:00:00. > :00:12.Asia? And how many hops in a top drop. The favoured ingredient in
:00:13. > :00:18.craft beer. Hello and welcome to Asia Business Report. The decision
:00:19. > :00:21.in Thailand to approve a new military backed constitution paves
:00:22. > :00:31.the way for a general election next year. The ruling junta says it is a
:00:32. > :00:35.step towards a fully functioning democracy, while critics say it
:00:36. > :00:39.further in trenches their rule and say it could result in more not less
:00:40. > :00:44.political turmoil. One analyst gave us his take on what it could mean
:00:45. > :00:50.for South East Asia's second largest economy. In the near term it will be
:00:51. > :00:58.positive. The current military government's investment plans will
:00:59. > :01:01.continue. Investors on the domestic front as well, expectations of
:01:02. > :01:07.democratic elections will come through sooner rather than later.
:01:08. > :01:10.That would be deemed good, within a framework of at least intended
:01:11. > :01:15.stability. The initial phase will be good for the economy because we will
:01:16. > :01:20.see public spending continued to support... Given global demand is
:01:21. > :01:23.the weak link right now. You mentioned public spending. That has
:01:24. > :01:29.been pushing the economies to some degree. And you have to risen, which
:01:30. > :01:34.is what Thailand is known for, the land of smiles, but beyond that what
:01:35. > :01:38.else is helping Thailand in terms of economic growth? -- tourism. Net
:01:39. > :01:43.export has been falling behind and the global demand environment hasn't
:01:44. > :01:50.helped, so this is arguably outside Thailand's control. What is within
:01:51. > :01:56.is the public spending and tourism part. As we proceed forward, as it
:01:57. > :02:01.comes to the monarchy and succession issues, the legitimacy of the
:02:02. > :02:04.military being able to elect officials, that becomes more
:02:05. > :02:08.contentious and that is the medium to long-term risk. We have seen
:02:09. > :02:12.private investment is low in Thailand, and foreign investment as
:02:13. > :02:18.well, so what will it take for these people to come and put their money
:02:19. > :02:22.into this economy? Two things, one is of course difficult for Thailand
:02:23. > :02:27.to determine, that is the global capital expenditure cycle, which has
:02:28. > :02:32.continued to be weak. So the manufacturing sector has also been
:02:33. > :02:36.as a corollary quite weak. Investment is lagging. For more
:02:37. > :02:39.investors to come in, Thailand has great potential, so it is about the
:02:40. > :02:45.stability of government rather than devolving governments. The stability
:02:46. > :02:49.policies, especially investment policies, and no street protests,
:02:50. > :02:53.because they don't bode well, even though we claim they are on separate
:02:54. > :03:00.tracks, but it is a converging track. In other news, China has
:03:01. > :03:08.launched its first mobile telecommunications satellite, the
:03:09. > :03:13.Tian Tong One, serving China, the Middle East and Africa, operated on
:03:14. > :03:17.the ground by a state-owned China Telecom, and it is capable of
:03:18. > :03:22.securely sending and receiving data that cannot be copied, stolen or
:03:23. > :03:28.spied on. Now, the Hong Kong-based digital currency exchange which lost
:03:29. > :03:34.$65 million to hackers last week, is going to spread losses across users.
:03:35. > :03:43.Even though those directly impacted will be losing 40%. Bitcoin has
:03:44. > :03:47.rebounded following that slightly. India's goods and service tax is
:03:48. > :03:54.expected to give a major boost to the economy. And once the that
:03:55. > :03:59.stands to benefit is Indian conglomerate, the Godridge Group.
:04:00. > :04:03.Our correspondent caught up with the chairman and started with asking how
:04:04. > :04:12.the GST will help the Indian economy. I think it will help India
:04:13. > :04:19.tremendously, it will add one and a half to two percentage points to
:04:20. > :04:22.Indian GDP growth rate -- Godrej. The tax rate will be considerably
:04:23. > :04:35.lower on most goods than it is today. On services, it will be
:04:36. > :04:40.higher. It will lead to almost elimination of evasion of indirect
:04:41. > :04:44.taxes, because under the new law evading indirect taxes will be very
:04:45. > :04:50.difficult. If evasion of indirect taxes goes away, it is likely to cut
:04:51. > :04:58.down evasion of direct taxes too because a lot of evasion of direct
:04:59. > :05:03.taxes is to hide indirect taxes. Government collections can go up a
:05:04. > :05:08.lot as the rates will be lower. Prices will be lower, consumption
:05:09. > :05:15.will go up, production will go up. Tell us how it is going to help your
:05:16. > :05:19.company. Tax rates will be lower, we can cut prices, leading to more
:05:20. > :05:23.consumption of the product, leading to more production and investment.
:05:24. > :05:31.Logistics costs will come down a lot. Currently we don't get a set
:05:32. > :05:34.off from all the taxes that go through our input logistics system
:05:35. > :05:39.when we export. Now we will get everything back. All in all it will
:05:40. > :05:44.be extremely beneficial. Historically, if you look at the
:05:45. > :05:47.countries that have implemented GST in the past, the economy has slowed
:05:48. > :05:52.down before they have seen the positive impact of GST. Will we see
:05:53. > :06:00.a similar trend in India? Not at all, I don't expect that at all. You
:06:01. > :06:04.are referring to countries which went from either low or no indirect
:06:05. > :06:11.taxes to a GST or VAT. Here we have a very high indirect tax regime,
:06:12. > :06:17.very complicated, to a simplified, better regime. So I don't think
:06:18. > :06:23.there will be any such case. In fact, I expect from the very first
:06:24. > :06:31.month of implementation, from April 2017 GDP growth will accelerate. One
:06:32. > :06:36.of the biggest trends in alcohol consumption is the explosion in the
:06:37. > :06:41.popularity of craft via globally, and nowhere more so than in
:06:42. > :06:45.Australia. Over the last five years of the industry's revenues in
:06:46. > :06:51.Australia have grown at an estimated annual rate of nearly 10%. And the
:06:52. > :06:56.number of craft or is is up almost 50% in just the last two years
:06:57. > :07:01.alone. -- craft breweries. That has led to the increase in the demand
:07:02. > :07:08.for hops. Let's have a look. Plants grow six metres in the air. We go
:07:09. > :07:12.through and we string overhead trellis work at every single plant.
:07:13. > :07:16.Microbrewery has been a huge growth for us and for the industry and we
:07:17. > :07:21.can say, yes, we know this is how this plant was developed, this is
:07:22. > :07:25.where it was growing, this is the garden it was groaning, so we can
:07:26. > :07:28.follow its whole life basically from its inception all the way to the
:07:29. > :07:35.beer. And that's what the industry wants. -- grown in. The industry is
:07:36. > :07:41.taking notice of what's happening in Australia. We now supply hops
:07:42. > :07:46.domestically, internationally, just selling it to the USA, the UK,
:07:47. > :07:52.Germany, up into Asia, throughout the islands, brewers becoming more
:07:53. > :07:55.passionate about hot varieties that they are then introducing to their
:07:56. > :08:01.beers -- hop. We wouldn't have craft beer without hops, and,
:08:02. > :08:06.specifically, the amazing flavour and aroma of hops that are coming
:08:07. > :08:12.out now. Hops are a precious commodity, so we use them sparingly
:08:13. > :08:16.but compared to the old days of when hops were really just use for making
:08:17. > :08:20.it better, we use huge amounts of hops. The pioneers of craft brewing
:08:21. > :08:24.came from the US on the West Coast and they started using hops more and
:08:25. > :08:28.more to deliver these amazing aromas and flavours. And that is what
:08:29. > :08:36.shocked people into realising that beer didn't need to be bland and not
:08:37. > :08:40.hoppy. So we use hops from all over the world but we just love the
:08:41. > :08:49.flavours that Australian hops in particular are really delivering. We
:08:50. > :08:52.get our beer delivered on Thursday, it comes straight from the brewery
:08:53. > :08:55.and there are a lot of local breweries around here. We cram it
:08:56. > :09:01.into this seller in the basement. There is hardly any room to move
:09:02. > :09:05.because it is, like, stacked. Every square centimetre space is taken.
:09:06. > :09:09.There has been an excursion in craft beer at it continues to gather and
:09:10. > :09:13.momentum. These days I would say it would be very hard to find someone
:09:14. > :09:17.who hasn't been exposed to craft beer somewhere along the line. There
:09:18. > :09:21.is no question that the demand is growing. It is probably, hopefully,
:09:22. > :09:24.continuing to outpace supply. There is a lot of new supply coming on the
:09:25. > :09:31.market but the demand is still growing very quickly. You are seeing
:09:32. > :09:34.demand for hops as you are seeing demand for Asian stocks this morning
:09:35. > :09:40.and let's see how they are trading because the Nikkei is up 1.5%, 1.6,
:09:41. > :09:46.it is rising, as it takes its cue from the US close on Friday with the
:09:47. > :09:50.NASDAQ at a record high and the S 500 at a record high. And you have
:09:51. > :09:58.seen the all ordinaries in Australia also gaining, and that is because we
:09:59. > :10:04.saw some very positive jobs date on Friday, lifting these markets -- All
:10:05. > :10:05.Ordinaries. And that is it for this edition of Asia Business Report.
:10:06. > :10:09.Thanks for watching. The government's being accused
:10:10. > :10:11.of trying to bribe people into accepting fracking for shale
:10:12. > :10:15.gas by proposing payments