:00:00. > :00:00.to campaign for or against Britain's mentorship of the EU for a
:00:00. > :00:12.referendum. And now the Asia Business Report.
:00:13. > :00:20.The battle could to control electronics behind the wheel. We
:00:21. > :00:25.will have the latest from the world's biggest technology show in
:00:26. > :00:27.Las Vegas. And businesses showing how staff with disabilities are
:00:28. > :00:40.adding value to their bottom line. Hello. Glad you could join us for
:00:41. > :00:45.this Wednesday edition of Asia Business Report. To kick off, we
:00:46. > :00:51.will have the electronics insurers show in Las Vegas. Already, a series
:00:52. > :00:55.of announcements have been made in advance. Some of the big trends this
:00:56. > :01:03.year include technologies looking to disrupt traditional car companies.
:01:04. > :01:08.It is backed by Chinese investors to rival an electric car maker, and
:01:09. > :01:29.unveiled its first concept vehicle. Let's take a look.
:01:30. > :01:48.When we start with a blank sheet of paper, what do you do? Shall we
:01:49. > :01:50.reproduce what we've done before? Or should we actually try to create our
:01:51. > :02:08.own heritage? Meanwhile, Toyota has revealed that
:02:09. > :02:16.it has hired a new technical team of scientists and engineers who will do
:02:17. > :02:22.research into robotics. It comes weeks after they announced plans to
:02:23. > :02:27.set up the Toyota Research Institute to develop technologies like self
:02:28. > :02:31.driving cars. Earlier I asked an analyst why cars are such a big
:02:32. > :02:37.trend at this year's consumer Electronics show. The main reason is
:02:38. > :02:44.computers have become so ubiquitous and powerful that they have become
:02:45. > :02:48.more and more part of cars. In the end people want mobility, they want
:02:49. > :02:53.to move, but cars are also a passion and with a deep learning
:02:54. > :02:56.intelligence moving into cars now, there's a whole new world
:02:57. > :03:01.developing. Then we have the Battle of the big Internet giants like
:03:02. > :03:06.Google and Amazon who battle for the intelligence in the car. With Toyota
:03:07. > :03:11.getting into the picture, are we likely to CLA Tronic cars being mass
:03:12. > :03:19.produced in the near 3 to 5 years? Most projections go for self driving
:03:20. > :03:27.cars to go commercial around 2020, which is around 4 or 5 years down
:03:28. > :03:30.the road. But intelligence will be entered step-by-step gradually. We
:03:31. > :03:36.will start with automatic parking and other intelligence and other
:03:37. > :03:43.features. 1 company I'm very interested in is a company called
:03:44. > :03:49.Preferred Networks, a Japanese company, they did a demonstration on
:03:50. > :03:57.cars learning how to avoid crashing into each other. Toyota is not a
:03:58. > :04:02.traditional technology company but it is at the consumer Electronics
:04:03. > :04:06.show. Why aren't we seeing as much Japanese technology giants in this
:04:07. > :04:11.show in Vegas this year? We have some, Sony will be big here, Toyota
:04:12. > :04:18.have entered more or less for the 1st time here in Vegas. 1 issue is
:04:19. > :04:22.that giants like Sharp and Toshiba have given up on TVs and they have
:04:23. > :04:27.been losing money for years and years and years on TVs, they have
:04:28. > :04:32.given up now, so they went be with their TVs any more in Las Vegas now.
:04:33. > :04:39.You can get all the latest from the show on our website.
:04:40. > :04:42.In other business news making headlines, Internet giant Yahoo is
:04:43. > :04:48.shutting down its Screen after the website failed to
:04:49. > :04:55.attract viewers. The closure is part of the company's efforts to cut
:04:56. > :04:58.costs as Chief Executive Maris mayor tries to make it possible. They will
:04:59. > :05:05.now spread their BDO contact with throughout the website. Foreign
:05:06. > :05:10.investments in China reaching record levels of $126 billion in 2015
:05:11. > :05:14.according to the state news agency. Investment from major countries kept
:05:15. > :05:19.stable in 2015 and China's free trade zones are said to have been
:05:20. > :05:25.major factors in the foreign capital inflow. You either own one or rent
:05:26. > :05:30.one, then the outlook for property in 2016 has many homeowners worried
:05:31. > :05:35.-- if you either. Homeowners in the major cities in the region are
:05:36. > :05:39.heading south. In Singapore prices of residential homes are
:05:40. > :05:44.experiencing their longest losing streak in 17 years, falling now for
:05:45. > :05:48.nine consecutive quarters. In Sydney, it's no better. Home prices
:05:49. > :05:51.recording their worst quarter in four years. Projections for other
:05:52. > :05:57.major cities are bleak with interest rates likely to push up mortgages in
:05:58. > :06:03.Hong Kong. Christopher Marriot, the Chief Executive of Savile, said 2015
:06:04. > :06:09.was an interesting year for prime real estate especially. Tokyo has
:06:10. > :06:13.shown fairly stable returns. Shanghai has actually come back this
:06:14. > :06:17.quarter after probably a two-year downturn. As you said, Hong Kong and
:06:18. > :06:25.Sydney have given up some of the games they had this year. But put in
:06:26. > :06:28.respectable performances of 10% and 20% respectively, and Singapore
:06:29. > :06:33.still struggling to shake off the shackles of the government cooling
:06:34. > :06:37.measures. The property market right now, in which segment can investors
:06:38. > :06:41.make money? Where do they put their smart money? There's always been an
:06:42. > :06:46.attraction to the high end of the market. The rationale for buying is
:06:47. > :06:51.not always driven by pure investment. There's a lot of hype
:06:52. > :06:55.and war high net worth individuals looking at these markets as a safe
:06:56. > :07:02.haven for their capital. And what about the Chinese market? The
:07:03. > :07:07.Chinese market was one of the reasons we have seen a decline in
:07:08. > :07:12.economic growth on the mainland. What is the outlook especially for
:07:13. > :07:15.places like shanghaied? Shanghaied put in a good performance this
:07:16. > :07:21.quarter. With the quantitive easing they have had and the improvement in
:07:22. > :07:26.liquidity, we have seen the high net worth individuals in Shanghai going
:07:27. > :07:29.back into the market. As you said, the performance of the Shanghai
:07:30. > :07:36.market has actually improved this quarter. Now you have an Asian
:07:37. > :07:40.economic community, and where are the bright spots in south-east Asia
:07:41. > :07:46.in terms of upside in the real estate market? Manila has had a
:07:47. > :07:51.rebound on the back of the MNCs looking at the back office
:07:52. > :07:55.functions. There's a push on the rent land prices there. My outlier
:07:56. > :07:59.bet would be Vietnam, where we have seen a very large young population
:08:00. > :08:05.moving back into the housing market as interest rates come down from 20%
:08:06. > :08:11.to below 10%. Christopher Marriot from the property company Savile is.
:08:12. > :08:15.Having a disability has long been a barrier to getting a good education
:08:16. > :08:20.and a decent job. Without access to the right schools or vocational
:08:21. > :08:25.training, most disabled people live in desperate property. However,
:08:26. > :08:30.major companies in both the private and public sector are beginning to
:08:31. > :08:37.change attitudes -- poverty. We now report from Delhi in our new
:08:38. > :08:41.section, Business of Giving. Every day is a busy day for a
:08:42. > :08:45.hotel's concierge, moving bags around and making sure they reach
:08:46. > :08:50.the right rooms is something Rabbie does well. The 23-year-old is
:08:51. > :08:57.hearing and speech impaired, something that doesn't stop him
:08:58. > :09:02.doing his job. Ravi is one of the 400 employees with disabilities at
:09:03. > :09:06.Lemon Trees hotels. Now the company has an ambitious plan of a new
:09:07. > :09:11.property completely run by people with disabilities. The group
:09:12. > :09:15.chairman says while it will involve additional costs, he think it will
:09:16. > :09:24.be a good business model in the long run. It is no grand overarching
:09:25. > :09:28.strategy, but if it's possible then we will do it again. It is
:09:29. > :09:32.restructuring the hotel and making it more accessible not only for the
:09:33. > :09:38.front end, which is for guests, but for staff. We have started doing it
:09:39. > :09:42.step-by-step. India has 21 million people living with disabilities, of
:09:43. > :09:46.which 1.2 million are unable to hear or speak or both, but there are very
:09:47. > :09:51.few specialised schools for them, leaving most of them unemployable.
:09:52. > :09:56.Corporate India is taking the lead in training and employing many of
:09:57. > :10:01.them, recognising hiring people with disabilities is good for the bottom
:10:02. > :10:05.line. In the tangible economic benefits, many see a business case
:10:06. > :10:14.for including people with disabilities in the workforce.
:10:15. > :10:16.Asia-Pacific stock markets are lacklustre two week after US
:10:17. > :10:22.equities closed mixed overnight and there is still this worry about
:10:23. > :10:27.lower Chinese economic growth. -- lacklustre two week. Still thank,
:10:28. > :10:32.Japan, Hong Kong and Australia in negative territory. Thank you for
:10:33. > :10:40.spending your time with us. I'm Rico Hizon. Goodbye for now.
:10:41. > :10:46.You're watching BBC News. The top stories this hour: President Obama
:10:47. > :10:52.has set out his fans for tightening gun control, saying the US did not
:10:53. > :10:53.have to accept carnage as the price of freedom --