:00:00. > :00:14.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:15. > :00:22.Ford is pulling out of Japan and Indonesia after failing to make
:00:23. > :00:26.inroads in their two key markets. And the French President Francois
:00:27. > :00:36.Hollande has arrived in India. We find out what major business deals
:00:37. > :00:40.are on the table. Hello, and welcome to Asia Business Report. I am
:00:41. > :00:45.Sharanjit Leyl. Ford is shutting down all its operations in Japan and
:00:46. > :00:50.Indonesia. Just months after closing its factory in Australia. Nearly 350
:00:51. > :00:56.employees will be affected the move, which comes after years of losing
:00:57. > :00:59.money. The US car giant holds less than 2% market share in both of
:01:00. > :01:04.those countries and has struggled to compete with local rivals. Ford
:01:05. > :01:11.plans to focus on China, where sales hit a record in December. Earlier
:01:12. > :01:14.Simon Littlewood was asked whether this indicates a broader pullback
:01:15. > :01:19.from Australia. It is another step in the global defeat of the US car
:01:20. > :01:23.industry. As you know the Japanese carmaker became the world's largest
:01:24. > :01:27.carmaker a few years ago. It never really made sense for them to be in
:01:28. > :01:32.either Indonesia or Japan, as you mentioned a marketshare of 1.4 or
:01:33. > :01:36.1.6%, making or selling five or 6000 vehicles in each of those markets.
:01:37. > :01:41.That is a tiny proportion of what you need to sell to have any kind of
:01:42. > :01:45.sale. That is a drop in the ocean, isn't it? So in China, where they
:01:46. > :01:51.are pinning their hopes next, it help offset where they are pulling
:01:52. > :01:53.out? The thing about China is it is awash with car manufacturers.
:01:54. > :01:57.Everybody and their dog is there and the Chinese themselves are also
:01:58. > :02:03.investing significantly in making their own cars. The thing about
:02:04. > :02:07.Japan is, Ford never made sense in Japan. There is a boom quality of
:02:08. > :02:13.Ford cars. In Indonesia you have a strategy. You could argue it is a
:02:14. > :02:16.substantial market, getting onto 300 million people. But problem is the
:02:17. > :02:20.Indonesian government has a policy of insisting on Local Assembly
:02:21. > :02:25.service favours companies like Toyota and Astra. Ford either had to
:02:26. > :02:29.get in in a big way, or get out of the way which is what they have
:02:30. > :02:35.done. You said earlier that this is the defeat of the US car industry
:02:36. > :02:38.because we know it is not just Ford. It is General Motors pulling out of
:02:39. > :02:43.markets including Australia. What does it say about the state of the
:02:44. > :02:46.American auto industry? It is just the way human affairs evolve. The
:02:47. > :02:51.way the US car industry acquired global dominance, first of all, came
:02:52. > :02:54.from the fact that it had a massive domestic market so it was able to
:02:55. > :02:58.achieve enormous scale and its operations in the US. Ford and
:02:59. > :03:03.General Motors, Ford particularly. That position did in a very strong
:03:04. > :03:06.way to exported. There was a Ford factory in Singapore where the
:03:07. > :03:10.British surrendered. Let me go into something else. The lack of success
:03:11. > :03:14.of US carmakers in markets is also cited as one of the mitigating
:03:15. > :03:19.factors that stuck out from the transpacific partnership trade
:03:20. > :03:22.deal, if you recall. So how much of a disadvantage, really, our
:03:23. > :03:30.America's carmakers and manufacturers in This? Two things
:03:31. > :03:34.are required to compete effectively. You need to be in the domestic
:03:35. > :03:38.market which has scale. That is to say, if you are in China you have
:03:39. > :03:41.1.4 billion people in China, you have a significant domestic market.
:03:42. > :03:48.Secondly you have to be close enough to the markets to be able to export
:03:49. > :03:52.to a significant extent. This is why heavy Manufacturing has pulled out
:03:53. > :03:56.of Australia, both for cars and manufacturing itself. That was Simon
:03:57. > :04:00.Littlewood speaking earlier. French President Francois Hollande is
:04:01. > :04:08.currently on a visit to India where he will be the chief guest at the
:04:09. > :04:12.country's National Day. It is an honour given to countries which
:04:13. > :04:17.India considers key partners. Bilateral trade stood at $18 billion
:04:18. > :04:20.last year and there are plans to increase it further. Our
:04:21. > :04:24.correspondent in Delhi has more. French troops were much shoulder to
:04:25. > :04:29.shoulder with Indian military down this road later and while India's
:04:30. > :04:33.republic date is traditionally seen as a Show-Off might, in the past few
:04:34. > :04:38.years India has used it to enhance its strategic and military ambition.
:04:39. > :04:42.President Hollande said his visit was an adventure with real
:04:43. > :04:46.opportunity for French firms and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi
:04:47. > :04:50.says India has the skills and the workforce do not just make French
:04:51. > :04:58.products but also the market to buy them. A French firm has already won
:04:59. > :05:06.a multi- billion-dollar contract to help modernise India's Railways. But
:05:07. > :05:10.President Laurent Hopes trip will kickstart talks to build six
:05:11. > :05:17.reactors in India. But there is more at stake in defence, in which France
:05:18. > :05:23.has a stake -- President Francois Hollande. They signed an agreement
:05:24. > :05:27.to build helicopters here. The biggest issuers and $9 billion deal
:05:28. > :05:35.for India to build French built jets. 106 warplanes were reduced to
:05:36. > :05:38.just 36 but even that agreement is still stuck over price and ironing
:05:39. > :05:48.out those differences would really help business between the two
:05:49. > :05:52.nations fly. In other business news, McDonald's's latest results are
:05:53. > :05:56.making investors happy. Shares hit a record high after the fast food
:05:57. > :06:00.giant reported fourth-quarter global sales rose by more than expected.
:06:01. > :06:05.5%. A net income from three months to December was up 3% to $1.2
:06:06. > :06:10.billion and demand recovered in China where the introduction of
:06:11. > :06:15.all-day Breakfast has proved a huge hit. Deutsche bank South Korea unit
:06:16. > :06:24.has been fined $1.3 million over its role in the 2010 stock market
:06:25. > :06:28.plunge. The the court found the lender guilty of market manipulation
:06:29. > :06:33.after its price fell nearly 3% in the final ten minutes of trade.
:06:34. > :06:40.Deutscher Tank employees were also sentenced. -- Bank. South Korea's
:06:41. > :06:44.economy saw growth of more than half in the final three months of last
:06:45. > :06:48.year. Seasonally adjusted gross domestic product expanded by 6% in
:06:49. > :06:53.the fourth quarter compared with 1.3% in the third -- one .6% in the
:06:54. > :06:57.fourth quarter. It was mostly due to a drop in construction investment.
:06:58. > :07:05.Now how competitive do you think we are as global talent? Well according
:07:06. > :07:10.to the latest index by the business School, Singapore is the only Asian
:07:11. > :07:13.nation to rank in the top ten. It came in second behind Switzerland,
:07:14. > :07:20.New Zealand and Australia just missing the top ten while Japan was
:07:21. > :07:26.in 19th place. Now, interestingly Malaysia actually ranked above South
:07:27. > :07:30.Korea and China. Well, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, they are all
:07:31. > :07:35.placed much, much further down. Earlier I spoke to Paul Evans, the
:07:36. > :07:39.co-author of the index and asked what led Singapore to place so high?
:07:40. > :07:46.There are two be lessons from Singapore's success. One goes back
:07:47. > :07:51.to the leader, his realisation that our only resources are our talent.
:07:52. > :07:55.And taking that very seriously, that is the same for most of the other
:07:56. > :07:59.leaders. Tell us what impact this has on businesses. Is it tough to
:08:00. > :08:04.hire the right talent in the region? Well, the question of what is the
:08:05. > :08:08.right talent? There are two types of talent that we measure. What is
:08:09. > :08:12.vocational, technical. The other is the high end, the creative, the
:08:13. > :08:16.leadership. In the lesson behind Singapore and Switzerland is you
:08:17. > :08:20.need both. You look at Asian countries and you've got a lack of
:08:21. > :08:24.balance. You've got some countries as you said which are quite strong,
:08:25. > :08:33.Australia, New Zealand, in the top 20, but both of them are very weak
:08:34. > :08:37.on the vocational skills. Right. What pushes a country like Malaysia
:08:38. > :08:42.into the position of number 13 is, like Singapore, it has invested in
:08:43. > :08:45.technical skills which are seen in manufacturing. You have a different
:08:46. > :08:51.picture in South Korea. In South Korea ever body wants to go to
:08:52. > :08:55.university. You've got a lot of the but you've got massive skill
:08:56. > :09:00.shortages. That's right, they're not investing in the vocational areas.
:09:01. > :09:02.The top talent, and I think there's a big message here, involves a
:09:03. > :09:07.balance between different types of talent. Therefore you see the
:09:08. > :09:12.Singapore government putting a lot more emphasis in the recent past on
:09:13. > :09:15.vocational schools rather than everybody going to university and
:09:16. > :09:19.wanting to be at the high-end. And that is also to some extent where
:09:20. > :09:23.language plays a key role as well. What evidence have you seen that a
:09:24. > :09:28.lot of these Asian nations are now trying to play catch up, to really
:09:29. > :09:31.catch up with the rest of them at the top? I think they are catching
:09:32. > :09:34.up. You are dead right when you say that language is important. That is
:09:35. > :09:38.a big advantage for countries like Singapore. Again it goes back to the
:09:39. > :09:41.early days, recognising that English will be a kind of international
:09:42. > :09:45.language. Look at the young people across Asia today, everybody is much
:09:46. > :09:49.more mobile, wants to move abroad, wants to study in the US, and they
:09:50. > :09:50.are all learning English. That was wants to study in the US, and they
:09:51. > :10:11.are all learning English. That was Paul Evans speaking to me earlier.
:10:12. > :10:14.Let's look at these markets now. They are all falling amongst those
:10:15. > :10:16.open in Asia. The Nikkei down well over 2%. The Hang Seng has opened 1%
:10:17. > :10:19.lower. I should add the Australian market is shut today for Australia
:10:20. > :10:21.Day so they are not trading. But the decline is because these Asian
:10:22. > :10:24.markets are following the US and European counterparts. We saw a huge
:10:25. > :10:24.decline in oil prices pretty much on Monday,
:10:25. > :10:25.European counterparts. We saw a huge decline in oil prices pretty much on
:10:26. > :10:28.Monday, reversing all those gains made on Friday and that led energy
:10:29. > :10:31.stocks to be sold off and the US as well closing down. That is it for
:10:32. > :10:32.this edition of Asia Business Report. Thank you for