13/01/2017

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:00:14. > :00:21.Indonesia changes its tune on mining exports, relaxing two year ban. And

:00:22. > :00:32.how the art world has lost its lustre, as buyers from China shy

:00:33. > :00:37.away. Good morning Asia, hello world. It is a Friday, almost a

:00:38. > :00:41.weekend. Glad you could join us for this edition of Asia Business

:00:42. > :00:44.Report. I am Rico Hizon. We start off with Indonesia where the

:00:45. > :00:50.government has done an about-face on its ban on raw mineral exports.

:00:51. > :00:54.Indonesia will now allow exports of more unprocessed minerals, a big

:00:55. > :00:57.change from two years ago when the government banned most exports to

:00:58. > :01:03.force mining companies to process minerals within the country. The

:01:04. > :01:06.President, Joko Widodo, explained his decision. TRANSLATION: We need

:01:07. > :01:11.to make sure that our natural resources benefit our own people.

:01:12. > :01:16.That's the founding principle, and our mining needs to be sustainable

:01:17. > :01:20.and done with respect for the environment. Here is more now on the

:01:21. > :01:25.change in the ruling from our Indonesia correspondent. Joko Widodo

:01:26. > :01:28.they're talking about the environment, sustainable mining. It

:01:29. > :01:32.is very unclear how these changes will actually protect the

:01:33. > :01:37.environment. What this is really about is improving the economy and

:01:38. > :01:43.creating jobs, it was one that ban on export of raw minerals was

:01:44. > :01:48.introduced, two years the idea was that companies would build smelters,

:01:49. > :01:52.employ Indonesians to process these minerals and keep more of the value

:01:53. > :01:57.from Indonesia's mining in the country. But that hasn't happened.

:01:58. > :02:02.What did happen was mines were closed across the country. There

:02:03. > :02:06.were mass layoffs, companies very reluctant to build smelters, saying

:02:07. > :02:10.it wasn't financially viable and so now this has had to be reviewed. The

:02:11. > :02:15.government saying that now it will allow under some conditions of the

:02:16. > :02:19.exporting of raw minerals to companies, but they need to show

:02:20. > :02:23.that they will build a smelter in the future. So a kind of relaxing

:02:24. > :02:29.out of a reality of a situation that didn't work. So what has been the

:02:30. > :02:33.reaction, Rebecca, in the mining industry? Well, the nickel prices

:02:34. > :02:39.have plummeted as a result, Indonesians are now back in the

:02:40. > :02:44.market. The smelter Association and those involved in smelters are very

:02:45. > :02:47.upset, as you can understand. A lot of Chinese companies did invest

:02:48. > :02:52.billions of dollars into building smelters and their reaction has been

:02:53. > :02:57.that this change of policy shows that Indonesia can't be consistent,

:02:58. > :03:01.and doesn't send a concise message to the investment community. So they

:03:02. > :03:07.are very upset. It is a mixed bag for the US mining giant Freeport.

:03:08. > :03:12.They did stop the exporting of their partly processed copper as a result

:03:13. > :03:23.of this ban. It now looks as if they will be able to resume so they will

:03:24. > :03:28.be quite pleased with these changes. India's Tata group has named this

:03:29. > :03:34.man as the conglomerate's new chairman. He replaces the previous

:03:35. > :03:38.leader who was sacked last year. We are joined by the BBC's

:03:39. > :03:46.correspondent. Tell us more about the new man at the top job. Did it

:03:47. > :03:51.come as a surprise? No, actually, it didn't. When the previous chairman

:03:52. > :03:55.was ousted last year and names were doing the rounds about who would

:03:56. > :03:59.replace him, Natarajan Chandrasekaran was always a front

:04:00. > :04:05.runner. He is someone who has spent his entire life in the Tata group,

:04:06. > :04:10.he joined their IT firm in 1987 and rose through the ranks to become the

:04:11. > :04:14.chief executive of that company in 2009, and now on 21 February it will

:04:15. > :04:18.take over as the chairman of the Tata Group. But in many ways he is

:04:19. > :04:23.an outsider as well, it was in the 150 year long history of the Tata

:04:24. > :04:29.Group, he is actually the first chairman who is not from this very

:04:30. > :04:33.close-knit Farsi business community which for decades has dominated

:04:34. > :04:37.Indian business and even today holds great sway over business here. He is

:04:38. > :04:41.well respected and lots of corporate bosses welcomed him becoming the

:04:42. > :04:46.chairman. But of course, we will know how shareholders react to this

:04:47. > :04:50.in about 2.5 hours from now, when markets open here. A self-made man

:04:51. > :04:58.indeed. So what challenges of this new chairman face with leading the

:04:59. > :05:05.largest conglomerate in India? Well, firstly, Tata Group has taken a

:05:06. > :05:09.beating over the last several months because of this very public spat

:05:10. > :05:13.over the ouster of the previous chairman. Serious questions have

:05:14. > :05:17.been asked about corporate governance in the company, and so

:05:18. > :05:20.that image is something Natarajan Chandrasekaran will have to look at

:05:21. > :05:25.closely and work towards rebuilding. But of course his biggest challenge

:05:26. > :05:28.actually comes from the business of Tata Group companies, this is a

:05:29. > :05:33.group that owns more than 100 companies, they make tea, they make

:05:34. > :05:40.cars, they make steel. And except for Jaguar, Land Rover and the IT

:05:41. > :05:43.firm which Natarajan Chandrasekaran was heading, except for those

:05:44. > :05:47.companies, all of the other companies, the business is in

:05:48. > :05:51.trouble. It is about getting that business in order. That will be the

:05:52. > :06:03.big challenge for him. We will have find out how he will fare in 2017.

:06:04. > :06:07.Well, shares in Japanese airbag maker Takata jumped in Tokyo trade

:06:08. > :06:11.on reports the company has reached a $1 billion settlement with the US

:06:12. > :06:16.Justice Department. It is over the company's handling of airbags

:06:17. > :06:20.rupturing, linked to 16 deaths worldwide and is part of the

:06:21. > :06:23.agreement Takata will plead guilty to criminal wrongdoing. The

:06:24. > :06:32.settlement includes a criminal fine as well as compensation cost. Shares

:06:33. > :06:39.of fear Chrysler tumbled 15% on news the company has violated vehicle

:06:40. > :06:43.emission laws. The company failed to disclose software in some of its

:06:44. > :06:50.vehicles, which made it possible for access diesel emissions to go

:06:51. > :06:54.undetected. Fear has denied the allegations. After years of

:06:55. > :06:59.record-breaking gains, the art world is losing its shine. The economic

:07:00. > :07:03.slowdown in China which caused rapid growth in the art market now means

:07:04. > :07:09.no one wants to pay top dollar for the works of contemporary art is.

:07:10. > :07:12.Our correspondent went to South Asia's largest art show to have a

:07:13. > :07:21.look at how the slump is affecting the mood. There is all kinds of art

:07:22. > :07:26.on display here, appealing to all kinds of tastes, including this one

:07:27. > :07:30.by a Japanese artist. This is South East Asia's largest art fair, but

:07:31. > :07:35.this year there are fewer galleries taking part and even the organisers

:07:36. > :07:40.acknowledge that records are not likely to be broken. Over 130

:07:41. > :07:45.galleries are here, but that is down from the 173 that the part last

:07:46. > :07:50.year. At that is not worrying the man who put the show together. And

:07:51. > :07:55.art market is always the mirror of a social and economic reality. In

:07:56. > :08:00.other words, that is one thing. The other thing is we had in the last

:08:01. > :08:05.year a hike in the market. What you have now in the future is going back

:08:06. > :08:09.to normality. That means it is no more what is the biggest price or

:08:10. > :08:13.the highest price, and I will tell you frankly, I'm glad we speak a bit

:08:14. > :08:19.more about art and not about numbers. And, as an investment, art

:08:20. > :08:23.is tricky because unlike equities or currencies the market is

:08:24. > :08:28.unregulated. We don't know how prices are fixed. How they are

:08:29. > :08:33.defined. And there are people inside the art world who are very well

:08:34. > :08:38.informed, because they are in the inner circles of the art world. And

:08:39. > :08:43.they know there are quite a lot of practices that are not transparent

:08:44. > :08:48.and not very rational. One Asian collector who has come here for

:08:49. > :08:55.years is this Indonesian man who has a collection of nearly 1000, mainly

:08:56. > :08:57.by Indonesian artist. At the very beginning I started collecting

:08:58. > :09:02.because of investment purposes but as a spent time with artists and

:09:03. > :09:07.communicators, I realise that art is really about changing the

:09:08. > :09:13.perspectives about life. Much more than those dollar signs. Between

:09:14. > :09:17.July 2015 and June 26 in the contemporary art market shrank by

:09:18. > :09:26.more than one quarter. Global auction turnover was down on the

:09:27. > :09:30.previous year. The sharpest fall is in the Chinese market, where sales

:09:31. > :09:36.were down by 23%, to 11.8 billion. These figures don't paint a pretty

:09:37. > :09:42.picture, but the conventional wisdom is that if one of these catch your

:09:43. > :09:51.eye, right now may not be a bad time to buy. Nintendo is betting its new

:09:52. > :09:56.hybrid game console will be a hit. The Japanese game maker is releasing

:09:57. > :10:01.more details on its console later this Friday, including how much it

:10:02. > :10:06.would cost. Switch allows users to play games on the TV but with a few

:10:07. > :10:09.adjustments it also becomes a portable device. Let's have a look

:10:10. > :10:15.at the markets. We have about 30 seconds to tell you about it and as

:10:16. > :10:19.you can see, the Nikkei 225 is up by about 100 points, and this is due to

:10:20. > :10:23.a stronger dollar against the Japanese yen in Asian trade, which

:10:24. > :10:29.is benefiting exporters. The Hang Seng index is also up by 50 points,

:10:30. > :10:32.and the all ordinaries down by 47. Thank you for investing your time

:10:33. > :10:33.with us. Have a great