:00:00. > :00:13.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:14. > :00:24.South Korea Electronics prices the markets for expectations of a big
:00:25. > :00:27.jump. The Panama papers put Asian's offshore banking sectors in the
:00:28. > :00:36.spotlight. Will become more transparent in the future? -- will
:00:37. > :00:42.it. Good morning Asia and hello world. It is a Thursday and I'm glad
:00:43. > :00:50.you can join us for edition of Asia Business Report. We start off with
:00:51. > :00:55.South Korean tech giants, Samsun, and they've beaten the expectations
:00:56. > :01:01.of their profits will rise by 10% in the first quarter. It has been on a
:01:02. > :01:10.rough ride, lately, but their fortunes into it turned with the
:01:11. > :01:22.early release of their new phone. Steve, it seems as if the S7 has
:01:23. > :01:28.been a lucky charm. I am not sure about bad. This is a company that is
:01:29. > :01:34.still the biggest, in its bad year, it was still the biggest producer of
:01:35. > :01:40.smart phones. The fear last year, if you like them, was that the company
:01:41. > :01:49.had lost the age and it looked tired. In March to this year it
:01:50. > :01:54.relaunched as the S7. Going back to old features and it seems that
:01:55. > :01:57.relaunch has worked, the market likes it and an awful lot of units
:01:58. > :02:04.were sold in the first 20 days. On top of that, the week one has
:02:05. > :02:11.improved exports of the phone so it looks like it is back on track with
:02:12. > :02:20.a bit of confidence. Your saliva tough competition from the Chinese
:02:21. > :02:29.smartphone -- you also have the tough competition from the Chinese
:02:30. > :02:33.smartphone manufacturers. You have got one company in particular
:02:34. > :02:37.launching a new smart phone. I say smartphone, but if you look at it,
:02:38. > :02:48.it is just good with the camera. The competition between Apple and this
:02:49. > :02:54.company is all in the camera. If you like, they have an easy ride because
:02:55. > :03:04.the Apple launch was sometime back. The big test for them will be, how
:03:05. > :03:08.it competes with the new iPhone, a smaller iPhone with Apple reverting
:03:09. > :03:15.to the smaller phones and the new company which looks like it has a
:03:16. > :03:18.pretty amazing camera. And the market always focuses on their
:03:19. > :03:22.electric Smart phones, but it also has other core businesses such as
:03:23. > :03:37.memory chips and display panels that are making money. They are. But the
:03:38. > :03:43.big brands is the electronic. These results are focusing only on
:03:44. > :03:57.electronics. Thank you for joining us. In other business news, the US
:03:58. > :04:02.drug company has scrapped its agreement to buy the maker of Botox.
:04:03. > :04:06.It was to be the biggest pharmaceutical merger in history,
:04:07. > :04:10.and it would have lowered their tax bill through taxing versions and it
:04:11. > :04:15.comes to days after the US Treasury and announced fresh plans to prevent
:04:16. > :04:26.inversions where US company 's can merge with a company in countries
:04:27. > :04:29.with lower tax rates. The carrier recorded a profit in February, which
:04:30. > :04:36.is the first profit they've made in years. The airline is on track to
:04:37. > :04:40.return to profit by 2018. The carrier has been facing financial
:04:41. > :04:45.issues for years and suffered to air disasters in 2014. That severely
:04:46. > :04:50.hurt the brand. The improvement in the revenue has been put down to
:04:51. > :04:59.lower costs, especially low jet fuel prices. They've reached a deal to
:05:00. > :05:04.buy the German insurer. This comes just days after they unexpectedly
:05:05. > :05:10.walked away from a $14 billion bid for a hotel and resort group. They
:05:11. > :05:15.have been spending billions buying insurance and hotels across the
:05:16. > :05:27.world, including New York's Waldorf Astoria. The release of the Panama
:05:28. > :05:32.Papers shows the uncomfortable nature of offshore banking. Are some
:05:33. > :05:36.of the biggest offshore banking centres can be found here in Asia.
:05:37. > :05:43.Singapore and Hong Kong, for example, I top spots the superrich
:05:44. > :05:49.looking to open an offshore account. And practice in itself is not
:05:50. > :05:54.illegal, but they've been under pressure to share more information
:05:55. > :06:02.about who their account holders are and where the money comes from. We
:06:03. > :06:08.look at whether Asian tax laws will get more transparent in the future.
:06:09. > :06:12.Is setting up an offshore account is perfectly legal. In some parts of
:06:13. > :06:17.Asia it is as simple as plugging in a few details into your laptop and
:06:18. > :06:21.it will only take you a couple of hours. Pretty simple. US Ricketts,
:06:22. > :06:26.located. There is a difference between tax evasion and tax
:06:27. > :06:31.avoidance. Someone who wears income to report and does not report it,
:06:32. > :06:36.that is a legal. But tax avoidance is different. If you found a
:06:37. > :06:40.loophole in the tax system which takes advantage of provisions to
:06:41. > :06:44.avoid paying tax, welfare and, depending on the country that you
:06:45. > :06:49.worrying, you may not be doing anything illegal at all. We're not
:06:50. > :06:55.talking just about people here. Companies do it to. Google, Apple,
:06:56. > :07:01.Microsoft and Rio Tinto all household names and all have
:07:02. > :07:04.admitted recently to being under ordered by the stride tax
:07:05. > :07:09.authorities are having their services and marketing hubs set up
:07:10. > :07:13.in Singapore. Sur less tax than in Australia. But they say they are not
:07:14. > :07:18.doing anything wrong and that Singapore is an important hub for
:07:19. > :07:22.them. But Australia says that if you make money in Australia you should
:07:23. > :07:26.be paying taxes to. Singapore says it takes a very serious view of tax
:07:27. > :07:33.evasion and does not tolerate tax related crime. Hong Kong has chimed
:07:34. > :07:36.in as well and many Asian countries have said that they have signed up
:07:37. > :07:41.to a commitment to exchange more tax information with one another by
:07:42. > :07:45.2018. But frankly, it is all about who goes first. If one offshore
:07:46. > :07:51.banking centre starts opening itself up to greater scrutiny, there is a
:07:52. > :08:01.very good chance that there will be customers fleeing. Among those named
:08:02. > :08:04.were 500 Indians and we sat down with the head of the reserve bank of
:08:05. > :08:11.India in Maugham by and asked him what they are signing to do to
:08:12. > :08:14.tackle this issue. The Prime Minister set up a committee to set
:08:15. > :08:23.up the process and we are part of that committee. We will go out and
:08:24. > :08:28.see what those accounts are. I want to caution without holding a brief
:08:29. > :08:33.with those who've been named. Holding an account by itself is not
:08:34. > :08:37.illegal in India. What matters is how the money went out and what
:08:38. > :08:44.circumstances was taken out legitimately and so on. In all these
:08:45. > :08:51.cases where the names are revealed what has to be careful to assume
:08:52. > :08:57.innocence until proven guilty. Rather than assuming guilty instead
:08:58. > :09:02.approving innocent. We should take this in a measured way and we should
:09:03. > :09:08.look at each of these and where there is a legal activity we will
:09:09. > :09:13.throw the book at the perpetrator. Again, be careful about this process
:09:14. > :09:25.because in these kinds of situations a lot of names are revealed and
:09:26. > :09:33.sometimes, I know of one particular situation aim is a but it is assumed
:09:34. > :09:43.to be another person. But we don't even know the names of the people
:09:44. > :09:48.that we talk about here. Now an update on a story we brought to all
:09:49. > :09:56.of you yesterday. Remember this? Well this historic 17th century
:09:57. > :10:00.Chinese emperors seal fetched for a phenomenal 11.8 million US dollars
:10:01. > :10:07.when it went under the hammer in Hong Kong. That is nearly double its
:10:08. > :10:11.starting price. It was described as the most important China's
:10:12. > :10:19.historical object ever to be offered as an option. Here's a quick look at
:10:20. > :10:25.the markets and Asia is currently in positive territory. US equities rose
:10:26. > :10:29.overnight and the price of oil climbed 5%. The technology sector
:10:30. > :10:37.search. They give are investing your time with us. Goodbye for now. --
:10:38. > :10:39.thank you for. The leaked Panama papers show almost
:10:40. > :10:43.one third of the business of the law firm Mossack Fonseca comes from
:10:44. > :10:48.its offices in Hong Kong and China. A staggering one
:10:49. > :10:51.in 11 adults now has diabetes.