25/01/2017 Asia Business Report

Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.

Beijing must do more about counterfeiters. A warning from Lego

as its boss in China can't tell the difference between the fake and the

real thing. And the mainland's most famous tech giant Ali Barack Obama

reports strong revenues and looks to soar even higher with the cloud.

Good morning, Asia and hello, world. It's a Wednesday and glad you could

join us for this edition of Asia Business Report. We kick off with

Lego and the Danish owned company has told the BBC that authorities in

China need to do more to tackle fake goods after the man in charge of

Lego's huge new factory in the mainland failed to spot a fake piece

from the real thing. Lego is currently involved in legal action

against one Chinese manufacturer it claims is ripping off its products.

Here's Robin in Shanghai. Billions and billions of these

little plastic bricks have been sold the world over and now Lego is

betting big on China. What started out with hand cut bricks in Denmark

in 1949 is now $100 million state-of-the-art operation near

Shanghai. But they're not the only ones doing it.

Copies like this and fakes or counterfeits are prolific in China.

Lego is currently suing the firm behind this copycat Star Wars model.

So how easy is it to spot the difference? We bought a real one and

a copycat and asked the experts. If you have to ask me to guess I

would say this one maybe. Which one do you think is real? You think this

one is real? You're right! The truth is, they look and feel

almost identical. The copy's so good in fact that even the boss of the

huge new Lego factory can't tell. Have a little look at that for me...

What do you think of that? It looks like a mini figure to me. What do

you think of him, two men? Which one's yours? Just have a guess for

me. I would say this is Lego, this is not. OK, this is Lego. This is

Lego? Bought from Toys "R" Us yesterday. This one isn't real, it's

trying to be Lego is my assessment of it.

Lego's not the only foreign firm investing big in China but having

trouble with local copycats. Land Rovers are now made here. These ones

sell particularly well. But the British firm has been powerless to

stop this. Tucked away on a Shanghai sidestreet, this is a Land Wind, it

is similar on the inside and very similar on the outside but a lot

cheaper. This is our copycat that court people out, you can buy him

and the real thing on the huge online retailer Ali Barack Obama.

They took down thousands of links to copycat Lego products last year

alone but that manufacturer is suing them in the courts because even the

boss can't tell the difference. As Robin mentioned in his report,

Ali Barack Obama has a huge problem with counterfeits being sold on his

site. It was recently reinstated to the blacklist for selling fake goods

but that hasn't stopped it from reporting third-quarter revenues

beating estimates, writing 54% to 58 billion US dollars -- rising. It is

mainly due to cloud and digital mean media ventures and gains in its core

business. We were told why Ali Barack Obama continues to see these

strong earnings. Looking at the three third-quarter earnings, they

have had good results. In November they came out with several

initiatives to drive sales but of course the growth rates aren't as

high as before. They have slowed a bit and that is why they are

focusing on other areas of business like cloud computing and digital

media, looking at international expansion from these areas. Revenue

from cloud business jumped by 150%. Can this be sustained? About I don't

know if it can be sustained with the higher growth rates in China, it

depends on how much it can expand globally. We have seen increasing

demand from consumers and enterprise in cloud computing. But there are

risks, you have them in the US blacklist over counterfeiting and

there's a securities and exchange commission investigation in the US

including accounting practices. Will this create a whole going forward

into the bottom line of the company, will it have a reputational damage?

There is definitely some negative damage that we have seen from this

news but this isn't something new for Alibaba, it's been on the

blacklist four years ago and now they have taken steps to try to

counter this, for example suing sellers for the first time, it is

sending a strong message to consumers and other potential

players that they are doing something about it. Are these

initiatives and measures by Alibaba sufficient? There are still a lot of

fake goods sold on their online marketplace. This isn't going to be

easy but they are addressing this slowly and then they will help them

improve the image to the international audience.

In other business news, the road to Brexit is proving to be a bumpy one

for the UK Prime Minister Theresa May. In a landmark case, the UK

Supreme Court has delivered a ruling against the government on the way in

which the UK is to leave the EU. The highest court in the land says the

Prime Minister must get the authority of Parliament before she

can trigger Article 50. But ministers have insisted there will

be no delay. Japanese exports rising for the first time in December for

more than a year, data shows gaining 5.4% from the previous year, up for

the first time in 15 months and this is mainly due to a pickup in global

demand and the effects of a weaker yen the dollar. US President Trump E

is pressing home his policies by meeting with the heads of the big

three US carmakers. He's urging them to build more vehicles in America

and during a White House meeting with the chief executives of General

Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler he promised to make investments more

attractive through cuts in regulations and taxes. He has

criticised some carmakers, warning them about expanding facilities in

Mexico and elsewhere and expecting to import vehicles tariff free. Mr

Trump has invited the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the

White House later this year. They had a phone call on Tuesday but what

else did they discussed? Let's find out from our colleague in Delhi on

how Indians are reacting to the new US President. Schleper, thank you so

much for joining us. So what do they talk about? -- Shilpa. It was a

highly anticipated call, at least in the Indian media here, because

everyone wondered what Mr Trump was going to talk about and apparently

he called Mr Modi a true friend and India a true friend and a partner in

facing challenges around the world and he personally praised Mr Modi

for championing the fight against bureaucracy in India and promoting

the economy but they also resolved to look at challenges in various

parts, like the fence and trade and they discussed security in the

region, both south and Central Asia. So it was a highly anticipated call

here so the media here is covering it non-stop. What are the concerns

of Indians regarding the new US President? This is the thing. During

his campaign he has been largely positive about India but there are

two big concern areas, one is the whole make in America rather than

make in India policy, India has been promoting manufacturers coming here

and making things cheaper and more efficiently, whereas Trump's whole

policy has been make in America so there's a foreign investors will

close up their units and go back home to America. The second big

concern is of course about the visas, the skilled visas, H one B,

as they call them, is crucial for the IT industry in India to do

business with the US and the US accounts for 60% of all IT exports

from India. And Mr Trump has been largely critical about these visas

and the way they are used to promote more migrant workers and taking, as

he says, taking jobs away from Americans. That is a big concern for

the IT industry here, which is already discussing how they can

campaign in the US and how they can really push their cause. All right,

he's one of the first leaders to be invited to the White House this

year. Thank you so much, Shilpa from Delhi.

Let's have a quick look now at the markets and as you can see, most of

them are in positive territory, the Nikkei 225 gaining 1.4%, the Hang

Seng opening up by nope .5% and the all ordinary is in positive

territory by 0.3% because of the positive mood on Wall Street and the

broader S closing at record highs. -- -- 0.5%.

The Chinese government has rejected criticism from President Trump's

administration over the South China Sea,

saying it will be firm in safeguarding its rights

The UN Secretary General has expressed concern over Israel's