08/12/2016 Asia Business Report

Asian shares rise after a record day on Wall Street but -- with the Dow

and S hitting highs yet again. One man's mission to return the green

takes root in the citystate. Welcome to this Thursday edition

of Asia Business Report. We start off with the markets and

for the 12th time since the US presidential election US shares have

surged to their highest levels overnight. Let's show you the

numbers. The Dow Jones industrial average in gaining 1.6%. And the SNP

market up into record territory. Asian shares all in positive

territory. Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. While investors have

cheered what Donald Trump is expected to announce when he takes

office, what will the impact be on Asia and the economies? I put the

question to an member of Scotabank. There is a lot of uncertainty about

the policies he will implement and focus on, but assuming we don't get

any major protectionist policies then we will see a pickup in Asia

simply because advanced economies will likely pick up. At the same

time, of course, if we do see protectionist policies implemented,

then that may work as a push for deeper intraregional trade and

integration. What major business deals between Asia and the United

States basically eased the rat of Trump in Asia? For example,

Softbank's founder promised $50 billion in investment in the United

States, which will create 50,000 jobs. I think there is potential

for, like I say, deeper intraregional integration and China

will play a key role in that, driving any trade deals here.

Indeed, China, which is the second largest economy in the world, and we

have so many of them here in the region, Japan, Korea and India. So,

will the mainland lead the way right now for Asia if the US is bumped? I

think so. China definitely plays a key role in the region but there are

other countries, for example India that will have a significant role in

the coming economic growth prospects. And that was Tuuli

McCully Thomas senior international economist at Scotabank. Well, in

other news making headlines, Sony is joining the mobile market, unveiling

fee iconic PlayStation titles in spring, following the success of

Pokemon Go when India's Tata Steel put the sale of the company up in

March, unions and management have managed to end the uncertainty. The

agreement will be voted on. Our correspondent reports.

It has been a dark year for the workforce at Port Talbot. As dawn

broke over the plant this morning there was a glimmer of hope that a

more certain future could be on the horizon. The blast furnaces have

kept on working, but no one knew for how long. Prospective buyers were

unwilling to take on the liability of the company's pensions scheme.

Today's announcement comes after months of negotiations between the

company and union representatives. So, what is the proposal that unions

will take to their members? There is a commitment by the company to

running the two blast furnaces at Port Talbot for at least five years.

A 10-year ?1 billion investment plan. A commitment to try to avoid

compulsory redundancies for at least five years. But Tata will consult on

replacing the pension plan with a defined contribution scheme. Yes,

there is a question and the workforce will make the decision

whether to accept this but at the end of the day Tata is saying there

is no where they can support British Steel pension and future investment

needed -- no way. Chris James is just about to go on shift. He is

taking in today's news. The fact we have got five years now pretty much

guaranteed here, that is very good news. Billion pounds of investment

in the next ten years, that is really good news as well. Pension

doesn't affect me so much because I haven't been here so long but some

of the boys have 25 years, 30 years, planning to retire at a certain

time, they will have to find out the details on what is involved if the

scheme closes. Workers will have a lot to consider over the coming

weeks. Tata, in effect, have made a U-turn. You will recognise that it

has been an extremely difficult time for Tata Steel in terms of financial

performance last year. And, since then, many things have changed. One

is that there is a transformation plan that have started working. The

uncertainty has been felt by the local community too. People have

built businesses and their livelihoods around the plant. It is

not just the steelworks, the contractors are going, like myself,

the contractors and the steel company. Tata's annual Christmas

party for workers and their families went ahead as usual last night.

Families here have now been given an offer of security, but there will be

a price to pay. Apple's iPhones have brought strong

numbers for the company according to latest research. Yep, that is it,

the iPhone 7, which critics said didn't have a lot of surprising

features and innovation, but Apple has taken advantage of the Samsung

recall of the Galaxy Note 7. But the Shanghai consumer council has set a

people have complained their iPhone has burst into flames. The company

blames external physical damage. I asked the host of Tech360.tv how

serious this is. Eight phones in China. How big a deal is it? Apple

is quiet on it. That has been their strategy for a long time. Compare

that to what happened with Samsung, the first phone exploded in China,

followed by explosions in the United States. Could this be political,

Tim, because we haven't seen footage of these apple iPhone 7 is exploding

in China? Exactly, well, when the Mac -- Note 7 exploited, we saw the

same thing. Is it political? Apple has big competition in China. I

think it is as recent as may or Q2 when phone sales went down. With

Donald Trump wanting to bring back jobs to the United States, than

Apple could be made in the US, briefly? I did speak to the

president of the consumer technology association in the United States and

he said that will be a dumb move because it will make phones cost as

much as a car. Singapore is a tiny Metropolitan

island importing 90% of fruit and vegetables. Spare land is scarce but

urban farming is taking root. In this week's taste of Asia series we

meet a man who has been sowing the seeds of change by championing small

rooftop farms and traditional local produce for the last four years.

I didn't know anything about food farming because growing up in

Singapore, where there is not many farms, and I thought it was a very

necessary skill for survival, growing your own food and eating it,

so I went on a discovery journey for two years, working on farms in the

UK and Spain and Japan. We went to these open spaces in an

urban setting, started a far - the community started getting around it.

There is a big disconnect between urbanites and nature, nature in

general, or farming, and where the source of food comes from. We have

the opportunity to find these older farmers that have actually a lot of

knowledge on what can be eaten in the tropical setting, and we started

to revive some of these species by growing, mass growing them in all

these rooftop farms. This is the Okinawan spinach, which can be

substituted for other vegetables to be bought in the store, it is native

to the tropical region and grows easily as a perennial as a perfect

crop for long-term sustainability. Well, making space here in Singapore

for fruit and vegetable produce. Thank you so much for joining us.

I'm Rico Hizon in Singapore. Sport Today is coming up next. Bye for

now. Yes, Sport Today coming up in a

moment, but first let's bring you up-to-date with some of our Main

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