:00:07. > :00:19.Team GB has won more golds in Rio, cementing its number two spot in the
:00:20. > :00:20.medal table. Jason Kenny and Laura Trott
:00:21. > :00:23.take their gold-medal tally to ten, The US continue to top the medal
:00:24. > :00:29.table in the Rio Olympics. There was a fourth title
:00:30. > :00:32.for gymnast Simone Biles, staff at a Chinese magazine have
:00:33. > :00:36.gone to court to try to challenge what they call the illegal takeover
:00:37. > :00:38.of their publication by authorities. They allege they have been shut out
:00:39. > :00:41.of their own offices. And this story is
:00:42. > :00:44.trending on bbc.com. Chinese actor Wang Baoqiang has
:00:45. > :00:48.become a top trend in China after divorcing his wife,
:00:49. > :01:20.accusing her of having an affair The top story in the UK: the radical
:01:21. > :01:24.British born preacher Anjem Choudary has been convicted of supporting
:01:25. > :01:26.Islamic State. Another man has been convicted of the same offence.
:01:27. > :01:35.Now it is time for Asia Business Report.
:01:36. > :01:42.Cleared for take-off. After a 10-year wait, Indonesian airlines
:01:43. > :01:46.get the green light to fly into the United States. And protecting New
:01:47. > :01:50.Zealand's all-important farming industry. We speak to the minister
:01:51. > :02:02.who will spend millions on getting rid of these little creatures. Good
:02:03. > :02:08.morning, Asia. Hello, world. It is a Wednesday. Glad you could enjoy join
:02:09. > :02:13.us for this edition of Asia Business Report. I am Rico Hizon. Regulators
:02:14. > :02:18.have given Indonesian airlines clearance to fly into the US again.
:02:19. > :02:21.They were banned in 2007 after a downgrade mainly due to safety
:02:22. > :02:25.concerns following several crashes. Will the approval help repair the
:02:26. > :02:33.reputation of the Indonesian carriers? Our correspondent explains
:02:34. > :02:37.the airline's long haul flights to the milestone. It is not really
:02:38. > :02:41.entirely surprising. They have been working for several years to improve
:02:42. > :02:45.things around safety oversight, documentation and training. So it
:02:46. > :02:49.has been a long, hard effort but there have been setbacks, notably
:02:50. > :02:52.recent crashes and incidents in the last few years. So the difference
:02:53. > :03:00.between the FA approval and the approval of the European... Is that
:03:01. > :03:06.a blanket approval in the US, while in Europe it is basically depending
:03:07. > :03:16.on the airline? That's correct. In Europe they will cherry pick
:03:17. > :03:20.airlines, so Garuda Indonesia and Lionair have been taken off the
:03:21. > :03:24.blacklist, but in the States it is a blanket ban on. Indonesian airlines
:03:25. > :03:28.are free to fly to the US and in addition can form partnerships with
:03:29. > :03:33.US carriers including co-chairs and that kind of thing. So is this a
:03:34. > :03:37.game changer for the Indonesian aviation industry? It is certainly
:03:38. > :03:40.important because it removes I guess the Scarlet letter of Category 2
:03:41. > :03:44.backstabbers. Category 1 is where you want to be as a respectable
:03:45. > :03:47.member of the aviation community. That said, I think it is going to be
:03:48. > :03:52.a struggle for Indonesian carriers right now to compete in US routes
:03:53. > :03:57.because Indonesia is quite far from the US and it is quite competitive.
:03:58. > :04:02.So it won't really add much to the bottom line of a Garuda Indonesia or
:04:03. > :04:05.a Lion Air when they fly to the United States? Lion Air will
:04:06. > :04:08.probably not be doing it for quite awhile because they don't have the
:04:09. > :04:12.aircraft. Garuda Indonesia have said they very seriously would like to
:04:13. > :04:16.fly to the United States via Japan. Were they to do so, they would enter
:04:17. > :04:20.a very competitive market and it would be quite challenging for them
:04:21. > :04:23.to make money here. The real legacy of this would be Garuda Indonesia
:04:24. > :04:29.could partner with its sky team member Delta and work together on
:04:30. > :04:32.co-chairs and that sort of thing. But Indonesia has a population of
:04:33. > :04:38.more than 200 million people. Can't they use that as they ace,
:04:39. > :04:44.basically, as a gateway to the United States? -- base. It is quite
:04:45. > :04:48.possible, it is certainly possible that Garuda could launch direct
:04:49. > :04:51.services to the States. They haven't talked about this and it could be
:04:52. > :04:54.some years down the road. Getting Category 1 approval could be in the
:04:55. > :04:58.long-term quite significant for them but it would be hard to make money
:04:59. > :05:08.for them. They could make a go of it at some point. China's State Council
:05:09. > :05:13.has approved a new link between its tech heavy Shenzhen and Hong Kong
:05:14. > :05:16.stock exchanges. Limits on how much foreigners can invest in Chinese
:05:17. > :05:19.stocks would be scrapped but there would be a daily cap of $2 billion
:05:20. > :05:25.on the amount of money coming into Shenzhen. The dollar and the
:05:26. > :05:28.Japanese yen will be at the forefront of investors' mines this
:05:29. > :05:35.morning after the dollar fell to as low as 99.54 yen overnight. This is
:05:36. > :05:39.the first time it has gone through the 100 yen mark since the aftermath
:05:40. > :05:42.of the UK's vote to leave the European Union. The dollar also
:05:43. > :05:45.weakened against the euro. Let's give you an update on where they
:05:46. > :05:55.stand at the moment. The dollar yen cross rate at 100 .42. The euro and
:05:56. > :06:02.yen at 113. The Aussie dollar at 77 cents in the US Singapore dollar at
:06:03. > :06:07.1.33. Agriculture is one of the main pillars of the European economy, and
:06:08. > :06:10.that is why the government there is spending around $20 million on
:06:11. > :06:15.protecting it. Not in subsidies or trade tariffs but an eradication
:06:16. > :06:19.programme to get rid of predators like rats and feral cats. New
:06:20. > :06:25.Zealand's conservation Minister told me why it is so important.
:06:26. > :06:30.Introduced mammalian predators are one of the most significant problems
:06:31. > :06:33.that we face. We are an economy that relies on primary industry, our
:06:34. > :06:37.predators cost us an estimated $3.3 billion in terms of lost
:06:38. > :06:43.productivity, and introduced weeds cost a further $1.3 billion. For
:06:44. > :06:46.every day that passes, that will cost us more. The big problem with
:06:47. > :06:50.primary industry is that possums in particular spread bovine
:06:51. > :06:55.tuberculosis, which renders our cattle as carriers of this disease.
:06:56. > :06:59.So we spend about three quarters of the money we spend on it in trying
:07:00. > :07:05.to keep this disease from crossing over into other species. That is why
:07:06. > :07:10.it is such a vital goal to achieve. That is a huge loss to the economy,
:07:11. > :07:14.more than 3 billion US dollars but critics are saying this programme
:07:15. > :07:19.could be an ecological blunder. The intention is to unrealistic,
:07:20. > :07:22.bordering on the irrational. It is not irrational and you always have
:07:23. > :07:29.the lunatic fringe that come in and try and destroy a vision, with no
:07:30. > :07:31.science, no backing and a lot of emotive nonsense. We don't pay
:07:32. > :07:37.attention to that. We go for evidence based. And at the moment
:07:38. > :07:42.what we can see is that this is an achievable goal. My Department of
:07:43. > :07:46.conservation has already cleared 150 offshore islands of predators and we
:07:47. > :07:50.are doing very well. And we have confidence that with the elegy
:07:51. > :07:55.gains, with science and innovation, that we will be able to reach these
:07:56. > :08:00.goals -- technology gains. We are involving community level groups to
:08:01. > :08:04.make their communities and areas of predator free and we believe that
:08:05. > :08:09.with staged outcomes we will be able to achieve predator free by 2050
:08:10. > :08:14.goals. The government is saying that you will only be spending around 20
:08:15. > :08:19.million US dollars to start this whole initiative. But there are some
:08:20. > :08:24.groups that are saying it could cost in the billions, costing the
:08:25. > :08:28.government much more, into the billions of dollars. And this could
:08:29. > :08:33.hurt the Budget going forward. The $28 million that we have invested as
:08:34. > :08:37.an initial investment in predator free New Zealand will be matched by
:08:38. > :08:42.philanthropic, business and other partnerships. For example, one of
:08:43. > :08:48.the groups that we have in New Zealand has invested $100 million
:08:49. > :08:51.over ten years in predator control and other conservation initiatives.
:08:52. > :08:56.The people in New Zealand understand that this is a problem we need to be
:08:57. > :08:59.able to solve together. It is by working together collaboratively,
:09:00. > :09:05.along with science and research, and all New zealanders, that we will
:09:06. > :09:07.achieve this goal. That was New Zealand's conservation Minister
:09:08. > :09:12.Maggie Barry. Asia's growth rate compared to the rest of the world
:09:13. > :09:15.may stand out there is one downside. Companies moving to the region take
:09:16. > :09:20.advantage of that growth often cannot find the right employees or
:09:21. > :09:25.talent to fill their needs. We find out what one multinational companies
:09:26. > :09:30.doing to address the shortage. It may look like fun and games, but
:09:31. > :09:36.there is something very serious at work here. Gary is a part of it, a
:09:37. > :09:39.young employee at a big multinational firm who is here as
:09:40. > :09:44.part of a leadership training programme. Our day-to-day work is
:09:45. > :09:48.all about work, but here they give us an opportunity to really
:09:49. > :09:55.understand yourself more, about your career passion. And I know more
:09:56. > :10:03.about my role in this company, and also about how it can benefit my own
:10:04. > :10:07.career. The company providing best training is pharmaceutical giant
:10:08. > :10:13.GlaxoSmithKline, who are investing considerable resources here. Asia is
:10:14. > :10:18.a really important growth area for us. I think we signalled that when
:10:19. > :10:21.we announced we were going to build a new headquarters in Singapore for
:10:22. > :10:24.all of Asia. At just building a building is the answer. It is about
:10:25. > :10:28.the people we put in the building. What we want to do is have people
:10:29. > :10:32.running Asia from Asia who understand Asia. So these talent
:10:33. > :10:37.programmes are all about building the capability for people to do just
:10:38. > :10:43.that. They are unusual in their approach. Many other firms are
:10:44. > :10:45.struggling. Skyscrapers in Singapore's financial district,
:10:46. > :10:50.Housing corporate firms, that need to fill them up with employees. But
:10:51. > :10:55.just how to find them and hang on to them is a challenge. According to a
:10:56. > :11:00.recent survey most employers in Asia say they are more likely to hire an
:11:01. > :11:04.expensive expatriate, because they say there is a shortage of
:11:05. > :11:08.candidates in key sectors such as engineering, finance, accountancy
:11:09. > :11:12.and human resources. Of employers reporting difficulty in filling
:11:13. > :11:16.jobs, the highest percentage of them are in Asia, well above the global
:11:17. > :11:21.average. The younger demographic and continued economic growth are Asia's
:11:22. > :11:26.deke assets but when it comes to finding the right talent it can also
:11:27. > :11:29.be a big disadvantage. Which means scenes like these are going to
:11:30. > :11:36.become more commonplace in offices around the region. Let's have a
:11:37. > :11:41.quick look at the markets. Asia is mixed in early we can trade, after
:11:42. > :11:46.equities fell and comments by the Fed regulators could raise interest
:11:47. > :11:50.rates as early as next month. The Nikkei 225 is up due to gains in the
:11:51. > :11:54.energy sector. Thank you so much for investing your time with us.