04/02/2016 Asia Business Report

A signing ceremony for the ambitious trade deal, the Trans-Pacific

Partnership, which President Obama hails one of the biggest in history.

And it is owning season in Japan. We look today at tech giant Sharp and

Toshiba. Happy Thursday, everyone, glad you can join us for Asia

Business Report. We start with a long-awaited Trans-Pacific

Partnership, which has taken another step towards becoming a reality

today. It has been signed in New Zealand. States can ratify or reject

the agreement. The deal includes 12 countries which account for 40% of

the economy. We can look at the winners and losers and the impact on

the economy. President Obama welcomed the signing

seeing it allows America to write the rules in the Asia-Pacific and

not countries like China. The ceremony has been accompanied by

large protesting in many countries -- saying. This was the scene in

Washington, DC across the White House. There is doubt whether the US

Congress will support it before President Obama leaves office next

January. This was Auckland, where the deal was signed, and we saw

protesters marching through the streets against the PPP. Earlier I

spoke to the New Zealand trade minister and I asked if he expects

the deal to be ratified by all member countries -- TPP. I am

confident it will be. Each country will go through those processes. The

signature in Auckland on Thursday is a commitment by each of those

administrations to move through the ratification process, and the

agreement itself gives two years for that to happen. Japan and the US

would have to ratify that to meet the requirements of GDP to be

enforced. All of the feedback I have had from the various delegations is

that they are more than confident and optimistic that they will be

able to do what they need to in their own domestic processes.

Minister lay, what will be the benefits of the Trans-Pacific

Partnership for New Zealand -- minister McLay. The benefits are

quite significant. We are a trading nation, a small country a long, long

way away, from many of the world's most important markets. This gives

us access to 800 million consumers who spend $27 trillion every year on

GDP. When the TDP is fully enforced, more than 90% of all of

the goods and services that we sell to these 11 other countries will be

tariff free, quota free -- TPP. It allows New Zealand business and

enterprise to play a role and be part of the manufacturing chain

that's becoming so important not only in those countries but many

other parts of the world. New Zealand trade minister POD -- Todd

McLeay. Technology company Sharp has reported earnings today, it is

struggling to make money and focus has been on the takeover or the

bailout bid. It has to decide between the rescue plan by the

innovation network operation of Japan and an offer by Taiwan's

Honghai and electronic. I asked David Rubin Steyne which one is the

better fit. Be better if it would be in Japan. Innovation's offer is less

than half of Honghai but there is arguably more synergy if Innovation

bought Sharp, they are hoping to combine the business with Japan

Display, which has a third of the Apple market. Tashi the reports

results as well and it is trying to lay the massive accounting scandal

to wrest -- Toshiba. It will implement long overdue structural

reforms. -- unrest. The owner of KFC reports stronger than expected

results. In the last three months of last year sales at its Chinese

stores rose 7%. It has suffered setbacks on the mainland following a

food scandal. It is selling off its mainland business. Former head of

the IMF Strauss Kahn is joining the board of a bank owned by a Ukrainian

billionaire. He resigned as IMF director in 2011 after being accused

of raping a woman at a New York hotel. The allegations were later

dismissed. The Chinese chemicals group Chem China offered $40 billion

to take over Syngenta, the biggest deal takeover by a mainland firm. I

ask Ed Vinalis what is behind this transaction. The reason why this

deal has come about is a story of China's emerging economies -- Ed

Vinales. They want to secure food supplies for 1.5 billion people,

that is 20% of the world's population. And they want to ensure

that that food supply is coming from within its borders, from the... And

the 200 -300 million farmers are part of that solution. These farmers

have hugely efficient processes. They need to modernise these

smallholder farmers otherwise they can source food from imports but

that does not guarantee the food security that they are looking for.

And if these smallholder farmers are not part of the solution they will

migrate to overcrowded cities, so it is about modernising China's

agricultural industry. And as Chem China's chairman said yesterday, we

want to spread Syngenta's integrated solution to these smallholder

farmers. Research is in Singapore have come up with a sticky solution

that could revel is everything from surgery to food prepared at sea --

researchers. They have designed clue which works in wet environment and

we have the details -- glue. It sounds like science fiction, and

glue which hardens underwater with electricity. Here at a Tech

University my research is have made it a reality. So, can you show us

how it works? My pleasure. So, it works on the premise that all we

need is a small voltage, it will insulate surfaces together. Right

now there is nothing we can use that has strong adhesion that will hold

these very dirty, wet environments. It works with a completely new

mechanism, so it does not work with a normal adhesive that allows it to

bond to proteins and tissues naturally. All we have to do is just

put a small drop of our Lou to this surface -- glue to this surface, we

put it together and we can see it is not adhesive. It is like normal glue

that we can reposition as we need to but as soon as we apply the

electrodes to it, the plus and -, here we have it set up already, all

we do is we apply two vaults and we wait for a couple of minutes to let

this work and then after that it will cross link between these pieces

of conductive substrates. It is done. We can take out the

electrodes. Once we take those out, we can show that it is not dropping

and the adhesion has worked across these pieces of plastic. -- plus and

and -. The Professor says it will be several years before the glue is on

the market for surgeries, at least, but this underwater adhesive

promises to transform the way that ships, pipelines and people are

repaired. Most of Asia's stock markets are in positive territory

after US equities had a sharp turnaround overnight as the price of

oil rebounded by 8%. However, the Nikkei two is down about 1%, at 142

points, as the US dollar fell against the Japanese yen. However,

you have the All Ordinaries index gaining 1.1%. The greater Chinese

market is in positive territory. Hong Kong is gaining 1% and the

Shanghai and Shenzhen composite index are both in the plus column.

Thank you so much for interesting your time with us. I am Rico Hizon.

Goodbye for now. -- investing your time with us.

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