22/01/2016 Asia Business Report

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

Oil dominates discussions as China's president visits the Middle

East. We ask what he hopes to achieve. How businesses are trying

to revamp the way tea is consumed in India. Welcome to Asia Business

Report. China's president Xi Jinping is on a five-day trip to the Middle

East and relations with his country's oil suppliers are high on

the agenda. He is already visited Saudi Arabia which is China's

biggest oil supplier and she is also headed to Iran which is the fifth

largest exporter of oil to China. Let's take a look at where oil

prices are right now, because they have been trading over $29 a barrel

and this has reversed some of the recent lows we have seen over the

last few weeks. Earlier I asked an oil analyst what he stands to gain?

If you look at these two economies, Saudi Arabia and Iran as producers,

a supply more than 25% of China's oil so although China has

traditionally had a strategy to diversify its oil supplies within

the Middle East, there are two of the top suppliers. At the same time,

it is a perfect opportunity not to antagonize Saudi Arabia at a time

when around is returning to the global scene. -- Iran. This would be

a great opportunity for Saudi Arabia to create an outlet, and four I ran

in China which is their biggest market and that which is expected to

grow the most. You mentioned that relationship and it is very tenuous,

it is rife with tension, between the Saudis and the Iranians. What are

the odds that OPEC cuts production this year to try to boost prices

which are at historic close? The first thing we need to see is the

declining US production because that is the ultimate objective of the

Saudi strategy in OPEC. To produce that will. So as soon as we see a

significant drop, and by that, I mean half a million barrels per day

in total of US production, then Saudi can come back and say that the

strategy had worked. They kicked out whatever they could in the market in

terms of non- OPEC production and at the same time, by the middle of this

year, according to the international energy agency, we should see an

output of 6000 barrels per day from Iran. They will be much more

comfortable in their total output and at that point in the second half

of this year, towards the end of this year, there could be talks

within OPEC, independent of the tensions that happen bilaterally

between Saudi Arabia and Iran that could allow the organisation to

redesign individual quotas and cut. This week China revealed its economy

had hit the slowest pace of growth for a quarter of a century. After

years of rapid economic development, how can the government

achieve more sustainable expansion? It is a hot topic at the World

Economic Forum in Davos where our correspondent spoke to the national

treasury secretary. I think they have tough challenges to meet and

policies that would make a difference. The question is whether

they stick to them and that is something that takes political

leadership. They know the policies they need to have in place. Do you

think they're trying to gain an unfair vantage with their currency

devaluation? I think they are in a very challenging position because

after a long period of being fixed to the dollar, we're seeing a

strengthening dollar make them less competitive in other countries than

they would have been otherwise. Crime to maintain parity to the

dollar and other currencies is challenging -- trying. Doing it in a

way that is not communicated clearly is confusing. People are scared

because of the way they have done it, not because they're try to

manage through different set of policy choices that the we have to

communicate our policies clearly -- that we have. We have to communicate

our policies clearly and get our policies right. European and US

stocks have rallied after the European Central Bank chief

suggested the ECB is willing to offer more stimulus at its next

meeting in March. He cited a significant change in economic

conditions with oil prices plunging and pushing inflation lower. GM has

opened its first Cadillac factory in China to target the country's

growing but crowded luxury car market. The joint venture with

Shanghai Automotive Industries will be able to produce 160,000 vehicles

per year. China is the fastest growing auto market but sales have

slowed in the last year. T is India's most widely consumed

beverage but it is usually drunk at home or bought from small roadside

tea stalls -- tea. Coffee dominates the country's cafes and now some

entrepreneurs are trying to give tea a makeover by reinventing how it is

consumed and sold. Now we go to our correspondent. A bubbling pot of

tea. That is what most Indians wake up to each morning but the humble

tea may now be making a journey towards rediscovery. This tea room

in Mumbai Indians one of many restaurants that have come about

recently which centred around tea. In a country where this is virtually

the national drink, it has taken a long time for tea houses to come

about. People do not realise the commercial value of tea because of

the massive availability. Be produced close to 118 million kilos

of tea. People call it a poor man's drink, everyone has it to start

their day, and nobody marketed it like coffee was done earlier. When

I'm craving a cup of tea, like many other Indians, this is the kind of

place I would normally come to where it is normally served in these small

glass cups. This has a charm of its own, but if you wanted to sit away

from the heat and the noise, perhaps working on your laptop, you are

virtually forced to have a cup of coffee because so far, you couldn't

get a wide variety of good tea options in a cafe kind of setting.

That is what this man is hoping to change. He's trying to build places

that give you the same environment as a coffee shop but serving tea

instead. Founded three years ago, he has more than a dozen stores in

Delhi and Mumbai and is expanding rapidly, hoping to reach as many as

a thousand outlets in the next three years. What coffee is to the West,

tea is to this country. It is a requirement for a good place to sit

and for the daily cup of tea that you are drinking anyway. For

India's tea entrepreneurs, the challenge will be brewing something

new and different yet with a taste that is familiar. Returning to our

coverage of the World Economic Forum that is taking place in Davos, there

are many successful entrepreneurs attending but how effective are

these business tycoons when attending but how effective are

to giving back? Now we go to our correspondent. One of the

overarching themes of the World Economic Forum here in Davos is how

the countries of the world can best benefit from philanthropy. Here

billionaires and charities can rub shoulders but can they establish

common goals? So, a big effort for the next few years is how we find a

language to talk to each other so we are very clear about who is doing

what, how we measure it and how we really understand not only outcomes

but motives. Cabral's top 27 philanthropic organizations spend

some $15 billion world's. Of that about two thirds

goes towards global there is a geographic mismatch. Of

the top 27, only two are from outside North America and Europe. Is

it now time for the culture of philanthropy to extend to emerging

markets? Does the idea of giving back need to be planted at a young

age? In countries where the practice is less established? I get really

annoyed and frustrated that people think you have got to have a lot of

money before you can become a philanthropist or become

charitable. A child can be exposed to her role model of a parent or a

teacher and volunteer their time. So philanthropy must be carved into all

parts of the community here at the World Economic Forum and not just

remain the preserve of a small band of billionaires. And before we go

let's have a look at the markets. They are all rallying this Friday,

reversing those huge losses we saw on Wednesday, especially the Nikkei

and Hang Seng. That is mainly because of all the promising

economic stimulus from Europe and the central Bank of Japan. That is

all for this edition. In the US a state of emergency has

been declared in the capital and across several states as an

historic snow blizzard approaches. Russia has warned that a British

inquiry which found that