:00:00. > :00:14.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:15. > :00:22.Beijing must do more about counterfeiters. A warning from Lego
:00:23. > :00:29.as its boss in China can't tell the difference between the fake and the
:00:30. > :00:33.real thing. And the mainland's most famous tech giant Ali Barack Obama
:00:34. > :00:44.reports strong revenues and looks to soar even higher with the cloud.
:00:45. > :00:48.Good morning, Asia and hello, world. It's a Wednesday and glad you could
:00:49. > :00:53.join us for this edition of Asia Business Report. We kick off with
:00:54. > :00:58.Lego and the Danish owned company has told the BBC that authorities in
:00:59. > :01:03.China need to do more to tackle fake goods after the man in charge of
:01:04. > :01:07.Lego's huge new factory in the mainland failed to spot a fake piece
:01:08. > :01:13.from the real thing. Lego is currently involved in legal action
:01:14. > :01:15.against one Chinese manufacturer it claims is ripping off its products.
:01:16. > :01:23.Here's Robin in Shanghai. Billions and billions of these
:01:24. > :01:29.little plastic bricks have been sold the world over and now Lego is
:01:30. > :01:35.betting big on China. What started out with hand cut bricks in Denmark
:01:36. > :01:39.in 1949 is now $100 million state-of-the-art operation near
:01:40. > :01:46.Shanghai. But they're not the only ones doing it.
:01:47. > :01:53.Copies like this and fakes or counterfeits are prolific in China.
:01:54. > :01:57.Lego is currently suing the firm behind this copycat Star Wars model.
:01:58. > :01:59.So how easy is it to spot the difference? We bought a real one and
:02:00. > :02:15.a copycat and asked the experts. If you have to ask me to guess I
:02:16. > :02:21.would say this one maybe. Which one do you think is real? You think this
:02:22. > :02:26.one is real? You're right! The truth is, they look and feel
:02:27. > :02:30.almost identical. The copy's so good in fact that even the boss of the
:02:31. > :02:38.huge new Lego factory can't tell. Have a little look at that for me...
:02:39. > :02:47.What do you think of that? It looks like a mini figure to me. What do
:02:48. > :02:55.you think of him, two men? Which one's yours? Just have a guess for
:02:56. > :03:01.me. I would say this is Lego, this is not. OK, this is Lego. This is
:03:02. > :03:07.Lego? Bought from Toys "R" Us yesterday. This one isn't real, it's
:03:08. > :03:10.trying to be Lego is my assessment of it.
:03:11. > :03:14.Lego's not the only foreign firm investing big in China but having
:03:15. > :03:19.trouble with local copycats. Land Rovers are now made here. These ones
:03:20. > :03:26.sell particularly well. But the British firm has been powerless to
:03:27. > :03:31.stop this. Tucked away on a Shanghai sidestreet, this is a Land Wind, it
:03:32. > :03:35.is similar on the inside and very similar on the outside but a lot
:03:36. > :03:39.cheaper. This is our copycat that court people out, you can buy him
:03:40. > :03:43.and the real thing on the huge online retailer Ali Barack Obama.
:03:44. > :03:48.They took down thousands of links to copycat Lego products last year
:03:49. > :03:50.alone but that manufacturer is suing them in the courts because even the
:03:51. > :03:57.boss can't tell the difference. As Robin mentioned in his report,
:03:58. > :04:04.Ali Barack Obama has a huge problem with counterfeits being sold on his
:04:05. > :04:09.site. It was recently reinstated to the blacklist for selling fake goods
:04:10. > :04:13.but that hasn't stopped it from reporting third-quarter revenues
:04:14. > :04:19.beating estimates, writing 54% to 58 billion US dollars -- rising. It is
:04:20. > :04:25.mainly due to cloud and digital mean media ventures and gains in its core
:04:26. > :04:29.business. We were told why Ali Barack Obama continues to see these
:04:30. > :04:36.strong earnings. Looking at the three third-quarter earnings, they
:04:37. > :04:39.have had good results. In November they came out with several
:04:40. > :04:43.initiatives to drive sales but of course the growth rates aren't as
:04:44. > :04:48.high as before. They have slowed a bit and that is why they are
:04:49. > :04:53.focusing on other areas of business like cloud computing and digital
:04:54. > :04:57.media, looking at international expansion from these areas. Revenue
:04:58. > :05:06.from cloud business jumped by 150%. Can this be sustained? About I don't
:05:07. > :05:10.know if it can be sustained with the higher growth rates in China, it
:05:11. > :05:14.depends on how much it can expand globally. We have seen increasing
:05:15. > :05:23.demand from consumers and enterprise in cloud computing. But there are
:05:24. > :05:27.risks, you have them in the US blacklist over counterfeiting and
:05:28. > :05:32.there's a securities and exchange commission investigation in the US
:05:33. > :05:36.including accounting practices. Will this create a whole going forward
:05:37. > :05:42.into the bottom line of the company, will it have a reputational damage?
:05:43. > :05:47.There is definitely some negative damage that we have seen from this
:05:48. > :05:50.news but this isn't something new for Alibaba, it's been on the
:05:51. > :05:54.blacklist four years ago and now they have taken steps to try to
:05:55. > :05:58.counter this, for example suing sellers for the first time, it is
:05:59. > :06:01.sending a strong message to consumers and other potential
:06:02. > :06:06.players that they are doing something about it. Are these
:06:07. > :06:10.initiatives and measures by Alibaba sufficient? There are still a lot of
:06:11. > :06:14.fake goods sold on their online marketplace. This isn't going to be
:06:15. > :06:17.easy but they are addressing this slowly and then they will help them
:06:18. > :06:20.improve the image to the international audience.
:06:21. > :06:27.In other business news, the road to Brexit is proving to be a bumpy one
:06:28. > :06:32.for the UK Prime Minister Theresa May. In a landmark case, the UK
:06:33. > :06:38.Supreme Court has delivered a ruling against the government on the way in
:06:39. > :06:42.which the UK is to leave the EU. The highest court in the land says the
:06:43. > :06:45.Prime Minister must get the authority of Parliament before she
:06:46. > :06:49.can trigger Article 50. But ministers have insisted there will
:06:50. > :06:56.be no delay. Japanese exports rising for the first time in December for
:06:57. > :07:00.more than a year, data shows gaining 5.4% from the previous year, up for
:07:01. > :07:05.the first time in 15 months and this is mainly due to a pickup in global
:07:06. > :07:11.demand and the effects of a weaker yen the dollar. US President Trump E
:07:12. > :07:17.is pressing home his policies by meeting with the heads of the big
:07:18. > :07:21.three US carmakers. He's urging them to build more vehicles in America
:07:22. > :07:25.and during a White House meeting with the chief executives of General
:07:26. > :07:29.Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler he promised to make investments more
:07:30. > :07:33.attractive through cuts in regulations and taxes. He has
:07:34. > :07:37.criticised some carmakers, warning them about expanding facilities in
:07:38. > :07:44.Mexico and elsewhere and expecting to import vehicles tariff free. Mr
:07:45. > :07:47.Trump has invited the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the
:07:48. > :07:52.White House later this year. They had a phone call on Tuesday but what
:07:53. > :07:58.else did they discussed? Let's find out from our colleague in Delhi on
:07:59. > :08:03.how Indians are reacting to the new US President. Schleper, thank you so
:08:04. > :08:10.much for joining us. So what do they talk about? -- Shilpa. It was a
:08:11. > :08:14.highly anticipated call, at least in the Indian media here, because
:08:15. > :08:19.everyone wondered what Mr Trump was going to talk about and apparently
:08:20. > :08:22.he called Mr Modi a true friend and India a true friend and a partner in
:08:23. > :08:28.facing challenges around the world and he personally praised Mr Modi
:08:29. > :08:32.for championing the fight against bureaucracy in India and promoting
:08:33. > :08:37.the economy but they also resolved to look at challenges in various
:08:38. > :08:41.parts, like the fence and trade and they discussed security in the
:08:42. > :08:45.region, both south and Central Asia. So it was a highly anticipated call
:08:46. > :08:50.here so the media here is covering it non-stop. What are the concerns
:08:51. > :08:58.of Indians regarding the new US President? This is the thing. During
:08:59. > :09:03.his campaign he has been largely positive about India but there are
:09:04. > :09:08.two big concern areas, one is the whole make in America rather than
:09:09. > :09:12.make in India policy, India has been promoting manufacturers coming here
:09:13. > :09:16.and making things cheaper and more efficiently, whereas Trump's whole
:09:17. > :09:22.policy has been make in America so there's a foreign investors will
:09:23. > :09:27.close up their units and go back home to America. The second big
:09:28. > :09:32.concern is of course about the visas, the skilled visas, H one B,
:09:33. > :09:36.as they call them, is crucial for the IT industry in India to do
:09:37. > :09:42.business with the US and the US accounts for 60% of all IT exports
:09:43. > :09:45.from India. And Mr Trump has been largely critical about these visas
:09:46. > :09:52.and the way they are used to promote more migrant workers and taking, as
:09:53. > :09:57.he says, taking jobs away from Americans. That is a big concern for
:09:58. > :10:02.the IT industry here, which is already discussing how they can
:10:03. > :10:07.campaign in the US and how they can really push their cause. All right,
:10:08. > :10:13.he's one of the first leaders to be invited to the White House this
:10:14. > :10:16.year. Thank you so much, Shilpa from Delhi.
:10:17. > :10:22.Let's have a quick look now at the markets and as you can see, most of
:10:23. > :10:27.them are in positive territory, the Nikkei 225 gaining 1.4%, the Hang
:10:28. > :10:31.Seng opening up by nope .5% and the all ordinary is in positive
:10:32. > :10:43.territory by 0.3% because of the positive mood on Wall Street and the
:10:44. > :10:48.broader S closing at record highs. -- -- 0.5%.
:10:49. > :10:54.The Chinese government has rejected criticism from President Trump's
:10:55. > :10:56.administration over the South China Sea,
:10:57. > :10:59.saying it will be firm in safeguarding its rights
:11:00. > :11:02.The UN Secretary General has expressed concern over Israel's