:00:16. > :00:23.India's Finance Minister tells the BBC his decision to pull large
:00:24. > :00:29.banknotes from his nation was justified. And we find out more
:00:30. > :00:35.about a $7 billion refinery being built in Malaysia. Good morning,
:00:36. > :00:41.Asia. Hello, world. Thank you for investing your time in Asia Business
:00:42. > :00:45.Report. It's a Tuesday. I am Sharanjit Leyl. India will release
:00:46. > :00:49.its fourth quarter GDP figures in just a few hours. And those will
:00:50. > :00:59.give us a very good indication of what impact the government's the
:01:00. > :01:05.monetisation drive has had. They banned five types of notes last year
:01:06. > :01:09.to crack down on illegal cash holding and counterfeit notes. But
:01:10. > :01:18.it hit agriculture and industry hard. We report. Three months ago,
:01:19. > :01:24.these tomatoes were ripe and ready to be harvested. This field would
:01:25. > :01:30.have produced about 30,000 kilos of them. But this farmer simply had to
:01:31. > :01:35.let them go after the government withdrew most of India's currency
:01:36. > :01:39.notes in November last year. People were suddenly short of money and am
:01:40. > :01:44.willing to spend. That drove down the prices of many consumer good,
:01:45. > :01:53.including vegetables. He was left with no choice but to abandon his
:01:54. > :01:58.crop. TRANSLATION: I would have to pay for workers and transport to
:01:59. > :02:04.harvest it and sell it. At low market rates, I would lose money
:02:05. > :02:08.rather than make it. For us, one season gone is a big deal. I lost
:02:09. > :02:12.nearly $1000. Now, even though prices are going up again, I cannot
:02:13. > :02:19.produce more vegetable. This is another big field where the farmer
:02:20. > :02:22.could not harvest it. When agriculture is hit, it is bad news
:02:23. > :02:29.for the country. More than two thirds of the country lives in rural
:02:30. > :02:33.areas. When they have the ability to spend and purchase things, the
:02:34. > :02:37.economy grows faster. Motorcycles, scooters, these are among the big
:02:38. > :02:42.purchases that people living in rural India make. Sales of these two
:02:43. > :02:49.wheelers fell sharply over November and December. TRANSLATION: On
:02:50. > :02:55.average, every month I used to sell about 75- 80 motorcycles. After the
:02:56. > :02:59.ban of the notes, I only sold about 42 in a month. People do not have
:03:00. > :03:04.money to service their vehicles. There is just no cash flow. Now,
:03:05. > :03:10.things are slowly beginning to improve. Cache is a lifeline in
:03:11. > :03:15.rural India. As it comes back into circulation, people are beginning to
:03:16. > :03:23.recover. -- cash. But getting back to normal might take a little
:03:24. > :03:27.longer. BBC News. As you saw, reversing monetisation has been
:03:28. > :03:31.controversial in India. The Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, told the BBC
:03:32. > :03:38.the move was necessary. He was speaking to us. There is no other
:03:39. > :03:46.way it could be done. For the reason that one of the fundamental problems
:03:47. > :03:51.within the economy is that from a taxation point of view, it was
:03:52. > :03:57.hugely non-compliant, the economy. The ratio of nondenominational
:03:58. > :04:05.currency was very high. And you saw tax evasion and corruption and crime
:04:06. > :04:09.like issues. All of this came up. And therefore, rather than give an
:04:10. > :04:14.opportunity to the evaders to manage, it had to be done abruptly,
:04:15. > :04:21.so that money could lose its anonymity and go back into the
:04:22. > :04:25.banking system. Do you worry that moving away from monetisation will
:04:26. > :04:33.slow the economy? It was extremely fast. I believe that there would be
:04:34. > :04:45.some transient impact only in the short run. However, in the medium
:04:46. > :04:50.and long run, there would be the informal and formal economy.
:04:51. > :04:55.Therefore, India's GDP could become even bigger. That was the Finance
:04:56. > :05:03.Minister of India. Form all on those growth figures, we are joined by our
:05:04. > :05:08.correspondent in Mumbai. -- for more. You heard about the
:05:09. > :05:11.justification from the Finance Minister. But what impact will we
:05:12. > :05:17.see on the economy, particularly in these fourth-quarter figures? Well,
:05:18. > :05:21.the figures that will be released later today will actually give us a
:05:22. > :05:25.clear indication as to what has been the impact of this exercise, because
:05:26. > :05:31.these figures are for the months of October to December, 2016. And the
:05:32. > :05:35.government took this decision in early November. So this is going to
:05:36. > :05:39.give the first big picture of how it really hit businesses, consumers,
:05:40. > :05:45.and earnings across the country. Most economists say that the rate
:05:46. > :06:00.should fall somewhere between ex-6 .3%. -- 6-6.3%. Some say below 6%.
:06:01. > :06:03.It could mean India would lose the tag of the fastest growing economy,
:06:04. > :06:06.which it was for the last two quarters. It had surpassed diner,
:06:07. > :06:14.which had been witnessing a slowdown. -- China. It had gone
:06:15. > :06:17.ahead of that. We heard from the report that businesses are being hit
:06:18. > :06:23.hard and consumer spending has been hit hard. We really saw the impact
:06:24. > :06:27.during this. We will get a clear indication in a few hours. We will
:06:28. > :06:33.watch those numbers. Thank you for joining us. Well, $7 billion to be
:06:34. > :06:39.that is how much Saudi Arabia's state oil firm is investing into and
:06:40. > :06:46.oil refinery set up by Petronas. It comes as the Saudi King arrived in
:06:47. > :06:56.Kuala Lumpur law to kick off a and at kicking off deals. -- multination
:06:57. > :07:03.tour. Let us not forget, one month ago this was off the table. This was
:07:04. > :07:06.a massive reversal and a big save. For the Saudis, this puts another
:07:07. > :07:11.crown jewel in their or for you. The Saudis will also get the right to
:07:12. > :07:17.supply up to 50% of the 300,000 barrel a day refining capacity. This
:07:18. > :07:23.is an outlet for some of their oil, for the Saudis. For Malaysia,
:07:24. > :07:28.joining an investor of this magnitude, after, this was a month
:07:29. > :07:34.ago that it was ended, it is a great save to buy it obviously, both sides
:07:35. > :07:39.see some benefit. But is one side benefiting more than the other? It
:07:40. > :07:45.will be hard to say. But when you see a deal go off and then a deal go
:07:46. > :07:49.on, I expect renegotiation and more favourable terms. Who needed this
:07:50. > :07:58.deal more. Look at the Saudis, China and Japan, they will be stopping in
:07:59. > :08:04.Indonesia where they are investing. They have a downstream empire in
:08:05. > :08:07.Asia. They have been a big investor adhere. This adds to the portfolio.
:08:08. > :08:23.But I think the terms are ugly -- probably improved, which is why
:08:24. > :08:27.it is back one. The airline has 40% of the domestic market and is keen
:08:28. > :08:33.to expand. Earlier, I spoke to a consultant for the company looking
:08:34. > :08:37.to do business there. I asked if the airline will face stiff competition.
:08:38. > :08:41.Some of their growth will be stealing from the domestic market.
:08:42. > :08:49.Obviously, their consumer base will be growing with the middle-class set
:08:50. > :08:52.to be doubled by 2020. As Vietnamese become more wealthy, they will want
:08:53. > :08:58.to go out. There will be competition. They will be wanting to
:08:59. > :09:04.go out. We know there are many challenges within Vietnam, rather
:09:05. > :09:08.unusually, infrastructure not keeping up with demand. Can you tell
:09:09. > :09:11.us more about that? The Vietnamese are trying to add on as much
:09:12. > :09:16.infrastructure as they can. Obviously, we face a lot of delays
:09:17. > :09:20.in terms of some of the big projects, like the airport which
:09:21. > :09:23.will be built in Ho Chi Minh City. Right now there is simply not enough
:09:24. > :09:29.space for the aircrafts that are coming in. Many of the bigger cities
:09:30. > :09:32.like Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi, there is a question of how the cities will
:09:33. > :09:46.accommodate the increase in aircraft. Indeed. Last year we saw
:09:47. > :09:53.you buying Airbus and Boeing planes, coming up to $12 billion. Can you
:09:54. > :09:58.afford it? I think so. The model is resilient and is a low-cost carrier.
:09:59. > :10:03.They will be in a good position to expand. And I think they will be
:10:04. > :10:09.fine. And that is Matthew Garland. The markets before we go. Most
:10:10. > :10:16.markets are up. Just slightly. They are taking cues from Wall Street. We
:10:17. > :10:21.saw the Dow actually making its 12 record-breaking day. The Nikkei is
:10:22. > :10:25.gaining some, reversing the 2.5 week low it hit yesterday.
:10:26. > :10:36.All of this is in anticipation of Donald Trump's speech to Congress
:10:37. > :10:37.later today when he