07/12/2016 Asia Business Report

Matching outfits and a massive deal after meeting with the US

President-elect. The boss of Japan's Softbank agrees to invest a whopping

50 billion US dollars and create 50,000 new jobs. And a victory for

Samsung Electronics Abe long and bitter pay battle with Apple. --

after a. -- patents battle. Hello, glad you could join us for this

midweek edition of Asia Business Report. -- patents battle. Donald

Trump has been busy meeting with potential Cabinet members and

business leaders from around the world and this time it involves a

major investment from a Japanese company. Here they are, Donald Trump

with Softbank founder in almost matching outfits in the lobby of

current tower in Manhattan. Let's hear what they had to say. Ladies

and gentlemen, this is the CEO of Softbank in Japan and he's just

agreed to invest $50 billion in the United States and 50,000 jobs, and

he's one of the great men of industry, so I just want to thank

you. Thank you very much. I just came to celebrate his new job and we

were talking about it and then I said I would like to celebrate his

presidential job and commit because he would do a lot of deregulation. I

said this is great, the United States will become great again.

After meeting the media, Mr Trump then went on to tweet that he, as in

Mr Son would never have done this if we had not won the election. That

statement may not be totally accurate as Michelle Fleury, our

business correspondent, explains. It interesting going back to that tweet

from Donald Trump saying this wouldn't have happened if he hadn't

won the election, there is some doubt over that. The money comes

from an investment fund that was created in an airship with Saudi

Arabia in October. It's a $100 billion fund created with Saudi

Arabia and other investors. -- in a partnership. Before the election

they had said they were looking for potential future investments. They

didn't give details at the time of what those investments would be. Now

it seems we have some idea. The question of what that money will be

spent on, there's a bit of mystery about that, there's speculation it

could be on start-ups and new ventures, but we will have to wait

and see for more details. But as I say, there had been hints even

before the election that an investment might be coming.

Masayoshi Son already has a huge exposure in the US through

telecommunications company Sprint and also he just made a major

investment in the UK based chipmaker Arm. It's got lots of different

interests. Arm is one of them. In the United States the other is

sprint. We have to look at what the share price did. Once the news about

the meeting had come out, shares in Sprint jumped around 4% higher. Just

to give people some background on all of Sprint was trying to do a

deal in the past with T-Mobile but Jo. As a result of this deal

investors are betting that regulation might be changing under a

Trump presidency. -- with T-Mobile. Michelle Fleury in New York. The

Supreme Court in US has sided with Samsung in its long-running patents

fight with Apple. The court rejected an earlier ruling that Samsung must

pay 400 million US dollars for to Apple for copying iPhone designs. I

asked Dave Lee how significant this was. Samsung will presumably have to

pay a significantly less amount for infringing on those patents. The

topic isn't under dispute, both companies agree that Samsung did

copy a few design ideas, like rounded edges on the phone and the

grid system of apps we all recognise. Nobody is disputing that

but the question is more about how much Samsung should have to pay. It

was originally $399 million, now the Supreme Court said it shouldn't be

that much, it should be returned to a lower court in the US which will

decide is the precise amount. How is this Supreme Court decision related

to carpet makers and carpets? I have been obsessed with this. In the

1800s, 1885, there was a rout that went to the Supreme Court between

two carpet manufacturers, one of which said the other manufacturer

was copying their design. -- there was a row. In that instance the

Supreme Court said the company should pay all the profits it made.

That ruling was used for Apple to get Samsung to pay the $399 million,

the entirety of the profits on the phone Samsung had made. Now the

Supreme Court has gone back on that and said a phone has a lot more to

it and how it looks. It's a precedent, but one that means

Samsung can pay less money than before. Dave Lee in Silicon Valley.

Australia has released its latest growth data and the economy shrank

015% from the last quarter. We found out what is behind this latest

contraction -- 0.5%. Weaker housing investment, weaker business

investment with the mining downturn still happening, weak government and

consumer spending as well. All of those things, not heading towards a

recession, but slow growth, after a reasonable period of growth. Weak,

weak, weak economy! What is the government likely to do at this

point that could pump prime the economy and avoid what you would

call a technical recession, two consecutive quarters of contraction?

Yes. We said a contraction, we said a contraction, we haven't said a

recession and I don't think we will see that. The government will argue

this is a 1-off and that it came after a period of quite strong

growth, stronger than expected growth, we will see a bounce back in

housing investment and non- mining investment will pick up as will

consumer spending, so I don't think the government will do anything, it

will rely on the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates, but that won't

happen until early next year. Shane Oliver from AMP capital in Leicester

is. In India the central bank will meet today for the first time since

the sudden and chaotic move to withdraw 90% of the banknotes in

secular nation. -- Shane Oliver from AMP capital in Australia. Will Mr

Modi's cash clampdown forced the central bank to cut the cost of

borrowing? That's what everyone is expecting. -- force. Ever since the

high-value old currency notes were banned, 86% of the liquidity from

the system was actually removed or wiped out. The central bank has been

struggling to pump in new notes that have been published at this stage.

That's why people have stopped spending because there a cache

issue. Businesses are affected because consumers an spending much

money and are fears the economy could slow its growth over the next

three quarters. -- cash issue. That is why cut of 0.25% is expected so

that it gives an incentive for consumers to start spending -- is a

cut. That may not happen. -- that is why a cut. The new central bank

governor has been very busy, his first meeting he already implemented

the rate cut, he could do another one in this meeting. Now you have

India in the past quarter, one of the fastest-growing economies in the

world and now it may slow down. I think the key thing is that India

has seen good growth over the last year or so. The biggest challenge

they face right now is that many say that they didn't anticipate this

decision, the currency band, would lead to so much chaos because the

Reserve Bank of India has been criticised it didn't implement the

decision properly. -- the currency ban. They anticipated the new notes

would be available in plenty, the banks would have enough notes at

their disposal. But they have struggled to distribute notes.

People are still queueing up to withdraw notes. Lots of cash

machines aren't working. That's why it has become essential for the

Reserve Bank of India to make sure that in the coming weeks and months

they are able to get as many new notes as possible and that's the big

question that Mr Patel will be asked today in the press conference he

addresses, why hasn't the Reserve Bank of India implemented the

decision properly and how long will it take for the cash crunch to carry

on. Thank you for joining us on Asia Business Report. I'm Rico Hizon.

Goodbye for now. Concern

is growing for the Rohingya muslim