like Buber are growing but there is a similar one in India for
:04:36. > :04:40.users for wanting to fly. Users can order helicopters and jets on their
:04:41. > :04:53.phones and laptops. This business does just that. We met the inventor
:04:54. > :04:58.as part of the 30 Under 30 series. I was 20 or 21 when I started this.
:04:59. > :05:07.Many people told me no private jet user would ever use private
:05:08. > :05:10.technology to book eight -- a plane, so that was the biggest challenge
:05:11. > :05:14.but now people can see the value we are bringing. Would you say your
:05:15. > :05:18.business is still a startup or do you call yourself an established
:05:19. > :05:25.business now? There is a very thin line. When I really felt we moved on
:05:26. > :05:31.from the startup to doing strong business and getting people to take
:05:32. > :05:35.us seriously was when we saw 100% growth in our revenue in one month
:05:36. > :05:49.and actually met our targets happy the target -- targets. The target we
:05:50. > :05:56.had 431 days was met in days. -- for 31 days. It was also when I still
:05:57. > :06:02.had prophets left over after paying all my salaries and overheads. How
:06:03. > :06:06.did you go about setting up a business with private jets and where
:06:07. > :06:10.did you get the money from? I started the business with $100 in my
:06:11. > :06:15.pocket to spend, completely on my own and took it from there. And a
:06:16. > :06:17.few people who had faith in me and gave me business and agreed to be
:06:18. > :06:26.customers initially because they had seen me perform in previous roles
:06:27. > :06:29.which is what they -- what to did hurt me from raising money earlier
:06:30. > :06:37.in the business which perhaps I should have -- deterred. I had to
:06:38. > :06:45.look towards external funding eventually. I never actually went
:06:46. > :06:50.out and looked for funding, it came to us. Business owners use us to fly
:06:51. > :06:54.to five cities in one day which you cannot do on a commercial airline.
:06:55. > :06:59.The second branch of users are largely inbound tourists and
:07:00. > :07:06.domestic tourists who use these planes completely for leisure. If
:07:07. > :07:12.people have money to spend, the economy is rising. The last bunch of
:07:13. > :07:18.people are those using these planes not out of choice but because they
:07:19. > :07:23.need to for things like medical emergencies, religious tourism and
:07:24. > :07:31.so forth. From booking helicopters and private jets to food, chicken
:07:32. > :07:35.chow mein and beef broccoli. In many places, food like this would be a
:07:36. > :07:40.typical Chinese take away meal but in China, most people have never
:07:41. > :07:43.heard of any of these Western favourites which, until now, have
:07:44. > :07:47.not been served in local restaurants. One restaurant is
:07:48. > :07:50.trying to change all of that. It is the first to serve American Chinese
:07:51. > :08:08.food in Shanghai. The owners tell us their story. We are the predominant
:08:09. > :08:12.proprietors of Fortune Cookie restaurant which is an American
:08:13. > :08:24.-Chinese establishment in mainland China. A we were really homesick for
:08:25. > :08:26.American Chinese food. -- we were. His father is a Masterchef in the
:08:27. > :08:30.United States alone several different restaurants and he cooks
:08:31. > :08:37.for us beef and broccoli, pork egg rolls, orange chicken and we thought
:08:38. > :08:55.it was awesome. People told us they would kill for it. I never went to
:08:56. > :08:57.America before so once I heard American-Chinese food, I wanted to
:08:58. > :09:02.figure out what kind of food it was. The Chinese way for making this
:09:03. > :09:11.would be spicy with a lot of pepper but this way it is kind of sweet. If
:09:12. > :09:20.you are an ex pat, 99% of the time you were going to be happy. When you
:09:21. > :09:23.are a younger local person, we have a 70% success rate and when it is
:09:24. > :09:32.the much older generation, from China, unfortunately that success
:09:33. > :09:36.rate is much lower. Western people would love to come here because it
:09:37. > :09:40.is not totally Chinese. Lots of Chinese food, Western people cannot
:09:41. > :09:57.accept. They don't have food like this, so it is very westernized
:09:58. > :10:10.Chinese. It is perfect for them. It is very legitimate. Delicious! My
:10:11. > :10:13.favourite is sweet-and-sour pork. Here is a quick look at the markets
:10:14. > :10:21.and Asian Starks are lackluster in morning trade. -- stocks. Japan is
:10:22. > :10:27.closed today because of a public holiday and that maybe one of the
:10:28. > :10:30.factors contributing to the slow movement. ID for investing your time
:10:31. > :10:37.with us. -- thank you. I'm Kasia Madera with
:10:38. > :10:39.BBC World News. 16 people have been arrested in
:10:40. > :10:42.anti-terror raids across Brussels,