20/12/2016 Asia Business Report


20/12/2016

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Uber hits a roadblock in Taiwan. What does this mean for the future

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of this ridesharing application in Asia and what has rocked the luxury

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housing industry in the US? Good morning, Asia. Hello, world. Glad

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you could join us for this Tuesday edition of Asia Business Report.

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Uber is planning a new move after it was banned in Taiwan. This is not

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the first time the firm has faced resistance from local governments.

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From London to Jakarta taxi drivers have gone on strike saying that

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Uber's business model is not safe and has unfair competition. It needs

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to be signed into law. Here is a response from their regional

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manager. We will cross that bridge when we get to it. At the moment we

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are working very hard to educate and communicate with the president in

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Taiwan to make sure she knows that more than a million people in Taiwan

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have downloaded the Uber app. And they will be the ones who suffer if

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Uber is not allowed. Is this not just a formality? It has already

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been passed by the regulatory body and has been signed by the

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president. Uber is something new. Because it is innovative we have

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been in sticky spots all over the world. We are good at getting past.

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We just want to sit down at the table with the Taiwanese government

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to come up with new regulation to allow ridesharing applications. You

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are right because you always push the envelope in terms of rules and

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regulations. Uber's technology is new. It has never existed before the

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Cosby smartphone wasn't around before. -- because the. We need to

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work with the government to educate them about why new regulations are

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required in Taiwan. If the president does not veto this law and it is

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signed, does this mean we will not see Uber on the roads? You will

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abide by the law? Like I said, we will cross that bridge when it

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comes. What I can say is today more than 10,000 Taiwanese citizens rely

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on Uber to make money. Whether it is mothers needing flexible work

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because their children are at school or people who are caring for their

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families at hospital, Uber provides flexible work. So we want to fight

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like heck to make sure they can continue to make money from Uber.

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Apart from Taiwan, you are in many countries, more than a dozen in the

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Asia-Pacific region. Where are you profitable? We don't give out

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information about profitability yet because we are still a privately

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held company so I am not at discretion. But we are growing like

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an weed across all of the Asia-Pacific. Clearly we have

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something consumers love. Micheal from Uber in the Asia-Pacific. In

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other business news making headlines in India, the boardroom battle is

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over for now. The former Tata chairman had resigned from the board

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of old Tata group listed companies. He has vowed to push for better

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corporate governance. His resignation comes ahead of several

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meetings at Qatar steel and Tata Motors to remove him from their

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boards. -- Tata Steel. Christine Lagarde has been found guilty over

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negligence over a huge compensation payment made eight years ago when

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she was the French Finance Minister. Christine Lagarde always denied

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wrongdoing. The court has decided not to hand down any punishment.

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Thousands of passengers around the world for virgin could come to a

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halt. Grounded workers are threatening industrial action

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starting Friday in a dispute over pay. This comes ahead of the peak

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travel season with Christmas and New Year's just around the corner. When

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I spoke to the man who is their spokesman, I asked him how would

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this impacts travellers around Asia? It would have a major impact. But

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with British Airways, you are looking at 12- 15% of the workforce

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looking to go on strike. Still, they could create inconvenience and

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issues for the error line and the network. -- airline. That would

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affect places like Japan where they have a joint operation with Japan

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Airlines. The other one is Virgin. It is not an absolute strike but

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they will follow the contract specifically and provide no

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flexibility. That could create disruptions. Disruptions and

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inconvenience. This is something like travellers that you and I don't

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want. What are these airlines such as BA and Virgin Atlantic being

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squeezed financially? It is a big struggle in the global aviation

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industry to keep costs low. They are squeezed on the European side by

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low-cost carriers like RyanAir who are good at keeping costss though.

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The major costs for airlines is cabin crew. Fuel is an equal thing

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for all airlines depending on their hedging. One area you can try to cut

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cost is cabin crew. How are they trying to cut costs on terms of

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cabin crew? Like mentioned, the Middle Eastern airlines are good at

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adapting to this. Cutting things like benefits and allowances and the

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amount of money you can actually earned working for the airline.

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People like Emirates and others in the Asia-Pacific, their cabin crew

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are paid less. That is the nature of that part of the world. So for

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European and US carriers, it is difficult to manage pay expectations

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of the crew. What about hedging on jet fuel costs? We have seen it come

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down significantly in the past two years from $100 to 40- $50. It makes

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it easy to make money as an airline on its own but everyone is

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benefiting. Some carriers have good ability to make money from it but

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others lose money from low cost oil. It affects everyone fairly evenly.

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Greg from Flight Global. Chinese government researches say that the

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yuan is expected to weaken another 3- 5% in 2017. That is on top of the

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6.5% drop the sea. Combined with the restrictions of sending money

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overseas, it could impact the US. We have asked a person that Chinese

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wealth has that per cent of his business is the pillar it dipped

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this year and the reason has been multifaceted. It has been quite

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difficult. Recently we have had many deals that were not made because

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they could not get the money out. Also, the Chinese economy took a hit

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last year and this year as well. It is twofold. Was there any

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nervousness in the market ahead of the US election? There was a lot of

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nervousness ahead of the election. People were nervous about where we

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were calling. And I think that made it questionable for people. --

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going. The markets were slow prior to the election. It was interesting,

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right after the election, many people moved forward from all over

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the globe. Are there any signs about what a Donald Trump presidency will

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mean for real estate? Donald Trump has something that will help in

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benefiting the real estate market. He intends to lower taxation for the

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wealthy which really does help in making wealthy people... They want

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to continue to invest in high-level properties. And there will be a

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trickle-down effect. Donald Trump is a real estate guru. That is

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something special to him in his heart. And I think he will make sure

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that real estate is very secure moving forward. Does the Great

:09:13.:09:18.

Firewall of China have an impact? It is one of the challenges in dealing

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with the Chinese market. That wall is difficult to break. So in

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general, when you have international buyers, it is easy for them to

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Google and do their own research. But with the Chinese we have to work

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differently and we do a lot of phone conversations and e-mails and work

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in a different manner to get beyond that. Aaron. He specialises in the

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luxury real estate market. He was speaking to the BBC. And now for a

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quick look at the markets. As you can see right now, a mixed bag for

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the Asia-Pacific markets. Thin trading ahead of the Christmas

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holiday season. This is after US stocks finished modestly higher

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overnight. The NASDAQ composite index is continuing to be in

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positive territory led by Disney following a strong opening weekend

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performance of its latest Star Wars movie franchise, Rogue One. As for

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the US dollar, crawling back into positive territory. It has improved

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to its strongest in nearly a decade. Thank you so much for investing your

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time with us. I am Rico Hizon. Sport Today is up next.

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