:00:14. > :00:19.Japan and the EU try to carve out a free trade pact in a new age of
:00:20. > :00:25.protectionism. And what do people in Asia want to
:00:26. > :00:27.know about? Google fills us in on the top business search words in
:00:28. > :00:40.2016. Welcome to Asia Business Report, I'm
:00:41. > :00:45.Karishma Vaswani. This week finance leaders from Japan and the EU want
:00:46. > :00:49.to reach an agreement on a free-trade pact, it comes at an
:00:50. > :00:53.uncertain time to say the least, though, for international trade as
:00:54. > :00:57.US President elect Donald Trump speaks of rising protectionism and
:00:58. > :01:02.the UK decision to split from the European Union. Japan is the EU's
:01:03. > :01:07.second biggest trading partner in Asia after China and together the EU
:01:08. > :01:13.and Japan make up more than a third of the world's GDP. How important
:01:14. > :01:17.are the negotiations in light of how Donald Trump has been so vocal about
:01:18. > :01:21.getting the US to withdraw from the TPP? That was a question I put to
:01:22. > :01:25.Richard Jeremy, the chief economist from the bank of Singapore a little
:01:26. > :01:30.earlier. More important they have been talking for years about this
:01:31. > :01:42.and not making a lot of progress, no sign of urgency. The US TPP is dead
:01:43. > :01:47.in America with Trump. They are both looking for a new partner. At a time
:01:48. > :01:52.when it looks like free trade, globalisation, all that is on the
:01:53. > :01:58.backburner, what can they hope to achieve, these two massive parts of
:01:59. > :02:01.the world's GDP? On one level they are big economies and if they
:02:02. > :02:06.improve trade relations there are economic benefits from that. On
:02:07. > :02:09.another level they want to send a signal to push back against the
:02:10. > :02:14.protectionist views coming out of America and also to some degree the
:02:15. > :02:19.UK as well. Looking specifically at the UK, we have heard from Japanese
:02:20. > :02:23.companies in the light of Brexit that some are considering moving
:02:24. > :02:26.headquarters out of London, they are concerned about passport Inc writes
:02:27. > :02:30.for financial services. Japanese firms are some of the biggest
:02:31. > :02:35.foreign employers in the UK, what does that mean for the UK economy
:02:36. > :02:46.and Japan's prospects? It's a big risk for the UK because clearly some
:02:47. > :02:49.foreign investment into the UK has been to access the broader European
:02:50. > :02:52.market. If you lose that access or if you worry you might you will be
:02:53. > :02:55.looking to relocate your investments, and last week we saw
:02:56. > :02:58.some Japanese financial institutions suggesting they might need to start
:02:59. > :03:01.moving some of their businesses to Continental Europe because they were
:03:02. > :03:11.worried about what might happen after Brexit. Turning to other
:03:12. > :03:15.business news, talks at aimed at averting a British Airways cabin
:03:16. > :03:21.crew strike over Christmas are to be held later today. Members of the
:03:22. > :03:25.crew's union, Unite, are due to walk out on Christmas Day and Boxing Day
:03:26. > :03:30.in a row over pay and conditions. The industrial action, if it goes
:03:31. > :03:34.ahead, could involve up to 4500 staff. Staying with the airline
:03:35. > :03:38.industry, Etihad Airways will be cutting jobs in some parts of the
:03:39. > :03:42.business in a restructure. The airline says a majority of those
:03:43. > :03:46.affected are through natural attrition and the vacancies will not
:03:47. > :03:53.be filled. Etihad has denied to comment on the number of jobs that
:03:54. > :03:56.will go. There's no denying 2016 was an unpredictable year, but could
:03:57. > :04:01.investors look to emerging markets for some semblance of stability next
:04:02. > :04:04.year? Sharanjit Leyl posed to that question to the chief executive of
:04:05. > :04:09.the international arm of Goldman Sachs's asset management. I think
:04:10. > :04:13.when you look back at 2016 you see it as the year of volatility and
:04:14. > :04:16.surprises but there's a tendency when you apply volatility to
:04:17. > :04:20.emerging markets to throw out the baby with the bathwater. In some
:04:21. > :04:25.ways the emerging markets have been most stable in 2016 and we look at
:04:26. > :04:30.emerging markets as a tale of two cities. One has to look for the more
:04:31. > :04:33.stable markets where you see reform is progressing and the ones where
:04:34. > :04:38.you see less impact from some of the changes we saw in 2016. Markets like
:04:39. > :04:46.India, where reforms are progressing and we see potential growth, select
:04:47. > :04:49.areas within China, like Internet, the new economy, lifestyle,
:04:50. > :04:53.investments people are making, places like Brazil where reforms and
:04:54. > :04:57.the new government might be making constructive change. A new report
:04:58. > :05:01.put out by your firm, your economists suggesting higher oil
:05:02. > :05:06.prices will be a boom for the global economy. We know that higher oil
:05:07. > :05:11.prices aren't good for Asia, a lot of Asian countries have huge oil
:05:12. > :05:15.bills. Oil prices have been a commander for people over the last
:05:16. > :05:18.few years. Obviously when we look at it from an asset management
:05:19. > :05:22.perspective I think the signalling factor is what's important. People
:05:23. > :05:28.have started to take extremely low oil prices as a sign of poor global
:05:29. > :05:32.growth. The reflection you see here in the thought process is somewhat
:05:33. > :05:38.higher oil prices, but not at the extremes we saw approaching $150 or
:05:39. > :05:42.200 US dollars, is a positive in the sense that it indicates there is
:05:43. > :05:46.global growth. We have to reflect on oil prices for two different
:05:47. > :05:51.reasons. One, it costs Asian economies but the other, a somewhat
:05:52. > :05:58.marginal increase in oil prices normally means growth is improving
:05:59. > :06:03.as well. Sheila Patel from global sacks Asset Management. It's that
:06:04. > :06:07.time of year when we find out what's hot and what's not when it comes to
:06:08. > :06:13.Internet searches -- Goldman Sachs. So what were the most popular
:06:14. > :06:17.searches in 2016? It was an event in the US that obviously had global
:06:18. > :06:20.implications. What am I talking about? The US presidential election
:06:21. > :06:26.and how Donald Trump ranked among the most widely searched names on
:06:27. > :06:29.the Internet. Robin Maroney from Google explained why. The idea is
:06:30. > :06:34.this represents how people are searching for a candidate in the US
:06:35. > :06:38.elections, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, and another topic. When
:06:39. > :06:45.we're looking at this we are seeing Asia is incredibly interested in his
:06:46. > :06:49.take on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If you look at other
:06:50. > :06:52.charts you would see Asia is much less prominent on this one, JP
:06:53. > :06:55.Japan, Singapore, Vietnam. That makes sense because those were the
:06:56. > :06:59.countries most affected and the ones that had the most to lose in a
:07:00. > :07:04.situation where Donald Trump did pull out of the TPP. Exactly, this
:07:05. > :07:08.meant a lot to Asia and other topics that mattered a lot to other
:07:09. > :07:12.countries, like the US, Europe, the UK, things like Brexit and even
:07:13. > :07:17.Black Lives Matter got more searched in Europe and outside the US. But
:07:18. > :07:21.not so much in Asia. TPP was the only topic Asia was searching when
:07:22. > :07:27.it came to Donald Trump searches. Fascinating. Let's move on to south
:07:28. > :07:32.Asia and India in particular, a really important year in terms of
:07:33. > :07:36.the economy, reflected in some of the search phrases that we saw. Tell
:07:37. > :07:41.us more about this. This is a big year for India in terms of world
:07:42. > :07:44.financial markets. At the start of the year everyone was focused on the
:07:45. > :07:48.Chinese stock markets when they had that incredible meltdown but beyond
:07:49. > :07:51.that Indian stocks began to rise on the world stage and that was
:07:52. > :07:55.something people were searching for but that got thrown out of the
:07:56. > :07:59.window when they decided to do monetise and say you have to have
:08:00. > :08:03.certain cash in certain amount is. Look at that figure, up until that
:08:04. > :08:09.moment, we start seeing those keywords being searched. -- amounts.
:08:10. > :08:13.They have to get their cash sorted out so they are rushing to the cash
:08:14. > :08:18.machine to get it figured out. What's interesting is that gold is
:08:19. > :08:22.the de facto savings of India along with cash, and what you saw is at
:08:23. > :08:27.the same time people are looking for cash machines, you're looking for
:08:28. > :08:30.gold as well. On the one hand people are trying to get their cash back
:08:31. > :08:36.into their account and putting into their other form of savings, Gold.
:08:37. > :08:41.Looking at the final chart, smart phones, what about this? It says
:08:42. > :08:48.Apple is the most searched brand for smart phones in the world. What you
:08:49. > :08:52.would have seen in another year is also this is the year the Chinese
:08:53. > :08:56.brands came in. Far behind Apple but coming in. Robin Maroney from Google
:08:57. > :09:01.with a look back at the year and the search words via the search engine.
:09:02. > :09:05.Uber has said it will defy demands to take its self driving cars off
:09:06. > :09:09.the road in San Francisco. The company started testing the vehicles
:09:10. > :09:13.this week but the US department of motor vehicles has said the firm
:09:14. > :09:18.must have a test permit. Uber said it didn't need one as they have a
:09:19. > :09:22.safety driver at the wheel. Other companies testing autonomous
:09:23. > :09:27.vehicles like Google and Tesla have applied for and been given the
:09:28. > :09:30.permits. Abu Dhabi has become one of BP's biggest shareholders under a
:09:31. > :09:43.deal which gives the oil company a much bigger stake in the Emirates
:09:44. > :09:46.oil output. BP will take a 10% share in ad code, which owns onshore
:09:47. > :09:50.oilfields that account for most of Abu Dhabi's production. In return
:09:51. > :09:53.Abu Dhabi will receive a 2% stake in BP, worth almost $2.5 billion. A
:09:54. > :09:57.quick look at the markets here in Asia today, Asian markets this
:09:58. > :10:03.Monday looking like this, they have steadied from Friday when we saw a
:10:04. > :10:12.lot of time in Asian markets. We have also seen the Japan Leyte down
:10:13. > :10:22.a tad. -- chaos. All eyes on the US dollar and what it impact it will
:10:23. > :10:24.have on emerging markets. That's it for me. Thanks for joining us.