:00:00. > :00:19.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:20. > :00:26.Apple shares have lowered after the company posted a disappointing
:00:27. > :00:29.iPhone sales. And training for the jobs of the future. How Singapore
:00:30. > :00:39.hopes to give its students an edge in the age of globalisation.
:00:40. > :00:47.Good morning Asia and hello world. Thank you for joining us for this
:00:48. > :00:52.edition of Asia Business Report. We begin with Apple and its share price
:00:53. > :00:57.falling overnight about 2% after the world's most valuable company
:00:58. > :01:01.reported a fall when I fall in sales. They sold 50.8 million units
:01:02. > :01:05.in its second quarter, that is down 1% compared to the same quarter last
:01:06. > :01:14.year. It still posted revenues of around 53 million dollars US during
:01:15. > :01:17.the January to March period. I spoke to our correspondent earlier and
:01:18. > :01:21.asked if customers were waiting for the next iPhone model to be
:01:22. > :01:26.released. Potentially. The new model coming up later this year or,
:01:27. > :01:31.perhaps it could be delayed which would be troubling for some users.
:01:32. > :01:36.The iPhone sales so far this year may have been down of physical
:01:37. > :01:39.numbers, the South have been down but the revenue has gone up, because
:01:40. > :01:47.more people are purchasing the iPhone 7 plus, a bigger and more
:01:48. > :01:52.expensive version. Sales are robust is the phrase that the CEO used that
:01:53. > :01:56.any wavering on the success of the iPhone does drag the stock price
:01:57. > :02:02.down so it is down around 2% at the moment. What this does is pylon
:02:03. > :02:07.pressure for apple for later in the year. It is the 10th anniversary
:02:08. > :02:10.iPhone coming up and people expect big changes. There could be a delay
:02:11. > :02:15.because of those changes, if there is a drastic new direction for the
:02:16. > :02:21.phone but unless apple delivers strongly on what people have, on
:02:22. > :02:24.their high hopes, it could be troubling so that is why investors
:02:25. > :02:30.have been worried. Despite sales being down to the iPhone or all
:02:31. > :02:38.there is still rather cash rich. Yes, very cash rich. We found out
:02:39. > :02:45.today that they have $250 billion in cash held overseas. That is a huge
:02:46. > :02:51.amount and the company is spending some of that cash in rewarding
:02:52. > :02:56.shareholders but they are also under pressure to repatriate that cash
:02:57. > :03:00.into the US to make acquisitions. If they do that, they will need a tax
:03:01. > :03:04.cut in the US because right now the cost of bringing that money back
:03:05. > :03:08.into the country is high. They hope, along with several other technology
:03:09. > :03:12.companies, the Donald Trump make give them a tax holidays that money
:03:13. > :03:15.can come back into the country. They have a good growth across the world
:03:16. > :03:20.with the exception of one place, China. They had a drop of 14% on
:03:21. > :03:24.sales year on year which is quite troubling because it was not so long
:03:25. > :03:28.ago when we were talking about China being the major source of growth for
:03:29. > :03:31.apple and the fact that it has panned out quite a way that any of
:03:32. > :03:40.us expected will be travelling for Apple despite the world, the world
:03:41. > :03:50.in the region experiencing a revenue growth. -- will be troubling for
:03:51. > :03:55.apple. 10,000 workers will be hired in North America over the next nine
:03:56. > :04:00.years. Many Indian firms faced criticism in the US for flying in
:04:01. > :04:06.law paid workers onto every visas. Many rely heavily on a visa that
:04:07. > :04:18.Donald Trump has asked to be reviewed. Liberty Castle at 300 UK
:04:19. > :04:22.jobs this year. The steel sector is emerging from a crisis that saw
:04:23. > :04:26.around 5000 jobs axed over the last few years. Liberty house's
:04:27. > :04:33.speciality steel unit is one of the biggest suppliers to the Aerospace
:04:34. > :04:40.or industry which with customers like Boeing and Rolls-Royce. US
:04:41. > :04:43.airlines have been threatened with legislation to improve customer
:04:44. > :04:47.service after a passenger was pulled down the aisle of a flight last
:04:48. > :04:53.month. United airlines has reached a settlement with the paddle, a
:04:54. > :04:56.passenger. At a congressional hearing, the chief executive officer
:04:57. > :05:01.apologised to the incident. Here is what he had to say. The safety or
:05:02. > :05:05.security as an issue we will never again ask a customer to give up
:05:06. > :05:11.their seat once they are on board. Simple common sense. The biggest
:05:12. > :05:14.lender in Singapore reports a 1% increase in profits which may
:05:15. > :05:21.reflect a slightly cooler economic growth in the citystate. So how are
:05:22. > :05:25.they doing? As part of our two minutes with serious, we asked the
:05:26. > :05:32.bank's chief executive about the prospects and challenges in the
:05:33. > :05:39.coming year. Southeast Asia's largest bank has reported a 1% rise
:05:40. > :05:43.in net profit from last year. I'm joined now by the chief executive. I
:05:44. > :05:51.have two minutes with you starting now. A 1% rise in profit? That is
:05:52. > :05:55.flat. We got that 1% despite net interest margin being almost ten
:05:56. > :06:00.business points lower. Despite having a particularly weak trading
:06:01. > :06:04.quarter. We are quite pleased, actually, with a performance. You
:06:05. > :06:12.said, however, there are headwinds in the oil and gas sector. Will they
:06:13. > :06:16.continue? It will be challenged as long as oil prices remain between 50
:06:17. > :06:20.and 60 I do not see a lot of new investment going in. There is likely
:06:21. > :06:24.to be consolidation. The good news is we took most of our pain last
:06:25. > :06:29.year and therefore we expect the new non-performing loans to be much
:06:30. > :06:33.smaller this year than last year. And like we, we will see some much
:06:34. > :06:37.less than we did last year. The bread-and-butter of most banks is
:06:38. > :06:43.loans. Loan growth looks challenging in this region. How do you expect
:06:44. > :06:46.that to build? We should be a baguette mid singledigit loan
:06:47. > :06:54.growth. Trade has been in the first quarter. Asian exports have been up
:06:55. > :06:57.16%. Many of our clients, including the Chinese ones are expanding
:06:58. > :07:01.internationally and that gives us a good opportunity to finance them as
:07:02. > :07:06.well. In terms of executive pay, last year, as you said was a tough
:07:07. > :07:13.year. You cut executive pay by around 13%. When will that be
:07:14. > :07:19.reinstated? We value performance at the end of the year so the answer is
:07:20. > :07:22.to that will come in December. A rise in protectionism globally and
:07:23. > :07:29.concerns about growth. How are you predicting the next year 's
:07:30. > :07:34.management has been great and it will be an engine for growth. So
:07:35. > :07:38.will cash management. Diversifying into Indonesia and South East Asia
:07:39. > :07:44.is all looking up. Thank you so much for joining us. Millions of workers
:07:45. > :07:48.around the world are at risk of losing their jobs to robots. A
:07:49. > :07:52.recent report by the World Economic Forum predicted that over 5 million
:07:53. > :07:57.jobs across 15 developed countries will be lost by the year 2020.
:07:58. > :08:04.Another estimate says there will be a 7% net loss of jobs in the United
:08:05. > :08:07.States by 2025. And office and administrative support staff will be
:08:08. > :08:11.the hardest hit. Here in Singapore the government has a plan to prepare
:08:12. > :08:12.children for an automated future. The BBC caught up with the
:08:13. > :08:30.director-general of education. Many of the jobs that we do me
:08:31. > :08:36.disappeared totally and many jobs that we know today will change in
:08:37. > :08:42.shape and form tomorrow. So our job is to help our students with strong
:08:43. > :08:47.fundamentals. If we give them the skills to apply these fundamentals
:08:48. > :08:51.in whatever new situation, whatever new contest, whatever new jobs that
:08:52. > :08:53.may appear for them, we believe that they should be able to deliver a
:08:54. > :09:14.future. We have tried to pinpoint some of
:09:15. > :09:20.the important thing such as critical and inventive thinking. We
:09:21. > :09:23.established that our students need stronger communication and
:09:24. > :09:36.collaborative skills. They are looking at the future in terms of
:09:37. > :09:40.multicultural literacies. Singapore has no natural resources. The only
:09:41. > :09:46.resource we have are our people. We therefore believe in investing in
:09:47. > :09:56.people. There is competition globally and how will we fare will
:09:57. > :09:58.depend on how they respond to those challenges. That was the
:09:59. > :10:04.director-general for education in Singapore. Before we go, we have
:10:05. > :10:10.about 30 seconds to tell you about the markets. Overall lacklustre
:10:11. > :10:16.because US equities closed flat overnight and not a whole lot of
:10:17. > :10:21.liquidity today as financial markets in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea
:10:22. > :10:27.closed for the public holiday. So on Wall Street automaker shares slumped
:10:28. > :10:33.by airline stocks gained after the congressional hearing. Thank you so
:10:34. > :10:44.much for investing your time with us.
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