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Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore. | :00:00. | :00:15. | |
Australia tries to sell more than just commodities and beach holidays | :00:16. | :00:23. | |
to the Chinese. And Singapore drills deep, beating up Britain for a | :00:24. | :00:26. | |
contract to build oil rigs for Scotland. Welcome to Asia Business | :00:27. | :00:39. | |
Report. It is the biggest trade delegation ever from Australia to | :00:40. | :00:46. | |
China for all of this week. 1000 business representatives and the | :00:47. | :00:48. | |
trade minister are touring China to boost ties between the two | :00:49. | :00:53. | |
countries. Bilateral trade still at just under $100 billion last year. | :00:54. | :00:58. | |
It is especially crucial for Australia because China is its | :00:59. | :01:01. | |
biggest trading partner in both exports and imports. More from | :01:02. | :01:08. | |
Shanghai. How do you sell Australia to the Chinese? It looks like this. | :01:09. | :01:12. | |
A hunky men holding to mobsters and trips on the barbie. A bit | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
old-fashioned, but it works. Plenty of Chinese go to holiday in | :01:18. | :01:21. | |
Australia. Plenty send their children to be educated there. As | :01:22. | :01:26. | |
trade mission over the following few days, and it is a massive effort, is | :01:27. | :01:28. | |
aimed at broadening their relationship. They are trying to get | :01:29. | :01:33. | |
the Chinese to buy more services from Australia. We have leaders from | :01:34. | :01:39. | |
1000 Australian businesses coming in this delegation and senior | :01:40. | :01:45. | |
politicians. They are trying to sell not just tourism but education as | :01:46. | :01:47. | |
well, and the agriculture business. What does say about the relationship | :01:48. | :01:53. | |
between Australia and China? It has changed a lot. The days of the | :01:54. | :01:56. | |
Chinese buying everything up in Australia are over. This is about | :01:57. | :02:01. | |
time to sell far more services to the people of China from Australia. | :02:02. | :02:06. | |
It is very important. No underestimation to say the future of | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
the study's economy depends in part on its trade relationship with this | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
country. How much do they reckon they will raise? Last time they did | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
this in 2014, the government said it led to an injection of some 3.5 | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
billion US dollars. They want the same or more this time around. | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
Cambodia is another country which counts on growing investment from | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
China. Its economy is rapidly growing but remains one of the | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
poorest in the region. It is struggling with its violent past and | :02:40. | :02:42. | |
political uncertainties. What are its prospects for the future? | :02:43. | :02:46. | |
Earlier I spoke with the US ambassador to Cambodia. Cambodia is | :02:47. | :02:51. | |
a very dynamic and very positive economic growth story. It was a | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
positive development story. They have had 7% economic growth now for | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
more than a decade. Very strong growth in manufacturing, | :03:02. | :03:05. | |
construction, and tourism as well as agriculture. At the same time, and | :03:06. | :03:10. | |
not surprisingly, their social indicators have done very well. | :03:11. | :03:14. | |
Health, education. Very positive. Now Cambodia is a much better | :03:15. | :03:19. | |
trained and healthier workforce than before. Police are starting to take | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
notice. You say companies are taking notice and it is a positive | :03:25. | :03:28. | |
development, but there is a fair share of corruption, ranking among | :03:29. | :03:33. | |
one of the most corrupt countries according to transparency | :03:34. | :03:35. | |
International. How can investors look to it in spite of all these | :03:36. | :03:40. | |
problems? Corruption is a problem in Cambodia and other countries as | :03:41. | :03:43. | |
well. The government has acknowledged that. They have taking | :03:44. | :03:47. | |
interesting steps that directly impact on business like setting up a | :03:48. | :03:51. | |
single window as well as online business registration. They reduce | :03:52. | :03:55. | |
the amount of business interaction with government. They have a long | :03:56. | :03:58. | |
way to go, especially improving their court system. As this is not | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
yet have doubled taking cases to court. They have to go to | :04:04. | :04:05. | |
international arbitration. That is expensive. Politically the | :04:06. | :04:12. | |
government has not really changed since the 1990s. The president is | :04:13. | :04:16. | |
very much keen on Chinese investment. Is it perhaps too late | :04:17. | :04:21. | |
for the Americans and others? They have had the same government in | :04:22. | :04:25. | |
place for quite a few years. They have elections every five years, | :04:26. | :04:28. | |
though, and over that period there has been that peace and stability | :04:29. | :04:32. | |
that they are proud of, and that underlies growth. China is really | :04:33. | :04:38. | |
the major official investor in Cambodia now. They have helped to | :04:39. | :04:44. | |
build a network of roads, the power generation grid. That has been | :04:45. | :04:48. | |
positive for the country. Cambodia made the right choice there. The | :04:49. | :04:52. | |
question now is what kind of factors or they put next to those Chinese | :04:53. | :04:56. | |
roads? -- factories. What products with a specialising? Hour they take | :04:57. | :05:02. | |
that next step in development? American and European investors are | :05:03. | :05:05. | |
important in that. That was the US ambassador to Cambodia. Japan has | :05:06. | :05:09. | |
sought to reassure investors it is willing to intervene in the currency | :05:10. | :05:14. | |
market. The move follows a recent pledge by the G20 nations to consult | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
on foreign exchange markets as well as avoid competitive currency | :05:19. | :05:22. | |
devaluation. The yen has gained more than 10% against the dollar this | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
year, which worries the government. It increases export earnings and | :05:27. | :05:32. | |
effect low inflation. The biggest gas discoveries in the North Sea are | :05:33. | :05:36. | |
being built right here in Singapore. It is a project worth $4.5 billion, | :05:37. | :05:42. | |
and the Danish firm was given the UK government approval last year. As | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
our Scotland correspondent reports, some people are asking why the | :05:47. | :05:49. | |
platforms are being built in Asia instead of the UK. | :05:50. | :05:54. | |
It is a tradition in Singapore for a line dance to wish a project well. | :05:55. | :06:03. | |
The gasfield in the North Sea is a boost for Singapore, but has left | :06:04. | :06:09. | |
fabricators in Britain upset. The cutting of the first steel for a | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
deal with thousands of jobs. But for the high-pressure wells involved, | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
the company says the work had to go overseas. This is specialised | :06:18. | :06:25. | |
construction, and something like this in Singapore is specialised and | :06:26. | :06:28. | |
have the capacity and expertise to do this project. We could not really | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
finite capacity and expertise unfortunately in the UK. -- find | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
that capacity. It may be the first steel, but the project is ready well | :06:40. | :06:44. | |
under way. In a yard across the island, this early construction | :06:45. | :06:47. | |
project is nearing completion. In the next few months, this drilling | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
rig will begin the 7000 mile journey to the North Sea. It will take about | :06:52. | :06:57. | |
45 days to get there, but it is expected to be on site by the end of | :06:58. | :07:02. | |
this year. The company says some of the work is being carried out in the | :07:03. | :07:07. | |
UK. The development will produce 400 direct jobs and support 6000 more. | :07:08. | :07:12. | |
There has been quite a bit of discontent that a lot of the work | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
was placed outside the UK. That is among UK fabricators. They have not | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
been happy about the situation. Especially in light of the fact that | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
they have been given tax assistance by the UK government. Noted | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
touring. This would have provided much-needed engineering jobs in the | :07:34. | :07:37. | |
UK, but the company says in the long-term it will be worth billions | :07:38. | :07:41. | |
to the Exchequer. -- no point tiptoeing. | :07:42. | :07:49. | |
You may have heard about the biggest e-commerce businesses, but have you | :07:50. | :07:52. | |
heard of their rival? Freycinet it has become the first Indian | :07:53. | :07:56. | |
e-commerce firm ever to list its shares on the stock exchange. While | :07:57. | :08:02. | |
it is an industry that has attracted billions of dollars from private | :08:03. | :08:04. | |
investors, firms are struggling to make money. More from Mumbai. | :08:05. | :08:10. | |
Congratulations! The first day of trading for shares in cigarette. | :08:11. | :08:25. | |
This is the first test of faith investors have -- Infibeam. Most of | :08:26. | :08:31. | |
any's e-commerce firms are fast with private investors. Some are | :08:32. | :08:35. | |
considering tapping the stock markets to help finds their | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
expansion. The decision will be made partly on how well Infibeam's shares | :08:40. | :08:45. | |
do, and that is why many are calling this public listing as a moment of | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
truth for the industry. Last year, India's e-commerce firms attracted | :08:51. | :08:54. | |
more than $5 billion of private money. But they are burning to that | :08:55. | :08:59. | |
cash, offering hefty discount tried to grab market share. The three | :09:00. | :09:06. | |
biggest players lost about $750 million last year. Is this about a | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
change? Last month the government announced tabs on the sort of | :09:12. | :09:13. | |
discount online sellers can offer. -- caps. If you were making money | :09:14. | :09:22. | |
offering discounts, it was incurring a loss. Now when these companies are | :09:23. | :09:28. | |
not in a position to offer good discounts, to that extent, there is | :09:29. | :09:32. | |
no dent in profitability. It means the profit margins will go up. By | :09:33. | :09:40. | |
2020, it is expected Indian 's will spend $100 billion online as | :09:41. | :09:43. | |
Internet access, especially through smartphones, grows. Little wonder | :09:44. | :09:48. | |
global players like Ali Barber have more of a dent. But firms that do | :09:49. | :09:53. | |
not start focusing on profits may be forced to pack up operations in this | :09:54. | :09:55. | |
highly competitive market. Let's take a quick look at the | :09:56. | :10:05. | |
markets. Japan's Nikkei has opened two losses, down over 1%. This is | :10:06. | :10:09. | |
due to the strength of the Japanese yen. We told you about that earlier, | :10:10. | :10:14. | |
the government trying to talk down the strength of the yen but not | :10:15. | :10:17. | |
really succeeding. We also had machinery data out of Japan showing | :10:18. | :10:22. | |
a fall of the study markets despite the rallying of Will prices and | :10:23. | :10:26. | |
resource stocks on Friday. -- oil prices. The prices they are | :10:27. | :10:31. | |
currently flat. And that is how the US close on Friday. That is it for | :10:32. | :10:35. | |
this edition of Asia Business Report. | :10:36. | :10:36. |