:00:15. > :00:18.Russia is in mourning after a suspected terrorist
:00:19. > :00:22.More than 40 others were injured in an explosion at a train station
:00:23. > :00:26.Another homemade device was disabled by a bomb disposal experts.
:00:27. > :00:28.President Putin has laid flowers at a makeshift shrine
:00:29. > :00:33.He said all causes were being investigated.
:00:34. > :00:36.The US president, Donald Trump described it as a "terrible
:00:37. > :00:43.South Korea's tallest building, the 123-story Lotte World Tower,
:00:44. > :00:46.has officially opened in Seoul, with a truly spectacular fireworks
:00:47. > :00:54.A total of about 30,000 rounds of fireworks lit up
:00:55. > :01:16.suggestions that Britain might be prepared to go to war with Spain
:01:17. > :01:25.More from me coming up, but first, here is Marika with Asia Business
:01:26. > :01:38.Report. Britain's finance minister heads to
:01:39. > :01:45.India, looking for a new partnership as the Brexit process gets under
:01:46. > :01:49.way. And find out why Australia's top real estate firm says the
:01:50. > :01:54.property market there is set for a slow down.
:01:55. > :02:04.Good morning. Welcome to Asia Business Report, live from
:02:05. > :02:08.Singapore. One week after the UK triggered the process of leaving the
:02:09. > :02:13.European Union, Chancellor Philip Hammond is on his way to India.
:02:14. > :02:19.Businesses there are concerned about what kind of impact it could have on
:02:20. > :02:23.them. Our colleague in New Delhi spoke with the President at the
:02:24. > :02:30.European bank for Reconstruction and develop it. -- development. If it is
:02:31. > :02:33.a Brexit which results in the UK leading the single market and maybe
:02:34. > :02:37.not making any further contributions to the EU budget, if you take that
:02:38. > :02:41.extreme, that has significant potentially negative impacts on some
:02:42. > :02:45.of our operations, especially in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria,
:02:46. > :02:50.Greece, those sorts of countries would be heavily affected. But it is
:02:51. > :02:54.a milder form of Brexit, where even if the UK leads the single market it
:02:55. > :02:58.is able to mimic some of the single market attributes in the new trading
:02:59. > :03:01.relationship, if it still makes some contributions to the EU budget, then
:03:02. > :03:05.the impact is actually pretty marginal. British Chancellor Philip
:03:06. > :03:09.Hammond is bringing a large delegation of British businesses
:03:10. > :03:13.here to try to drum up trade in India. You think India can really
:03:14. > :03:17.fill in that gap is a strong business partner for the UK. It
:03:18. > :03:20.certainly can. We have noticed in the country 's operating where we
:03:21. > :03:27.work, they used to depend, ten or 15 years ago, very much on western
:03:28. > :03:32.Europe as an economic locomotive. So you saw lots of supply in the supply
:03:33. > :03:36.industries, growing up to serve the German, French, Italian, British
:03:37. > :03:40.markets. That is changing as these countries increasingly look to Asia,
:03:41. > :03:45.including India and the Gulf of Persia, and the Far East, for new
:03:46. > :03:48.sources of investment. India was traditionally seen as a large
:03:49. > :03:52.recipient of international aid. You think that could change and India
:03:53. > :03:56.could become a significant donor? I think India needs to become more of
:03:57. > :04:00.a common aid donor. Lots of that aid in the past was tied to Indian
:04:01. > :04:04.suppliers, and most countries have moved away from tied aid to open
:04:05. > :04:10.market German. India should move in the same direction. -- open market
:04:11. > :04:13.procurement. India is a major shareholder in international
:04:14. > :04:18.institutions, and I think it should use that leveraged to ask questions
:04:19. > :04:22.about how the international, multilateral system, how does it
:04:23. > :04:27.need to reform and change to help these countries? India is one of the
:04:28. > :04:31.biggest importers of coal, and as you increasingly engage with the
:04:32. > :04:35.government here, how can use your expertise in clean energy to change
:04:36. > :04:38.that? We are helping them build up their renewables industry through
:04:39. > :04:42.projects that we have financed. It is interesting to see the Indian
:04:43. > :04:46.companies here also pushing on renewables, but also working with
:04:47. > :04:49.Indian companies now in the power sector, the renewables sector,
:04:50. > :04:52.outside of the traditional area of operations. There is plenty of
:04:53. > :04:56.opportunity for India to move on this front.
:04:57. > :05:00.In other business news, making headlines this morning, Kaesler has
:05:01. > :05:04.become the second guessed it US carmaker in terms of market
:05:05. > :05:10.capitalisation. -- Tesla has become the second biggest. At the end of
:05:11. > :05:14.Monday, Tesla stock was up by over 7% to close just below $300. That
:05:15. > :05:21.gives the firm and market cap of nearly $49 billion, which puts it
:05:22. > :05:25.ahead of Ford. This is despite the fact that the company only delivered
:05:26. > :05:29.25,000 of its high-tech vehicle so far this year into a car market
:05:30. > :05:36.which sold 60 million units in March. Inflation in South Korea has
:05:37. > :05:42.accelerated to any five-year high driven mostly by higher food and oil
:05:43. > :05:46.prices. On a year-on-year basis, inflation came in at 2.2%, which
:05:47. > :05:52.exceeds the bank of Korea's 2% inflation target.
:05:53. > :05:56.Many big multicast shall -- multinational companies say they are
:05:57. > :06:00.leading the way in providing benefits to lesbian, gay, bisexual
:06:01. > :06:04.and transgender or LGBT employees. But according to one of the world's
:06:05. > :06:08.biggest human resources consultants, much more still needs to be done for
:06:09. > :06:15.the changing workforce. A recent survey showed roughly one third of
:06:16. > :06:21.companies globally have no policies at all on LGBT employees. Only 28%
:06:22. > :06:26.have a separate policy that caters specifically to their needs.
:06:27. > :06:30.Earlier, I spoke with a representative from Mercer, the
:06:31. > :06:36.consultancy which ran the survey, and asked her if Asian employees are
:06:37. > :06:39.lagging behind in this area. You are right, diversity and inclusion is
:06:40. > :06:45.becoming an egg topic for many organisations. -- agenda topic. Asia
:06:46. > :06:50.has to play catch up, especially with respect to LGBT policies. In
:06:51. > :06:54.Asia we are faced around some constraints around cultural norms
:06:55. > :06:58.and religious constraints, and of course regulatory constraints as
:06:59. > :07:01.well that we have to battle with. If those big multinational companies
:07:02. > :07:06.face those challenges, how why the regional and local companies doing
:07:07. > :07:10.when it comes to those policies? It really needs to start with company
:07:11. > :07:14.philosophy around diversity inclusion, regardless of what topic.
:07:15. > :07:19.It needs to start internally a round HR policies, what you want to stand
:07:20. > :07:24.for when it comes to your benefit philosophy, your total rewards
:07:25. > :07:29.philosophy, how you want to practise equality, and what that actually
:07:30. > :07:32.looks like locally on the ground. So there are lots of things
:07:33. > :07:38.organisations can do internally despite having these constraints.
:07:39. > :07:41.You have mentioned some issues, such as religious beliefs, which can be a
:07:42. > :07:47.sensitive topic. Your study showed that 93% of companies offer the same
:07:48. > :07:52.benefits. Do you think Asia could ever get to that level. Definitely,
:07:53. > :07:56.I think so. Like I said, it needs to stand internally within the
:07:57. > :08:00.organisation about how they approach this and how they view it. It is the
:08:01. > :08:03.same with any diversity inclusion policy, even if it is the same as
:08:04. > :08:07.offering the same benefits, for example, to different agendas. We
:08:08. > :08:10.have seen lots of progress when it comes to offering the same maternity
:08:11. > :08:14.and paternity policies here in the region. I think this is something
:08:15. > :08:19.else that will also, we will eventually get there, that it needs
:08:20. > :08:22.to begin internally, and we need these organisations that are the
:08:23. > :08:25.trailblazers or that are leading the way and are a bit more progressive
:08:26. > :08:28.and are willing to push the boundaries.
:08:29. > :08:32.Let's turn our attention to Australia and its property market,
:08:33. > :08:38.as part of our week-long series. Home prices in Sydney are at 12
:08:39. > :08:43.times the household income, and the government is under pressure to help
:08:44. > :08:46.homebuyers. At the chief of the country's biggest real estate group
:08:47. > :08:53.says the market is already set to slow down. Hywel Griffith examines
:08:54. > :08:59.how the hot property market is affecting those looking for a home.
:09:00. > :09:04.Welcome to Sydney, where depending on who you believe, the housing
:09:05. > :09:10.market is either built on solid foundations or nestled on a cliff
:09:11. > :09:15.edge. In the last year, prices have gone up 18%. Melbourne and Canberra
:09:16. > :09:19.were not far behind. Swelled by investors, some fear Australia's
:09:20. > :09:25.uppity market will soon come crashing down. -- property market.
:09:26. > :09:30.For Heidi and Duke, that might not be a bad thing. Unable to buy, they
:09:31. > :09:34.have come up with a temporary fix, offering to renovate other people's
:09:35. > :09:38.houses in lieu of rent. As things are, they cannot afford to buy their
:09:39. > :09:42.own. It seems to be out of control. Every week we look at what is being
:09:43. > :09:47.sold and what is on the market and it is just going up and up and up.
:09:48. > :09:50.If you sit down and think about it, it is depressing. The prices keep
:09:51. > :09:54.escalating. It feels like they have almost doubled in five years.
:09:55. > :10:00.Worrying about house prices is a Sydney staple. When one newspaper
:10:01. > :10:03.suggested people should give up that smashed avocado breakfast in order
:10:04. > :10:07.to save for a place it provoked an outcry. The Australian government
:10:08. > :10:12.has been urged to come up with more palatable solutions in May's budget.
:10:13. > :10:18.One idea is to cut the tax breaks available to investors, who buy to
:10:19. > :10:22.rent and keep prices rising. A really obvious strategy is simply to
:10:23. > :10:29.reduce the generosity of the tax subsidies available to investors
:10:30. > :10:32.through negative gearing, and also a very sharp discount on the capital
:10:33. > :10:35.gains tax which is available to investors. If we do that, we have
:10:36. > :10:40.removed some investors from the demand side of the equation and I
:10:41. > :10:44.think we would probably see an immediate price relief. But from his
:10:45. > :10:47.unique vantage point, the head of the country's biggest real estate
:10:48. > :10:53.business thinks that would be catastrophic, having worked through
:10:54. > :10:56.several boom and bust cycles, he is convinced a price correction is
:10:57. > :11:02.coming and the government should be cautious. There is a huge sector in
:11:03. > :11:05.the community which says we have to do things to bring prices down, and
:11:06. > :11:09.they are expressing this quite happily. Any time government has
:11:10. > :11:16.done that it has been catastrophic in terms of the community response.
:11:17. > :11:20.People who own homes normally do not hit the streets, but they certainly
:11:21. > :11:25.start to, if they feel, my property value is going down, if it is being
:11:26. > :11:30.put at risk. Next month's budget will be the government's opportunity
:11:31. > :11:36.to calm the waters and try to make sure the market doesn't crash out.
:11:37. > :11:43.In the markets, though this is how Asia started trading. Japan's Nikkei
:11:44. > :11:47.down by 0.6%. Shares in Toshiba continue to fall by over 4% on
:11:48. > :11:50.reports it might miss its earnings deadline again. That is all from
:11:51. > :11:56.this addition of Asia Business Report. Thank you for watching.