01/05/2017 Asia Business Report

Thawed relations. Japan and China holds direct economic talks for the

first time in nearly two years. Tears and disappointment. The impact

on Indian workers with the new Australian visa laws. Good morning,

Asia. Hello, world. Welcome to another edition of Asia Business

Report. It's a Monday. It may be May Day or Labour Day were you are, but

we know that markets have a lot to digest in the next few days. Japan

and China are resuming bilateral trade talks after two years starting

from today. The Federal Reserve kicks off its two-day meeting.

Investors will be looking for clues on how many more US rate hikes could

be in store this year. That is the same day that tech giant, Apple,

will give its financial report card. Facebook follows the next day. And

on Thursday, the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, meets US

President Donald Trump in New York. What can we expect from this busy

week? I asked a guest what he is expecting from Japan and China. The

relationship between Japan and China at the political level is a very

sensitive one. There are deep roots to that and I won't dwell on them.

But I think this is symbolic of Xi Jinping moving to calm things down

in the neighbourhood. This is a good time for Japan and China to have

constructive dialogue on something other than North Korea. So,

hopefully, you know, it is a positive for the region, and, of

course, China being such an important economic engine for the

world, hopefully it is a positive for the economy of the region, as

well as its politics. Let us look at those big technology giants

reporting this week. Are you more interested in Apple or Facebook's

earnings? Apple is such an old reliable at this stage in the game

that the only thing we can expect is positive surprises, as opposed to

those who like to paint doom and gloom for Apple. It is a good were

cause for investors. Facebook is more interesting for me. -- work

horse. It gives an indication of what is happening in the world of

the Internet. Facebook is the bellwether for these kinds of

relationship based Internet stocks. And it is the counterpoint to other

stocks like Twitter and so on who don't have as much substance. It is

going to be a colourful week. Last week was as well. Lots of

opportunity for investors if they pay attention. Now, Australia and

the US. We know they are old allies. But there was a famously awkward

phone call between Donald Trump and Malcolm Turnbull. Will be expect the

good ties between these countries to continue later this week? So, I

think, obviously, underneath the surface of that relationship between

the US and Australia, it will continue to soldier on, regardless

of who is in the leadership position of either country. But I think at

the sort of level of public drama, we hopefully will see a gearshift as

Donald Trump has managed in a number of other circumstances so that what

was apparently an awkward interchange becoming something more

of a man-to-man friendly relationship. And we have the US

Federal Reserve coming out with interest rates, up or down, or any

at all? Well, I am hoping that the Federal Reserve, having played front

and centre for everybody over the last few years, becomes more of a

sideshow and real economic activity starts to drive interest. I won't

make a prediction, though we expect a number of rate increases this

year. James speaking to me earlier. Last week, Australia announced

sweeping changes to its visa rules, making it much harder for its

skilled workers to come from overseas. It is aimed at

prioritising jobs for Australia. Indians make up nearly a quarter of

skilled immigrants, with others being British and Filipinos. 8000

visas were granted to them in the last nine months to be how has the

move gone down in India? I really wonder. I cannot believe this has

stopped. Is there any other possibility out there? It is over.

We have invested a lot of time into this. They have to move 200

occupations from the skilled list. Those in the pipeline whose cases

were being processed, they suddenly cannot go along any longer. The last

two years we have been very focused on going to Australia. We started

with our skill assessment. We paid $3000. We spoke to our families, we

said we are finally going. Something like this was unexpected. The US is

getting tougher on visas as well. People are migrating from the US and

UK to Canada and Australia. It will affect me, I think. Me and most of

the students in the future. Because, if they are changing the rules, they

are giving the job is to Australians, not the Indians. I

worked really hard. I left no stone unturned for this. We have been

preparing. Everything has just become confusing. A personal look at

what those visa changes entail. Another bit of business news. Demand

for South Korean goods led to a 15% jump. Shipments to China jumped 10%

compared to a year ago. The mainland is the largest export market for

South Korea, followed by the US and the EU. And President Joko Widodo

travelled to the hometown of the Philippine president, Rodrigo

Duterte, in the Philippines. The Indonesian leader was there to

inaugurate a new shipping lane to boost trade between the two

countries. It will reduce shipping time from five weeks to three days.

US President Donald Trump has invited the Philippine president to

Washington in a phone call over the weekend. They discussed the threat

of North Korea and the war on drugs in the Philippines. Public access to

wireless Internet, Wi-Fi, maybe ubiquitous in many big cities right

here in Asia. In Germany, would you believe it is a different story?

Public Wi-Fi is hard to find. There is a legal reason for it. Wi-Fi

owners can be potentially held liable for any illegal activity that

occurs on their network. Campaigners have been trying to change this and

draft legislation has been put forward. But that is also facing

opposition. We have more from Berlin. If you are looking for a

morning coffee, there are few better places than Berlin's trendy cafes.

If you like to check your e-mails while sipping a large hey, you might

find Wi-Fi hard to come by. -- latte. A new law means that Wi-Fi

owners could be asked to pay up if it is used by others to download

illegal content. I have never heard of anyone being sued for illegal

downloads. But to make sure, we have got liability insurance. Confusion

could be one of the reasons why so many cafes do not offer Wi-Fi.

German politicians never admits an opportunity to talk up the digital

economy of the country. So the fact that cafes like this can lack Wi-Fi

is something of an embarrassment. A new law is moving through German

parliament set out to fix this. Not all campaigners are happy with

legislation. It is a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that

it tries to review the section about liabilities and states very clearly

that under no condition can the holder be liable for third-party

downloads. But at the same time, the draft law states that you can ask

the operator for blocking a certain information that is related to

copyright infringement. According to the draft law, you can do that even

without a court order. Whatever shape the legislation takes, the

race is now on to get something passed before the German elections

on September. Jo Miller, BBC News, Berlin. A quick look at markets.

Only Australia is open to date. That is it for Asia Business Report. --

today. Thank you for