16/12/2015 Asia Business Report


16/12/2015

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

:00:00.:00:14.

As the world awaits word from the US central bank chief, we look at how

:00:15.:00:21.

America's economy would cope with higher rates. And as Google's CEO in

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India heads home, what is the future for the Internet giant in the

:00:28.:00:36.

region? Thank you for joining us. We have been waiting for this for about

:00:37.:00:40.

a year and it is still not certain whether this Wednesday really will

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be the day. Later in the early hours of the morning in a shop, the US

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central bank will announce whether or not it will finally raise the

:00:50.:00:57.

cost of borrowing. Now we go to our correspondent. America's car

:00:58.:01:07.

industry is back. Rock-bottom interest rates helps to breathe life

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back into it. Dealerships like this one in New Jersey are once again

:01:12.:01:16.

buzzing. The economy is coming back in stabilising and that fear factor

:01:17.:01:22.

isn't there. So consequently, they are hitting dealerships and getting

:01:23.:01:28.

what they want. Enjoying life. With the US economy purring rather than

:01:29.:01:33.

roaring back to life, America's central-bank is set to raise

:01:34.:01:36.

interest rates from near zero. Does that make a difference to you? It

:01:37.:01:42.

does but I will make it work. You are always trying to find a good

:01:43.:01:47.

deal and that sort of thing. But will hire rates, which strengthens

:01:48.:01:51.

the US dollar, stamp out America's export revival Weber this company

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makes wallets, notebooks and a host of other products which it sells

:01:57.:02:01.

around the world. In Canada alone, we have lost out over $125,000 in

:02:02.:02:06.

lost revenue this year simply because the department stores we

:02:07.:02:09.

sell to can no longer afford our products at those costs. Those

:02:10.:02:14.

inside here believe the economy is strong enough to survive a rate

:02:15.:02:18.

hike. Good news and not just in America. US consumers the Atlas to

:02:19.:02:25.

the rest of the world. It still doesn't have the brace of credit

:02:26.:02:29.

that it once did and it is not as strong as it once was to carry the

:02:30.:02:32.

rest of the world but the rest of the world is certainly looking

:02:33.:02:39.

forward to selling many of their products to the US and that will

:02:40.:02:46.

continue in 2016. The economy has recovered but it has taken a long

:02:47.:02:51.

time and now here we are, the widely expected interest rate rise will not

:02:52.:02:53.

necessarily be followed by more in the near future but it is a

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validation of America's returned to some kind of prosperity. -- return.

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We're speaking to an economist about this. We have all been preparing for

:03:12.:03:15.

this for a long time and most investors are now expecting this.

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There will be some investors who are not, who will be surprised by it and

:03:21.:03:24.

there are many companies in particular that have got themselves

:03:25.:03:27.

overexposed US dollar debt while they have been taking advantage of

:03:28.:03:31.

the low interest rates. Probably making borrowing 's that are not

:03:32.:03:36.

sustainable and they will struggle as interest rates go up. But we have

:03:37.:03:40.

had a very low interest rates go up. But we have had a very low interest

:03:41.:03:43.

rate environment in Asia, that using has been continuing in countries

:03:44.:03:49.

like China over the past year -- easing. What will this mean for

:03:50.:03:54.

monetary policy? You can see the difference in Asia between those

:03:55.:03:57.

companies that have been getting policy right in the last couple of

:03:58.:04:01.

years and those that have not. Some poor performers like Indonesia have

:04:02.:04:04.

been forced to keep monetary policy to keep monetary policy too tight at

:04:05.:04:08.

a time when while other economies like India that have been putting

:04:09.:04:11.

themselves in a better position, have been able to lower interest

:04:12.:04:15.

rates and not be held up by the US so much. And the inflation rate in

:04:16.:04:19.

the US seems to be rising just with the latest numbers that came out.

:04:20.:04:23.

That is why there seems to be more pressure now on the Fed to raise the

:04:24.:04:28.

cost of borrowing. Could Asia import this rising price from the US? Asia

:04:29.:04:34.

is going to be importing them from the world. They are the key driver

:04:35.:04:38.

behind US inflation now, the change in the oil price. It fell by 40 -50%

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around this time last year and that is when the numbers fell off the

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annual figures. We can except the inflation rates to pick up

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everywhere as that effect disappears but even apart from that, US core

:04:53.:05:00.

inflation is just under 2%. It is certainly not the case for near zero

:05:01.:05:09.

interest rates in a case. In other business news making headlines, the

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list of the world's wealthiest women have long featured the likes of the

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L'Oreal heiress and members of the Walmart family but self-made

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billionaires from China, Hong Kong and India are now leading the charge

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and one of them is this woman that you see on our screens. The Chinese

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poverty developer. She features in the new global wealth report from

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UBS bank which found from the number of females on the list, it has

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increased sevenfold in the past two decades. Profits in product have

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fallen by more than a quarter in the nine months since October. That is a

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drop of close to $234 million. The weaker Chinese currency following

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their detail you a -- their devaluation of their currency this

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year is responsible. The Australian and British arms of the pizza giant

:06:03.:06:11.

Dominoes are working together to purchase a franchise in Germany. It

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will create the largest pizza delivery group in Germany. Shares in

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Australia's Dominoes enterprise has soared under this development. The

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world Internet for him is kicking off in China, home to the most

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Internet users in the world -- forum. The market is tightly managed

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but one of those attending is Jack Ma, found of Alibaba. He gave his

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view on where China's Internet potential lies. TRANSLATION: The

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majority of Chinese are living in rural areas and that is a great

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opportunity. With no Internet, they can hardly appreciate its potential.

:07:01.:07:04.

Chinese farmers all have a phone in their hands, even before they really

:07:05.:07:08.

know what a computer is and the point is, most mobiles can function

:07:09.:07:15.

as computers so if we can reform the economy with the means of production

:07:16.:07:19.

rural areas, would e-commerce technology, we will make a great

:07:20.:07:22.

contribution to our country -- with. Google is targeting India. Its

:07:23.:07:32.

top executives including this man, the company's Indian born chief

:07:33.:07:38.

executive will be in India today. The firm is expected to reveal

:07:39.:07:41.

initiatives for customers in developing nations. Most users in

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India use low-cost smartphones and Google wants to increase the

:07:46.:07:49.

Internet access in this fast expanding market. Our correspondent

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caught up with the Google executive to find out how the firm plans to do

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this. We have to work with our partners to bring high-quality and

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activity. We also think about how to monitor our products so that they

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are much better when there is a lack of connectivity or even when users

:08:10.:08:13.

are off-line. We launched YouTube off-line last year for example and

:08:14.:08:17.

it has been heavily used across India. We launched Google Maps

:08:18.:08:21.

off-line a while back which is working brilliantly. We have a

:08:22.:08:24.

transit app that also works off-line. You launched a low-cost

:08:25.:08:31.

device in India last year but the android one didn't really receive

:08:32.:08:36.

that kind of reaction you expected. Have you been disappointed? We

:08:37.:08:40.

not disappointed. The real reason for us doing that was that we wanted

:08:41.:08:44.

to play a catalytic role in making the system much better, so we

:08:45.:08:51.

started it in India last year and have now expanded to over 120

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countries and it is doing very well in many places but really the goal

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of our success in the Android launches what happens when you walk

:09:01.:09:03.

into a store in Delhi today. You will see many more programmes

:09:04.:09:11.

offering the Android. Also free updates. This was not the case a

:09:12.:09:18.

couple of years ago. Does the India experience really allow you to roll

:09:19.:09:20.

out these products better across the world? In many ways we see India as

:09:21.:09:27.

establishing the way users in Southeast Asia, in Africa

:09:28.:09:34.

America use the Internet. The context is the same. Connectivity is

:09:35.:09:37.

a challenge, price is a challenge, the amount you pay for conductivity

:09:38.:09:45.

is a challenge, so when we launched YouTube off-line here in India

:09:46.:09:48.

first, we were able to bring it to many other countries and we saw very

:09:49.:09:56.

similar results. Before we go, here is a quick

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come out waiting for that decision on the cost of borrowing. The Nikkei

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is nearing the results of Wall Street overnight -- mirroring. The

:10:11.:10:20.

Hang Seng is up. On Wall Street, triple digit gains for the Dow Jones

:10:21.:10:26.

industrial average. Thank you for investing your time with us. Bye-bye

:10:27.:10:30.

for now. Our top story: A BBC team travelling

:10:31.:10:38.

to islands in the South China Sea has witnessed large-scale

:10:39.:10:43.

destruction of a reef by Chinese

:10:44.:10:46.

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