17/02/2017 Asia Business Report

54% voted against the agreement, negotiated

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

Samsung's boss is formally arrested as prosecutors investigate his role

in a bribery scandal. And Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg calls for

every -- a reboot to globalisation. Good morning, Asia and hello, world.

Thanks for joining us. Samsung's acting chairman JY Lee was arrested

earlier this morning after a court granted prosecutors decision to do

so. The prosecutors have said there is new evidence against Mr Lee, as

they investigate his role in a major corruption scandal in connection to

the president Park Geun-hye. In a statement, Samsung says the company

will do its best to ensure that the truth is revealed in court.

An expert in Seoul says the arrest is significant.

It means that the prosecution have convinced the judge here that there

is enough evidence against Jay Y Lee, to the extent that the

prosecution should be able to win a conviction against him in court when

it comes to trial. That's the prosecution's contention and they

have found a judge who agrees it is reasonable and has issued the

warrant. That has put Jay Y Lee in jail and presumably he will stay

there until the trial process begins. Will prosecutors make sure

there is no way out for Jay Y Lee? They filed so many charges against

him, from hiding the proceeds of a criminal act, bribery, embezzlement,

hiding funds overseas and perjury. Could this lead to more arrests of

other conglomerate bosses down the road? That's a good question and

absolutely it can and may well, because Samsung of course was not

the only Korean business group to have made donations to the two

foundations that are at the crux of this political scandal that has

involved the impeachment the president. Will the billionaire heir

of Samsung, with him now behind bars, could this throw the Samsung

group into turmoil? It could because he has been the CEO... I realised

his title is vice-chairman, at his father has been in a coma for

several years, and so effectively Jay Y Lee has been the chief

executive of the Samsung group. So there's obviously crucial business

decisions involving the principal units of the group. Samsung

Electronics and its associated companies in particular. But the

settlements of the group's structure is not yet complete either. But have

a quick look at the stock rise. Investors aren't reacting too badly.

Shares in Samsung opened lower, but not by much. One share jumped by

more than 8%, a company headed by the sister of Jay Y Lee. It appears

some investors are expecting the sister to play a big role in the

company. Staying with South Korea and wants a shipping giant, and Jim

will file for bankruptcy. The debt the past five billion dollars, US. A

slowdown in the global economy and trade were cited as the main reasons

for Hanjin's downfall. The owner of Snapchat has confirmed

there has been a lot of excitement around the company, as there often

is for technology stocks, but Snapchat values itself as $22

billion, significantly less than the previous estimates. So what are

investors concerned about? Let's take a look.

Snapchat launched in 2012 as an app that allowed users to send photo

messages that disappeared after a certain time. It rebranded as Snap

in 2016. The service appeals to a user base in their teens and early

20s. It has over 150 million daily active users. Snap derives its

income mostly from advertising. Last year's revenue was $404 million. But

the company made a net loss of over $514 million. Investors may have to

stick around a lot longer than a snap that message if they are to

make a gain on its shares -- Snapchat.

Staying with social media, the founder of Facebook says he fears

millions of people are withdrawing from the globally connected world in

part because of they use. It is unusual for him to speak out this

way. Our economic editor explains what he told him. He told me in the

BBC's interview with Mark Zuckerberg that he didn't want to be a

politician. Not now, he said. He didn't say not ever. But I think he

is the leader of one of the biggest businesses in the world. Frankly he

is probably as influential as he is going to be as a politician, leading

Facebook. What's interesting about what he called me at what he has put

out in his 5500 word Post on Facebook tonight is that he talks

about globalisation, as you've said, and they can use, but he talks about

people not getting upset. -- fake news. But fighting back. He says the

way to fight that is billed collective miss across borders,

bring down barriers. What an opposite tone to the tone of

President Trump. He was very careful with me not to bite on any of my

questions about Donald Trump doesn't agree with you, are you going to

meet Donald Trump? He famously didn't go to the roundtable that

many tech leaders went to, but nevertheless it gives an alternative

view. Thousands of words, well thought through, whatever you might

think about the legitimacy of someone like Mark Zuckerberg talking

about this. It was a well thought through 5500 word piece of work and

in the present environment it certainly will be seen as an

alternative manifesto to what we're hearing from the White House. You

can read the interview in full on our website. While the Facebook

founder may not want to comment on President Trump's policies, his

protectionist rhetoric has put Asia on edge. I ask someone from APEC if

he agrees with Mr Zucker the's view on globalisation. -- with Mark

Zuckerberg's. Traditional trade slowed right down, although the

outlook for the next year or so is probably improving. Services trade

is where it is. Although trade has slowed down, as you mentioned, there

is a lot of concern that even with globalisation this hasn't really

filtered down to the people, especially to the masses. Well, I

will be off in a week to Vietnam and we will have the first meeting for

APEC in a year. They are one of the lowest income economies in APEC and

they've been doing well out of globalisation, as have many other

economies. So half a billion people isn't anything to scoff at. We've

seen some countries pushing their populist policies. It seems there is

a head-on collision between globalisation and protectionism.

This free trade and open markets, has this been the cost of the

discontent and the popularity of popular reason? I think

globalisation has been labelled as part of the problem, we are talking

about automation, migration and other things. But actually when APEC

leaders talked about all of this, as they did a month or so ago, they say

they are continuing down this path. We think there are big games to

come, but we know we haven't communicated well and we need to do

that better and talk about the winners and losers, not just talking

about Peru and alpaca. How will this play out going forward? We will have

to pay much more attention to what the impacts are of a lot of trade

agreements and improvements in getting services and small business

into the trade arena. A lot of that will help people at the bottom of

the pile, not just at the top. Briefly, what is likely to the BP?

Will Japan lead it or build China? -- TPP. A bunch of things could

happen. In one month Chile will have a meeting of TPP leaders without the

US, but with China and Korea. If that goes ahead that could change

things a bit. Now let's have a look at the

markets. Asia is slipping into negative territory. That is due to

the weakness on Wall Street overnight. We are also watching how

Singapore will open after its fourth-quarter economic growth was

revised higher. Thanks for investing your time with us. Bye for now.

The top stories this hour: President Trump lashes out