:00:00. > :00:00.The RMT is still fighting Southern on the same issue.
:00:00. > :00:14.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:15. > :00:22.Preparing to meet the US president. Japan's by minister talks to the
:00:23. > :00:32.head of the UN day about the auto industry. -- Hyundai.
:00:33. > :00:39.And the owner of Snapchat files for share sales and hopes to raise $1
:00:40. > :00:42.billion. It is Friday! Glad you could join us
:00:43. > :00:51.on Asia Business Report. It is becoming to be known as the
:00:52. > :00:56.Trump shock. Japanese businesses are nervous about criticism from the US
:00:57. > :01:00.president. Shinzo Abe will meet him next week in Washington and in
:01:01. > :01:06.preparation he has cut his putting, he is getting together with Toyota's
:01:07. > :01:10.boss to ward off concerns about the auto industry. One of the main
:01:11. > :01:14.issues is the Japanese yen. As you can see on this foreign exchange
:01:15. > :01:18.dollar chart, a lot of volatility against the US dollar. The US
:01:19. > :01:22.president has accused Japan of playing the money market to take
:01:23. > :01:27.trade advantage, which Tokyo has denied. I asked an investor in Tokyo
:01:28. > :01:33.what the feeling was amongst Japanese businesses. It is certainly
:01:34. > :01:36.fair to say that Japanese CEOs as low as American CEOs are nervous
:01:37. > :01:44.about getting called out by President Trump. If you look at the
:01:45. > :01:47.history of the election cycle, President Trump is somebody who
:01:48. > :01:52.tends to personalise his arguments and his debate and that means he
:01:53. > :01:57.will call people out individually and callout companies. Yes, it is
:01:58. > :02:02.wise to be concerned about this. As an overall issue for Japanese CEOs.
:02:03. > :02:08.Will this mean than an increase in Japanese investments into the United
:02:09. > :02:13.States, not only for the likes of to go to but also other industries? We
:02:14. > :02:20.think it will. If you look at the $50 billion investment announced by
:02:21. > :02:26.SoftBank, we think it's a trend where Japanese corporations and
:02:27. > :02:31.politicians will be very focused on the American relationship. We are
:02:32. > :02:35.really in a situation where we have to fight them from this perspective.
:02:36. > :02:39.We have a president where we don't know what his policies will be and
:02:40. > :02:46.we need to be on the bright side totally off the table with him for
:02:47. > :02:50.those discussions. The Japanese yen, is Trump right to say that the
:02:51. > :02:55.Japanese are using the money market to trade the yen to its advantage?
:02:56. > :03:00.It is sometimes hard to separate the posturing from the true beliefs.
:03:01. > :03:06.Interest rates really drive foreign exchange rates, certainly in the
:03:07. > :03:11.currency markets. There is a mathematical relationship. It is
:03:12. > :03:16.very hard to define currency manipulation, so it's a useful
:03:17. > :03:20.political term if you will to rally support among the troops, but it is
:03:21. > :03:24.hard to imagine someone has manipulated the currency. The
:03:25. > :03:32.currency world is very fluid. On a second to second basis the currency
:03:33. > :03:35.determines the market, not politicians. Sony has cut in half
:03:36. > :03:42.its full-year profit forecast but it was also hit by a big rap down from
:03:43. > :03:47.the movie business. Shares were down nearly 6% in Tokyo trade today as
:03:48. > :03:53.the business offset its write-down concerns. Staying with the Japanese
:03:54. > :03:57.technology industry, Panasonic is in trouble with US authorities. It says
:03:58. > :04:01.it is avionic business is being investigated under the foreign
:04:02. > :04:04.corrupt practices act. It didn't specify the nature of the
:04:05. > :04:08.investigation but said it has been fully cooperating with authorities.
:04:09. > :04:13.It has been talked about for many months, but Snapchat has officially
:04:14. > :04:18.filed shares to investors, hoping to raise $3 billion US. According to
:04:19. > :04:27.the company nearly 160 million people use of Snapchat to create 2.5
:04:28. > :04:32.billion maps every day. -- snaps. It is huge with young people, so if you
:04:33. > :04:36.are feeling old like myself are technology correspondent has this
:04:37. > :04:40.tutorial. Here is the problem. I've been on
:04:41. > :04:44.Snapchat for a couple of years but I've never got it. Now finally I'm
:04:45. > :04:52.determined to understand it with a younger person, Priscilla. What do I
:04:53. > :04:56.do? The best thing to do is take selfies. You double-tap your screen
:04:57. > :05:02.and if you want to put a filter, you hold on to your face, you have
:05:03. > :05:07.different filters. I've got that filter, that filter... I've got
:05:08. > :05:11.ears. To send that to someone individually you click on that
:05:12. > :05:18.arrow. You can share your day with the world. That's the point of
:05:19. > :05:21.Snapchat. Let's go out and try that. I'm walking down the stairs of
:05:22. > :05:28.Snapchat in and it is really dangerous. -- Snapchatting. It's a
:05:29. > :05:41.spiral staircase! Priscilla, we've both got lunch. Is this? -- is this
:05:42. > :05:46.snapable? Very. Is it about getting thousands of people to like my
:05:47. > :05:51.snaps? No, it is about your views. You can always see who has viewed
:05:52. > :05:57.your Snapchat on your friends list. It isn't about mass market, it is
:05:58. > :06:02.about if you close friends? Yes. Some celebrities open up their
:06:03. > :06:08.Snapchat to their fans. Now I am snapping with a bunch of Radio one
:06:09. > :06:15.fans who are waiting for somebody famous. It was Camilla, either way,
:06:16. > :06:20.and even Priscilla doesn't know who she is! I don't get how they are
:06:21. > :06:23.making money out of this. I think out they make money out of it is
:06:24. > :06:27.through the Discover page. You can see various publishers have put
:06:28. > :06:34.stuff on. Do you ever do that? Hardly. Are their adverts? Yes.
:06:35. > :06:38.Sometimes you are watching people's snaps and then an advert may pop up,
:06:39. > :06:43.but you can always skip it. Just some of its appeal. Snapchat is a
:06:44. > :06:47.fun thing to do. You can do it throughout the day, wherever you
:06:48. > :06:53.are, so it is fun. In other business news, making
:06:54. > :06:58.headlines, the boss of Uber has quit President Trump's business dealers
:06:59. > :07:02.forum. The company has been hit by boycott campaigns all week. That's
:07:03. > :07:09.as people perceive its participation as an endorsement of the president.
:07:10. > :07:13.The executive order has been condemned to stop the refugee
:07:14. > :07:17.programme, but calls for a boycott have continued. The firm is
:07:18. > :07:20.suspending its service in Taiwan next Friday, following the
:07:21. > :07:24.authorities' decision to raise fines against unlicensed ridesharing
:07:25. > :07:31.services targeting Uber. Staying with that sector and Weibo's
:07:32. > :07:37.rival in Southeast Asia wants a piece of the sector, investing more
:07:38. > :07:41.than half a billion US dollars in India -- Indonesia. It wants
:07:42. > :07:45.customers to use its application to pay from everything to rides, food,
:07:46. > :07:52.shopping and beyond. Like many other countries the region, and that
:07:53. > :07:57.majority of Indonesia's population still don't have a bank account.
:07:58. > :08:04.There are several hundreds of millions of people in Asia, so being
:08:05. > :08:08.able to provide a real localised solution like Grab Pay, or Grab
:08:09. > :08:14.Rewards and many iterations of our future products for Grab Pay will
:08:15. > :08:19.solve real problems in Southeast Asia and especially in Asia.
:08:20. > :08:31.The collapse of South Korea's hon Jean last year meant shipping rates
:08:32. > :08:35.dropped. I asked an industry expert if we can expect, conditions for the
:08:36. > :08:40.industry this year. Basically it is at the bottom of the sector and
:08:41. > :08:48.we've seen rates rise. This year looks better. Better than last year
:08:49. > :08:54.I would say. Will it be a better year? If we look at the economy, the
:08:55. > :08:59.US economy is feeding into the economies of Japan and Europe and
:09:00. > :09:04.we've seen the exporter numbers turning positive. That's having a
:09:05. > :09:09.positive effect on demand and supply has been curtailed. Overall it is
:09:10. > :09:16.looking better than 2016. What about the fear of US trade? Is that the
:09:17. > :09:23.biggest risk for Asian shipping in 2017? Certainly. We have the rise of
:09:24. > :09:31.protectionism as well as the trade wars. Trade wars are a very negative
:09:32. > :09:36.pressure. Rising protectionism creates problems for the sector.
:09:37. > :09:40.What if the trade barriers are raised? How will this impact an
:09:41. > :09:45.already weakened shipping sector? It will be a disaster. It will have a
:09:46. > :09:48.significant impact on the trade flows and we will see much lower
:09:49. > :09:53.volumes. But this is longer term. In the short term there will be a
:09:54. > :09:57.negative, but the industry is bracing for it. Could we see a
:09:58. > :10:05.consolidation in 2017? In the past two years we had 13 or even lower in
:10:06. > :10:10.terms of alliances. We will see some parts of the benefit, but I'd was a
:10:11. > :10:14.major consolidation is over. That was a shipping expert. A quick look
:10:15. > :10:20.at the market and Asian stocks. In early trade, a tentative start.
:10:21. > :10:24.Investors await the outcome of a key US multi- jobs report and how this
:10:25. > :10:28.will impact the Fed's policy outlook. And of course China's
:10:29. > :10:33.markets are back on track after a week-long break due to the lunar New
:10:34. > :10:37.Year holidays. Sport Today is coming up.
:10:38. > :10:42.The government has published a White Paper setting out its plans
:10:43. > :10:47.The Brexit secretary David Davis told MPs that changes would be
:10:48. > :10:51.phased in gradually and the UK would not find itself on the edge
:10:52. > :10:54.The paper promises a new immigration bill