:00:13. > :00:24.Asian shares rise after a record day on Wall Street but -- with the Dow
:00:25. > :00:29.and S hitting highs yet again. One man's mission to return the green
:00:30. > :00:33.takes root in the citystate. Welcome to this Thursday edition
:00:34. > :00:45.of Asia Business Report. We start off with the markets and
:00:46. > :00:48.for the 12th time since the US presidential election US shares have
:00:49. > :00:53.surged to their highest levels overnight. Let's show you the
:00:54. > :01:05.numbers. The Dow Jones industrial average in gaining 1.6%. And the SNP
:01:06. > :01:08.market up into record territory. Asian shares all in positive
:01:09. > :01:13.territory. Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. While investors have
:01:14. > :01:17.cheered what Donald Trump is expected to announce when he takes
:01:18. > :01:27.office, what will the impact be on Asia and the economies? I put the
:01:28. > :01:31.question to an member of Scotabank. There is a lot of uncertainty about
:01:32. > :01:35.the policies he will implement and focus on, but assuming we don't get
:01:36. > :01:40.any major protectionist policies then we will see a pickup in Asia
:01:41. > :01:46.simply because advanced economies will likely pick up. At the same
:01:47. > :01:50.time, of course, if we do see protectionist policies implemented,
:01:51. > :01:55.then that may work as a push for deeper intraregional trade and
:01:56. > :02:02.integration. What major business deals between Asia and the United
:02:03. > :02:09.States basically eased the rat of Trump in Asia? For example,
:02:10. > :02:13.Softbank's founder promised $50 billion in investment in the United
:02:14. > :02:20.States, which will create 50,000 jobs. I think there is potential
:02:21. > :02:24.for, like I say, deeper intraregional integration and China
:02:25. > :02:28.will play a key role in that, driving any trade deals here.
:02:29. > :02:32.Indeed, China, which is the second largest economy in the world, and we
:02:33. > :02:37.have so many of them here in the region, Japan, Korea and India. So,
:02:38. > :02:45.will the mainland lead the way right now for Asia if the US is bumped? I
:02:46. > :02:50.think so. China definitely plays a key role in the region but there are
:02:51. > :02:53.other countries, for example India that will have a significant role in
:02:54. > :02:58.the coming economic growth prospects. And that was Tuuli
:02:59. > :03:05.McCully Thomas senior international economist at Scotabank. Well, in
:03:06. > :03:11.other news making headlines, Sony is joining the mobile market, unveiling
:03:12. > :03:18.fee iconic PlayStation titles in spring, following the success of
:03:19. > :03:24.Pokemon Go when India's Tata Steel put the sale of the company up in
:03:25. > :03:30.March, unions and management have managed to end the uncertainty. The
:03:31. > :03:34.agreement will be voted on. Our correspondent reports.
:03:35. > :03:37.It has been a dark year for the workforce at Port Talbot. As dawn
:03:38. > :03:41.broke over the plant this morning there was a glimmer of hope that a
:03:42. > :03:46.more certain future could be on the horizon. The blast furnaces have
:03:47. > :03:52.kept on working, but no one knew for how long. Prospective buyers were
:03:53. > :03:56.unwilling to take on the liability of the company's pensions scheme.
:03:57. > :04:00.Today's announcement comes after months of negotiations between the
:04:01. > :04:05.company and union representatives. So, what is the proposal that unions
:04:06. > :04:09.will take to their members? There is a commitment by the company to
:04:10. > :04:12.running the two blast furnaces at Port Talbot for at least five years.
:04:13. > :04:18.A 10-year ?1 billion investment plan. A commitment to try to avoid
:04:19. > :04:26.compulsory redundancies for at least five years. But Tata will consult on
:04:27. > :04:33.replacing the pension plan with a defined contribution scheme. Yes,
:04:34. > :04:36.there is a question and the workforce will make the decision
:04:37. > :04:40.whether to accept this but at the end of the day Tata is saying there
:04:41. > :04:46.is no where they can support British Steel pension and future investment
:04:47. > :04:50.needed -- no way. Chris James is just about to go on shift. He is
:04:51. > :04:54.taking in today's news. The fact we have got five years now pretty much
:04:55. > :04:58.guaranteed here, that is very good news. Billion pounds of investment
:04:59. > :05:02.in the next ten years, that is really good news as well. Pension
:05:03. > :05:07.doesn't affect me so much because I haven't been here so long but some
:05:08. > :05:11.of the boys have 25 years, 30 years, planning to retire at a certain
:05:12. > :05:15.time, they will have to find out the details on what is involved if the
:05:16. > :05:20.scheme closes. Workers will have a lot to consider over the coming
:05:21. > :05:25.weeks. Tata, in effect, have made a U-turn. You will recognise that it
:05:26. > :05:33.has been an extremely difficult time for Tata Steel in terms of financial
:05:34. > :05:37.performance last year. And, since then, many things have changed. One
:05:38. > :05:41.is that there is a transformation plan that have started working. The
:05:42. > :05:45.uncertainty has been felt by the local community too. People have
:05:46. > :05:50.built businesses and their livelihoods around the plant. It is
:05:51. > :05:56.not just the steelworks, the contractors are going, like myself,
:05:57. > :06:00.the contractors and the steel company. Tata's annual Christmas
:06:01. > :06:05.party for workers and their families went ahead as usual last night.
:06:06. > :06:11.Families here have now been given an offer of security, but there will be
:06:12. > :06:15.a price to pay. Apple's iPhones have brought strong
:06:16. > :06:21.numbers for the company according to latest research. Yep, that is it,
:06:22. > :06:25.the iPhone 7, which critics said didn't have a lot of surprising
:06:26. > :06:36.features and innovation, but Apple has taken advantage of the Samsung
:06:37. > :06:39.recall of the Galaxy Note 7. But the Shanghai consumer council has set a
:06:40. > :06:43.people have complained their iPhone has burst into flames. The company
:06:44. > :06:52.blames external physical damage. I asked the host of Tech360.tv how
:06:53. > :06:57.serious this is. Eight phones in China. How big a deal is it? Apple
:06:58. > :07:01.is quiet on it. That has been their strategy for a long time. Compare
:07:02. > :07:05.that to what happened with Samsung, the first phone exploded in China,
:07:06. > :07:10.followed by explosions in the United States. Could this be political,
:07:11. > :07:14.Tim, because we haven't seen footage of these apple iPhone 7 is exploding
:07:15. > :07:23.in China? Exactly, well, when the Mac -- Note 7 exploited, we saw the
:07:24. > :07:31.same thing. Is it political? Apple has big competition in China. I
:07:32. > :07:35.think it is as recent as may or Q2 when phone sales went down. With
:07:36. > :07:39.Donald Trump wanting to bring back jobs to the United States, than
:07:40. > :07:43.Apple could be made in the US, briefly? I did speak to the
:07:44. > :07:47.president of the consumer technology association in the United States and
:07:48. > :07:51.he said that will be a dumb move because it will make phones cost as
:07:52. > :07:54.much as a car. Singapore is a tiny Metropolitan
:07:55. > :08:00.island importing 90% of fruit and vegetables. Spare land is scarce but
:08:01. > :08:04.urban farming is taking root. In this week's taste of Asia series we
:08:05. > :08:08.meet a man who has been sowing the seeds of change by championing small
:08:09. > :08:17.rooftop farms and traditional local produce for the last four years.
:08:18. > :08:22.I didn't know anything about food farming because growing up in
:08:23. > :08:26.Singapore, where there is not many farms, and I thought it was a very
:08:27. > :08:31.necessary skill for survival, growing your own food and eating it,
:08:32. > :08:34.so I went on a discovery journey for two years, working on farms in the
:08:35. > :09:00.UK and Spain and Japan. We went to these open spaces in an
:09:01. > :09:04.urban setting, started a far - the community started getting around it.
:09:05. > :09:08.There is a big disconnect between urbanites and nature, nature in
:09:09. > :09:16.general, or farming, and where the source of food comes from. We have
:09:17. > :09:20.the opportunity to find these older farmers that have actually a lot of
:09:21. > :09:28.knowledge on what can be eaten in the tropical setting, and we started
:09:29. > :09:36.to revive some of these species by growing, mass growing them in all
:09:37. > :09:39.these rooftop farms. This is the Okinawan spinach, which can be
:09:40. > :09:43.substituted for other vegetables to be bought in the store, it is native
:09:44. > :09:46.to the tropical region and grows easily as a perennial as a perfect
:09:47. > :10:19.crop for long-term sustainability. Well, making space here in Singapore
:10:20. > :10:24.for fruit and vegetable produce. Thank you so much for joining us.
:10:25. > :10:27.I'm Rico Hizon in Singapore. Sport Today is coming up next. Bye for
:10:28. > :10:43.now. Yes, Sport Today coming up in a
:10:44. > :10:45.moment, but first let's bring you up-to-date with some of our Main
:10:46. > :10:46.stories. Rebels
:10:47. > :10:49.call for a ceasefire after Syria's