:00:00. > :00:17.standards, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
:00:18. > :00:23.New look ministries for a new government, but what will it mean
:00:24. > :00:29.for Myanmar's economy? Can China keep the good times rolling or is
:00:30. > :00:43.it's economic slowdown worse than first thought? Welcome to Asia
:00:44. > :00:47.Business Report. When Myanmar's new administration takes office next
:00:48. > :00:50.month it will be the first democratically elected government in
:00:51. > :00:56.52 years. It will also be much smaller. The incoming government has
:00:57. > :01:01.announced a dramatic cut off the number of ministries from 36 to 21.
:01:02. > :01:05.Earlier, I asked the business consultant what the political
:01:06. > :01:09.transition will mean for the country's economy. What the
:01:10. > :01:15.government is trying to do is become much more effective, and instead of
:01:16. > :01:22.having a very large administration, it has cut down the ministries from
:01:23. > :01:30.31 to 21. It makes sense to combine ministries, like agriculture and
:01:31. > :01:34.livestock and fisheries. So, it hopes to achieve a high level of
:01:35. > :01:41.growth. Obviously they are saving money on the budget as well. Sure,
:01:42. > :01:47.but I don't think the savings will be huge. The main objective is to
:01:48. > :01:51.have an effective government, because the main challenge, or one
:01:52. > :01:59.of the main challenges for Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD government will
:02:00. > :02:05.be managing a very high expectations. Yes, and they made a
:02:06. > :02:09.lot of promises, a lot of Democratic promises. What do we know about
:02:10. > :02:18.their economic reforms? So, we really have the sea who she will
:02:19. > :02:21.appoint in her cabinet together with the new president. The expectation
:02:22. > :02:27.is that they will continue the current course, really focusing on
:02:28. > :02:36.attracting investment, building infrastructure. Myanmar cannot
:02:37. > :02:39.industrialise without electricity, you can't industrialise on
:02:40. > :02:44.generators. You say it is about attracting investment, and you are a
:02:45. > :02:46.regular visitor. What have you seen internet changes that have
:02:47. > :02:51.transpired since the economy opened up to foreign investment? DEC at
:02:52. > :02:56.flowing in and other concerns with the Chinese slowdown? No, because
:02:57. > :03:03.Myanmar is not exporting much to China. Actually, we have seen
:03:04. > :03:09.investment is coming from mainly other parts of the world, like
:03:10. > :03:15.Japan, Europe, the rest of Asia. The expectation is that more investment
:03:16. > :03:20.will come in now there is a new government. What we have to see is
:03:21. > :03:23.if she herself will be part of the government, it is likely she will
:03:24. > :03:28.stay in Parliament. In other business news, tech giant Toshiba is
:03:29. > :03:34.to sell its medical equipment unit to fellow Japanese company Canon.
:03:35. > :03:40.Toshiba is struggling with getting over a massive accounting scandal
:03:41. > :03:45.uncovered last year, and hope to restructure its bloated business
:03:46. > :03:49.operations. But the book keeping nightmare might not be over yet.
:03:50. > :03:53.Toshiba says it has received requests from the US over accounting
:03:54. > :04:00.issues as well. The national people's Congress wrapped up in
:04:01. > :04:03.Beijing this year, as the rubberstamp parliament approved
:04:04. > :04:11.another five-year plan with slower growth targets. As China's economy
:04:12. > :04:17.has cooled, some are pointing to storm clouds on the horizon. I asked
:04:18. > :04:22.how next guest about the country's debt levels. The numbers are even
:04:23. > :04:28.dramatically bigger. They have added $20 trillion of bank and corporate
:04:29. > :04:33.and government debt, and the total now is pushing $30 trillion. If it
:04:34. > :04:38.was all good that it might not be a problem, because China is a fairly
:04:39. > :04:41.big country. It is not good that they have used it to expand
:04:42. > :04:48.infrastructure, which is unneeded, to finance state-owned enterprises
:04:49. > :04:53.that are overbuilt and have too much capacity, with banks just handing
:04:54. > :04:56.out to stimulate the economy. As much as $10 trillion of that could
:04:57. > :05:00.turn out to be bad debt. These are large numbers, and what we have
:05:01. > :05:04.heard from Chinese authorities in the last couple of weeks is that
:05:05. > :05:09.they have a handle on things. They are reassuring the rest of the world
:05:10. > :05:13.that China continues to grow, their target is 6.5%. Are you saying that
:05:14. > :05:19.isn't true? I don't believe the numbers. I have studied this a
:05:20. > :05:23.little bit, I have gone on the fact what their electrical consumption
:05:24. > :05:27.has done, what their power consumption has done, and what their
:05:28. > :05:33.coal consumption has done. In each of those categories, which ought to
:05:34. > :05:37.be good measures of economic activity, but each of those has
:05:38. > :05:40.declined in growth. You have made a living out of writing books
:05:41. > :05:43.predicting financial crises, and the word is that if you predict them
:05:44. > :05:49.long enough they will happen. What makes you think you are right now?
:05:50. > :05:55.When I looked at the US, for example, back in 2003 and 2006, I
:05:56. > :06:00.felt a duty to blow a whistle. People were buying homes in Las
:06:01. > :06:04.Vegas or 900,000 dollars that had sold for 240,000 seven years
:06:05. > :06:07.previously. Everywhere I looked there were these kind of trouble is
:06:08. > :06:14.in a world where wages have been for almost 20 years straight. China may
:06:15. > :06:18.be slowing but it is not always easy to make sense of the numbers. With a
:06:19. > :06:26.wealth of so-called tech unicorns, there is a big bunch of DNS, and how
:06:27. > :06:29.should you read the statistics? The Chinese state media says China
:06:30. > :06:38.is full of unicorns. There are 40 in Beijing alone. No, not these
:06:39. > :06:41.unicorns, but these ones. Start-up tech companies valued at over 1
:06:42. > :06:49.billion US dollars. Some say Beijing is a hub to unicorns, second only to
:06:50. > :06:54.Silicon Valley in California. Others think those figures might not stack
:06:55. > :07:02.up, but some of those tech companies might even that less magical
:07:03. > :07:05.unicorn, more Shetland pony. So what is the truth and why should you
:07:06. > :07:08.care? Has the answer tells us something about the real state of
:07:09. > :07:13.the Chinese economy, the economy that is powering world growth. As
:07:14. > :07:19.China's economy grinds to a halt, there could be a serious domino
:07:20. > :07:25.effect around the world. Company valuations are based in part on
:07:26. > :07:30.future earning potential. China's companies are suffering, and the
:07:31. > :07:34.outlook is less rosy. One private Chinese research firm says Beijing
:07:35. > :07:39.is home to more billionaires another of -- than any other place in the
:07:40. > :07:43.world. Including the capital of capitalism, New York. Forbes
:07:44. > :07:49.Magazine says that is wrong, New York has way more. Billion-dollar
:07:50. > :07:53.companies or billion-dollar people? Somewhat to claim their numbers are
:07:54. > :07:58.growing in China, but it is important to remember who has an
:07:59. > :08:02.interest in polishing those numbers. The questions from Celia Hatton, but
:08:03. > :08:05.despite China's claims, the other big question is whether Asia can
:08:06. > :08:11.catch up when it comes to creating the next so-called unicorn. If you
:08:12. > :08:16.look at tech start-ups worth more than $1 billion, there are only
:08:17. > :08:23.about 143 of them globally, and over half of them are based in the US. We
:08:24. > :08:28.met a successful tech entrepreneur whose latest venture is backed by
:08:29. > :08:31.the Facebook co-founder. My background was that I got fascinated
:08:32. > :08:38.with tech start-ups back in the days when I first discovered e-mail. It
:08:39. > :08:43.is completely changed how we communicate with each other, how we
:08:44. > :08:48.find information, all within the span of one or two years. All of
:08:49. > :08:54.this innovation came from a tiny place in California called Silicon
:08:55. > :08:57.valley. It is not much larger than Singapore, and it was fascinating to
:08:58. > :09:02.me how such a small place and such a small group of people with ideas and
:09:03. > :09:06.determination could completely change the world globally. What is
:09:07. > :09:12.the difference between public or government funding and going the
:09:13. > :09:17.private route, to a venture capital investor? I think most start-ups do
:09:18. > :09:23.both. What is the difference? Really the private route tends to be more
:09:24. > :09:27.risk tolerant and faster. The government route tends to take a lot
:09:28. > :09:33.more overhead, creating a certain burden in terms of compliance and
:09:34. > :09:43.paperwork and auditing they need to do. Start-ups' goal is not to be
:09:44. > :09:48.compliant, it is to change things. Is it really competitive among
:09:49. > :09:51.start-ups given that that has become a crowded space to get venture
:09:52. > :09:56.capital funding? No, it is the opposite. The money has grown much
:09:57. > :10:01.faster than the number of people competing for it. It has got a lot
:10:02. > :10:04.easier to get money today. Let's have a look at the markets, because
:10:05. > :10:09.we are continuing to see those losses on the Nikkei, due to the
:10:10. > :10:17.strong yen. Remember this week the Fed reserve said there would be a
:10:18. > :10:20.much looser monetary policy going forward. That means the dollar has
:10:21. > :10:26.fallen and a stronger yen is eating into exports. However, the Hang Seng
:10:27. > :10:31.and Australia, they are making gains. Positive lead from Wall
:10:32. > :10:42.Street, and much higher commodity in oil prices. -- and oil prices.
:10:43. > :10:46.The top stories this hour: EU leaders have agreed a plan to ease
:10:47. > :10:49.the migrant crisis, they hope to strike a deal with Turkey on Friday.
:10:50. > :10:53.North Korea has fired two ballistic missiles into the sea, stoking