:00:19. > :00:23.China's property market has been struggling with massive oversupply
:00:24. > :00:29.is. Can prices recover? Taiwan elects its first female president,
:00:30. > :00:43.can she revitalise the flagging economy? Good morning. Glad you
:00:44. > :00:46.could join us for the Monday edition of the Asia Business Report. We
:00:47. > :00:52.start off with China's property market and it is one of the pillars
:00:53. > :00:58.of the economy. Over the past few years it has struggled with a
:00:59. > :01:00.massive supply glut. We're showing prices across its major cities today
:01:01. > :01:06.and it will indicate whether government support is helping with a
:01:07. > :01:10.recovery in the sector. The Hong Kong and Chinese stock market and
:01:11. > :01:16.now open for trade and they are in negative territory. Let us cross
:01:17. > :01:21.over now to our reporter who is in Hong Kong. Thank you for joining us
:01:22. > :01:29.topping if you take a look at the markets in Hong Kong and China, very
:01:30. > :01:36.jittery and crude prices and out below $29 per barrel. That is right
:01:37. > :01:41.we are expecting more losses in China's market as well as here in
:01:42. > :01:47.Hong Kong. The sentiment has not improved since Friday when the
:01:48. > :01:52.markets ended at their lowest since 2014. Looking at what is happening
:01:53. > :01:55.in Beijing, it is pretty clear that the authorities are trying to
:01:56. > :02:00.stabilise financial markets by trying to inject optimism amongst
:02:01. > :02:05.investors and traders. The central bank in China has set the midpoint
:02:06. > :02:14.slightly stronger than what they have been setting previously. We are
:02:15. > :02:20.also hearing on January 25 that banks will have two keep more money
:02:21. > :02:28.on hand when they are looking at settling the currency -- to. Raising
:02:29. > :02:37.the reserve ratio is one way of reducing the liquidity in offshore
:02:38. > :02:41.market. Of course, in places like Hong Kong there have been concerns
:02:42. > :02:46.that speculators are betting against the currency in places outside
:02:47. > :02:52.China. And that is one way of trying to make it much more expensive to
:02:53. > :03:00.speculative is to do that -- for speculators to do that. We have seen
:03:01. > :03:07.the markets fall at the beginning of the year, of course, all eyes will
:03:08. > :03:12.be on this key economic indicator, GDP which could move markets again
:03:13. > :03:17.tomorrow. Absolutely. All eyes are on that. People are looking at the
:03:18. > :03:24.real estate prices that are coming out this morning to see how they
:03:25. > :03:30.actually economy is doing and to see whether it is slowing to the extent
:03:31. > :03:36.that markets fear that they are. Certainly, the expectation tomorrow
:03:37. > :03:39.is that the GDP will be slightly below 7%, and if that is the case,
:03:40. > :03:47.that will be the slowest growth in 25 years and we will have to see how
:03:48. > :03:51.markets react to that news. Thank you so much for updating us on the
:03:52. > :03:58.latest market action in Hong Kong and China. We now have the latest
:03:59. > :04:07.data on China property prices. It indicates a gain of 1.6% against .9%
:04:08. > :04:14.in the month of November. Moving out to development across the straits.
:04:15. > :04:22.Taiwan has elected its first female president. This weekend, the pro-
:04:23. > :04:27.Democratic leader won a crucial vote for the party's future. She was a
:04:28. > :04:32.law professor who now faces Motlop challenges going forward, whether
:04:33. > :04:41.the island should get closer to China, its main trading partner.
:04:42. > :04:47.Previously I spoke to an expert and asked about the risks. The
:04:48. > :04:52.information on the economy is not good. They fell all the way through
:04:53. > :04:58.2015. The criticism throughout the campaign is that some of her
:04:59. > :05:00.policies lacked sophistication. Throughout the campaign she stressed
:05:01. > :05:07.it is about the economy and not about China policy. But come in the
:05:08. > :05:12.previous year, she will have two talk about other policies like the
:05:13. > :05:22.environment and energy. Shula doing courage multinational companies to
:05:23. > :05:25.invest more here in Taiwan. The governance to rout 2008, and her
:05:26. > :05:32.record of economic development was not that great. There are risks of
:05:33. > :05:36.business. There are challenges going forward for the first female
:05:37. > :05:42.president of Taiwan, but how important is it that China factors
:05:43. > :05:46.into it being the main trading partner for Taiwan? For the business
:05:47. > :05:50.perspective, you would say you cannot avoid doing business with one
:05:51. > :05:54.of the world's largest economies which is right next door. They will
:05:55. > :06:00.have a very tough walk trying to distinguish between economic and
:06:01. > :06:04.identity issues. Obviously, they have entered into a number of trade
:06:05. > :06:08.facilitation is over the last few years and that will be hard to roll
:06:09. > :06:12.that back. The question becomes, how much more will she be willing to do
:06:13. > :06:17.and how much will China be willing to do in regard to trade
:06:18. > :06:22.liberalisation? And that gets into the trade disputes and where the
:06:23. > :06:26.governments will get into dispute. If you were to decide on her first
:06:27. > :06:30.100 days in office, what should be her top three priorities rushing
:06:31. > :06:36.yellow one of the biggest concerns is energy policy and her party has
:06:37. > :06:39.been consistently against nuclear power, but it does provide a
:06:40. > :06:47.significant amount of power for Taiwan. That is a long-term concern
:06:48. > :06:52.needs to be addressed right away. The News of the victory was greeted
:06:53. > :06:59.by mostly silence on the mainland, but it also was because China had a
:07:00. > :07:01.big event of its own. The Chinese president launched a new
:07:02. > :07:13.international development bank on Saturday. The Asia Infrastructure
:07:14. > :07:20.Bank. It will be used to meet the enormous budget needs. A company is
:07:21. > :07:29.struggling to stay afloat after prices fell after an decade lows. It
:07:30. > :07:35.last week cut more than 200 jobs. The world economic Forum takes off
:07:36. > :07:38.later this week with the theme of mastering the fourth Industrial
:07:39. > :07:42.Revolution. Part of that is through smart factories where more machines
:07:43. > :07:47.and computers are use to get things done. How will that work in India
:07:48. > :07:56.which has millions of labour is in need of jobs. Replacing dozens of
:07:57. > :08:02.workers with machines was a big step for this packaging company in
:08:03. > :08:10.Bangalore. The huge investment paid off and production went up by 25%.
:08:11. > :08:12.Unlike this one, many of India's factories remain labour intensive
:08:13. > :08:17.and outdated. The government wants to change that push up the
:08:18. > :08:25.contribution manufacturing makes to the economy. But if these factories
:08:26. > :08:31.of the future use more technology and fewer staff, that poses an issue
:08:32. > :08:35.here in India which has a million people coming to the job market
:08:36. > :08:41.every month. Manufacturing has traditionally offered many of those
:08:42. > :08:46.jobs, but here at United States firm, GE, India needs to face up to
:08:47. > :08:50.the bigger picture. It is important that we remain productive, efficient
:08:51. > :08:57.and we remain the most competitive in a global perspective. And I would
:08:58. > :09:00.say that we would stomach should not overburdened that need to be
:09:01. > :09:08.competitive by simply ensuring that we are creating more jobs. But
:09:09. > :09:11.nearly 200,000 engineers, with companies like this, have expertise
:09:12. > :09:15.in information technology and it sees what is being dubbed as the
:09:16. > :09:23.fourth Industrial Revolution as an opportunity the new business. I feel
:09:24. > :09:25.that to date's I, the companies are not looking at India as their base.
:09:26. > :09:32.They are looking at the global market. For them to go and meet the
:09:33. > :09:38.global challenges that other companies are facing they will have
:09:39. > :09:44.to do. And they are embracing the industrial Internet phenomena. Being
:09:45. > :09:49.less labour-intensive means that manufacturing cannot create the
:09:50. > :09:52.manual jobs that India needs. But the success of smart factories like
:09:53. > :09:57.these will rely on more skilled workers. Something that India
:09:58. > :10:09.urgently needs to invest in if it wants to cash in on the next
:10:10. > :10:16.industrial revolution. It is a weekday for Asian stock markets for
:10:17. > :10:22.the start of the new trading week after the stock fell sharply due to
:10:23. > :10:26.another slide in crude oil. We have a hard thing index down by one point
:10:27. > :10:40.to and Australia giving back 1%. Thank you for investing your time
:10:41. > :10:47.with a. Goodbye for now -- us. You are watching BBC News. Out of
:10:48. > :10:49.stories view this hour. President Obama says the new Deal is a victory