16/05/2016 Asia Business Report


16/05/2016

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Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.

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Thailand's dreams of economic prosperity will as the country faces

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its first -- worst drought in decades. And taking off. The global

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drone industry is predicted to be worth more than $100 billion by

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2020. Hello, and welcome to Asia Business

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Report. It has been almost two years since the military seized power in

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Thailand. It promised to boost the country's ailing economy, outdated

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today is expected to show it is still on shaky ground. The

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south-east Asian nation has been struggling with its worst drought in

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decades. It is crucial export sector has been shrinking due to weak

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overseas demand, and foreign investment plummeted 78% last year.

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So what can Thailand's military government do? Earlier I asked an

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economist with the World Bank. I think on the ground, especially

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capital and infrastructure expenditure is not rolling out at

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the pace they had hoped for. Getting that under way might unleash some of

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that consumption, late and consumption, as well as tourism. At

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of course tourism is subject to many other factors as well. Indeed,

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political stability being one of them, and we have had two years of

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military government taskbar. A little bit of stability, some

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critics say, but we also have a weak global economy. Should we be worried

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about most? I think one of the lingering risk that remains in the

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picture is China's economy egg and flailing over the weekend, with data

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coming out showing that China had weakened again. But of course has an

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impact on supply chains. One particular boost would be if Japan

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does a big boost, and their auto manufacturing in Thailand somehow

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benefits from greater investment, so on and so forth. It might be

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something to look out for. Turning to Japan, Prime Minister shims are

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they will reportedly delay plans for a another hike in the sales tax

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originally set for April next year. -- Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The

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sales tax was supposed to go up to 10% from the current 8%.

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A view more signs of slowing growth in the world's second largest

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economy, China. Figures from the weekend showed industrial output

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jumped 6% in April when compared to one year ago. That is down from the

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month of March. Meanwhile retail sales rose 10% in the month of

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April, but that is also a lower figure when compared to retail

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activity in March. Drones, or unmanned aircraft, are

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banned or heavily restricted in the airspace of most countries. It now

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Singapore is working with Airbus to see if they can develop drones with

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commercial or industrial applications. One idea is to have

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them delivering packages around the city. John Price from Airbus

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Helicopters explains the project. Drones today are more like toys. So

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the failure rates of drones are far lower than the ones of aircraft. The

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main challenge is to bring the drone to a safety level that allows it to

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fly over cities, to fly over citizens, without being feared. It

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is a key point. We have to be safe. This is our DNA and aerospace. Then

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the exact application, in logistics or beyond, is not exactly defined. I

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think it is a bit premature to say that this drone will deliver the

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parcel to your doorstep or in a central station. Initially, we are

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studying it with what we call the parcel station, which is the area

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where the drone will land, and will drop, or deliver the parcel, so it

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will not be a doorstep initially. Then we can think of many other

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applications, in the logistics and the other domains. I think it is

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quite realistic, otherwise we would not launch this project. But it is a

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challenge, and we like challenges. I think it will not take long to

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realise how credible and how feasible it is. Let's call it an 18

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month project, to make things short. We intend to fly in 17 months. We

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will run a six-month light period, so that is quite sometime, to get

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experience, to get feedback, to get benefit from what we will see. The

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challenge remains the same, safety. Safety, safety, safety.

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As you saw in that interview, advances are being made in trying to

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use drones commercially. Right now the market is estimated to be worth

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about $2 billion, but it is expected to balloon to as much as $127

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billion by 2020. Earlier, I spoke with Richard Skinner from the

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consulting group PricewaterhouseCoopers, and asked

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him which industries could potentially benefit most from the

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use of drones. There is many applications that we can use drones

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for, from a commercial point of view. These typically encompass

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those wearing the past, either we just couldn't do anything, or it was

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dangerous for people to get involved, or just quite difficult

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and expensive. If we think about a few examples, agriculture is a good

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one, as we move agriculture to a more data centric yield enhancing

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industry, I think that drones have a terrific part to play. But there are

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still lots of challenges, because there are regulations in place, and

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they are not consistent throughout the world. The regulation point, I

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think it is both a challenge and an enabler, a bit like the technology

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hurdles that we also need to get over. As countries start to put

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better regulation in place and understand it and at the same time

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protect us, I think that will actually enable the industry to go

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-- grow. Colleagues who wrote our report over in

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PricewaterhouseCoopers Poland, I think that is one of the most

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advanced countries in the world in terms of regulations, and that is

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helping open up the commercial side of the industry. Some of the other

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countries include Singapore and South Africa, where they are

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drafting legislation for commercial drone use. You may find yourself

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coming up against labour unions, people with job losses. This is the

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exciting thing about drones as well. That $130 billion number, that is

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not just the value of the drone. This is also putting into context

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all the other things that go around it. This could be the software, the

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date analytics, and importantly, the people who write navigating the

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drones, who understands the date and do something with it. So there is a

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huge opportunity for people as well. People in India are being consulted

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about a new law which would control how anybody publishes or uses maps.

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If it is past it will become illegal to publish map related information

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without a licence from a government agency. Anybody breaking the law

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could face a multimillion dollar fine or even imprisonment. The

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government says it would protect the country's security.

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In a country where the number of people owning one of these is

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rocketing, providing online maps is a big and growing business. But if

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this bill goes through, nobody from Google to the smallest businesses

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will be able to use the map services in India without a licence. The

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government will control how anybody uses maps online. For example, we

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are off to meet an interviewee. So I want to book a cab using a taxi apps

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service. I am sharing my location with the service to find a cab, but

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if this bill becomes law, this could become illegal unless the up as a

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licence. -- app has a licence. So, this is where I need to go. Even the

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map the drivers used to navigate would be illegal. What if I take a

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picture and uploaded? I am sharing crucial mapping information, and

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would need a licence to do that. This is one of the reasons why India

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is proposing the new law. It wants to control how the country's

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boundaries are detected, and the government says it will protect

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India, because it maps show sensitive locations that could be

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used by terrorist groups to plan terrorist attacks. So, we have

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navigated to my destination. I have come to meet someone who is a member

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of an online campaign called cup back save the cup Acma. -- Save the

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Map. For larger companies, it is much easier to deal with the

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processes that the government is asking for. For small start-ups,

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they might not even be in the game of getting information about

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sensitive places. But the act creates an overall situation where

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everybody in this space is threatened, that they might be

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charged, they might be sued, under this particular act. The bill is

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still a draft, and the government is inviting opinions on it until the

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fourth of June. Ministers have been speaking to the press and insisting

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that it will not create hurdles for businesses if it creep -- if it

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becomes law. A quick look at the markets before

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we go. Lots of them have opened, including Japan's Nick Hay and

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Australia's ASX. We can see the Japanese market gaining, due to some

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bargain-hunting, even though we saw Wall Street closed lower on Friday.

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We had that less than enthusiastic dart from China as well. -- data

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from China. Oil prices under pressure, and there is lots talk

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about the yen. That is it for this edition of Asia Business Report.

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Thank you for watching.

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