06/12/2016 Asia Business Report

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

South Korea's leading business leaders take centre stage in a

federal investigation into President Park's corruption scandal. Taking

advantage of India's cash crisis, a reporter tried some new and

interesting apps. Welcome to this Tuesday edition

of Asia Business Report. The bosses of South Korea's top

companies are taking the hot seat as we speak in a series of

unprecedented parliamentary hearing. It is the latest chapter in

President Park's ongoing scandal as she is accused of colluding with a

secret confidant to influence corporations into donating tens of

millions of dollars to dubious foundations. Earlier I asked our

correspondent in Seoul who is being grilled in parliament today. They

are the people who run and owned the South Korean economy, they are the

big household names from Samsung down to LG, Hyundai. Their bosses

will be in line, I presume, and questioned by the assembly. The

question will be, why do your company give millions of dollars to

foundations set up by a friend of the President of this country? The

defence, maybe, well, what could we do? She was saying she was close to

the President. Or it may simply be, we didn't know what it was for. We

don't know. Either way, these are the people in this big economy. On

top of that, they are people who do not appear in public. They do not

give interviews, they shun public city, but here they will be in a

televised hearing, remember, Rico, in front of millions of viewers and

of course being asked very tough questions. They will indeed be asked

to questions by the parliamentarians, Steve, but are

these companies and their bosses liable for prosecution if indeed

they made the donations? They could be, eventually, but that is not

imminent. I mean, individuals could be in theory, I suppose. You are

absolutely right. The question is, are these companies complicit

because they have to be, or was there a quid pro quo? In other

words, did they give all this money with a bit of a deal under way?

There were mergers being talked about, for example, with one of

these companies. Was there a deal done whereby emoji was a matter

happen if you give them money? -- a merger. That would be out and out

corruption. Or is it something less guilty than that along the lines of,

we know our rivals are giving money, widow like it, but I guess we have

to go along with it and --. And briefly, is this impacting business

sentiment in the country? I think it is, I have no doubt it is impacting

sentiment generally in the country. We are seeing big demonstrations

every Saturday. Bigger and bigger - millions of people, probably - and a

real sense on the streets that people want change, and they want

change from the President, certainly, and that we'll doing

business in the presidential palace. But I think also from the chaebols,

some of these have done time for crimes. There is a sense that there

is something rotten at the top of South Korean society. The region's

trade growth has slowed to 2.3% behind the global average of 2.7% in

Asia. However, the region remains the top destination for foreign

direct investments, attracting over half $1 trillion. Well, I asked the

bank director how the loss of big free trade deals amid the rise of

populism will affect the region. Going forward, definitely the

environment doesn't look very favourable, but what we see... Just

one answer. In intraregional trade and the strengthening of the

regional value chain, which will further, at least, buffer the shock

on regional trade. We also see that, still, the region exports are

growing faster than imports, so, you know, the current account surplus is

still going on in many countries in the region. But a free-trade

agreement between the European Union and is getting very, very close and

that is according to the EU trade Commissioner in an interview with

the Financial Times. She said Tokyo raised concerns about similar

political trouble that nearly took down the EU, Canada pact. This year

has seen free-trade deals come under intense political attack in the US

and Europe. In other news: making headlines, the UK central bank

governor says that Britain has suffered its first loss decade since

the 1860s. Mark Carney was responding to critics of low

interest rates in the first speech since shortly after the Brexit vote

and he said that the bank had accepted that the fall in the value

of the pound would push inflation higher in 2017. China's president is

reportedly attending the World Economic Forum in Davos in

Switzerland in January and it is seen as a sign China is filling the

space being vacated by the US under the President-elect Donald Trump.

A list of top business schools has been released and a among them the

London business school is ranked number one in Europe for the third

time in a row. Many Asian students view owning a degree from these

universities will give them a competitive edge in the job market

and with a weakening pound and euro they are getting more for their

money has me explain. The trend we have seen over the last

ten years, students have been increasing, especially heading to

the UK, the dollar has been appreciating against the pound over

the last ten years. Is the exchange rate really important for parents

when they pay the tuition and fees for their kids or is it just about

the independence and getting that education overseas and being

independent? It is a range of factors and the cost of living I

would say is one consideration that parents take into when they send

their kids overseas. There are other factors such as cost, sorry, the

school, the environment, the exposure, other factors a student

would consider. Well, Indians are adjusting to life

after the surprise decision to ban almost 90% of the bank notes in

circulation. Four weeks people have been queueing at banks and ATMs in

an effort to get their hands on valid cash but some enterprising

Indians have seen opportunity and if this cash crunch -- For weeks. Our

correspondent reports from Delhi. It is still not easy to get cash in

cities and villages across India thanks to the Dean Mumm Thais drive.

-- demonetisation drive. ATMs have been running out of money regularly.

Fear not, this could be the answer. Cash note cashnocash.com throws up a

list of ATMs near you. It is Crouser lost information so let's find out

if it works. -- crowd sourced information. These days in India you

can't always avoid this type of queues, so how on earth do you kill

time while standing in one of these? He says he finds entertainment on

the phone. Demonetisation related apps are top of the charts on

Android and apple phones, ranging from games to currency related

songs. So, here is one called Modi keynote at which you can use to scan

a currency note and it will show you the Prime Minister demonetisation

speech of November eight. Let us join this festival of... If you

don't want to hear speeches you can play mobile phone games and chase

Blackburn yawn your phone like this. Better still, go and get a coffee

while someone else stands in line for you. A Delhi -based start-up is

offering agents to queue for customers for a small fee. Time is

money for a lot of people right now. The bookings have really shot. We

are even cancelling the bookings because are running short. But I

finally have had my turn and these are my brand-new banknotes and if I

want to share my experience with the Prime Minister even he has an app on

the Android and the apple apps store so I can share my experience on the

demonetisation drive and that is it. LAUGHTER.

Very interesting and clever. And before we go and look at the market

and as you can see all in positive territory for the Asian stock

markets with Japan, Hong Kong and Australia following gains in US

equities led by retail and technology as investors shrugged off

the results of the Italian referendum. The Dow at a record