29/05/2017 Asia Business Report

North Korea has fired what appears to be a ballistic

The missile, which some reports say was a short-range Scud missile,

was tracked for six minutes by the US, before

2,000 civilians are reported to be trapped by fighting

Government forces are trying to retake it from insurgents

who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.

And this video is trending on BBC.com.

Russia has entered the highly competitive air travel market

by launching its first mainline commercial aircraft

The MS-21 has just completed its maiden flight.

It will be going head-to-head with the popular Boeing

Official sources have confirmed that an inquiry is to investigate how

the security services dealt with warnings from the public

that the Manchester suicide bomber, Salman Abedi,

This week we get a health check on China's engine of economic growth,

its manufacturing sector. An Sri Lanka's government is facing

criticism for the sale of valuable infrastructure projects to China.

Welcome to Asia business report. From high-tech gadgets do economic

data to defence. They are all on the agenda for investors in Asia this

week. Tomorrow Asia's biggest technology fair opens in Taiwan. And

the state of the Chinese economy has been in the news recently with Moody

's downgrading the debt rating, and on Wednesday we get another peek

into the key manufacturing sector with release of the official

purchases index. And on Friday, top defence chiefs from the region will

converge in Singapore at a major annual defence caught. Early I spoke

and asked what we could expect from the Computex conference? I think we

will be watching keenly to see what demand is like, articulately coming

through from some of the big corporate is across Asia because

there is some concern in this sector as to whether that desire for the

corporate is to constantly renew their hardware is still to the fore.

I think if you are looking at surveys that have been done of late

across the OECD there is a typically a desire on the part of purchasing

managers do not upgrade or not roll over their infrastructure as quickly

as they have done in the past, so I think this could be a trend we need

to watch out for. Speaking of purchasing managers we have the

Chinese purchasing managers index due later this week and last week

was the first time we saw Moody 's downgrading the country's credit

rating since 1989. China's Finance Ministry said Moody 's was

exaggerating the economic difficulties. Do you think they

work? You might expect them to say that the China is on holiday along

with the US and the UK and with the debt to GDP and China of 300%, I

think it is not particularly surprising, but maybe in the sense

that it's taken so long for this downgrade to come and it was all so

interesting that Hong Kong was caught up in the mix with its rating

downgraded but will it outlook raised to neutral from negative,

much to the chagrin of politicians in Hong Kong, so not unexpected and

driven clearly by the debt levels across the economy particularly with

state-owned enterprises. The reading will be the slowest growth seen in

eight months if that is what we see. In other business News, the head of

Vietnam's's low-cost carrier, they are meeting stock exchange officials

in New York about a possible share listing in the United States. The

company wants to become the first Vietnamese firm to list overseas.

The government changed rules to allow greater foreign investment in

the tightly controlled aviation sector. The US could widen its ban

on laptops in cabins to cover all international flights in and out of

the country. America's Homeland Security secretary said there was a

real threat that the US has already banned economic -- electronics

larger than a mobile phone being brought on to flights departing from

the Middle East and North Africa, in March. And 10 cents is challenging

Ali Babar's dominance in the e-commerce in China. The hugely

popular media network started selling luxury handbags and clothes

on its online platform from the likes of Burberry. Other brands are

all reportedly offering flash sales in a bid to test demands. A Swedish

film called The Square has backed the top award at the Cannes film

Festival. The satire about the art world was one of 19 films competing

for the Palm d'Or prize. This festival this year has been

surrounded by controversy. Netflix broke with tradition by not

releasing its two entries in cinemas. I spoke to the Netflix

chief product officer about why they chose that distribution model. We

are really trying to meet consumer expectations around their

entertainment experience, meaning broad access to content and we know

that the films, we know this global distribution platform we have the

person I -- personalisation platform can find the biggest audience and

support those creators more effectively and we think it's a

great option the distribution. You have the issue about how friends

cinema tickets are taxed and a lot of those proceeds go to brand --

fund the French cinema so in essence your distribution model would kill

French cinema. Do you think it will? We are investing a huge amount in

French cinema and local retirement and it is effective because we are

bringing those stories from France to the world in a way that finds a

bigger audience and are much more relevant for French content and we

see it differently. We know it is a crowded Margret and you have the

likes of HBO and Showtime doing what you are doing -- market. How do you

deal with this increasing competition? It's not surprising

there's a lot of people who want to ride this wave of Internet

revolutionising entertainment. But we think of the competitive space

from a consumer perspective and it is broader than that. We are

competing with everything that a consumer might do to entertain

themselves, whether it's reading a book or going out with friends,

watching linear television, all of those things. You are the chief

product officer, so lots of pressure to come up with content. How do you

come up with a great idea? We use data to try and understand what

people will love around the world map model informs us. But the second

half is the magic of creators and having a vision for a story they

want to tell and buying into that vision. Then we handed over to them

and give them the reins and let them have control and give them the tools

to tell the story in the best possible way they can. Over in Sri

Lanka, in fact -- and expensive infrastructure projects are weighed

down by loans. The economy is struggling with a debt crisis so the

Sri Lanka and government is handing control to some of its projects to

Chinese companies that facing opposition. This port in southern

Sri Lanka. Opened in 2010 it costs more than $1 billion and was paid

for by loans from China. There was one ship here this morning and left

a little while ago. The next one doesn't until tomorrow. Compare that

to this country's other port in Colombo which sees dozens of ships

going in and out each day. So all of this has been built here, but barely

anyone is using it. For Sri Lanka, the port has become a large

investment that is bringing few returns. That means the country is

unable to pay back the money borrowed to build it. So instead,

the Sri Lanka and government is now planning to give a major stake in

the port to a Chinese firm. It could be as high as 80%. It is easier for

our activity that does not bring an economic return. We keep the place

closed and pay out, why should we do that? The next option is for people

who might like to come and take a stake. There are other megaprojects

China is investing in. Here is a brand-new city is being created --

created off the coast of Colombo. It will have corporate offices, shiny

apartments, parks and even a marina. All of this is being built by eight

Chinese state-owned company investing $1.5 billion, but in

return for the money about two thirds of this new city will be

handed over to the firm, so liked the proposed deal at the port, China

will effectively control another part of Sri Lanka. Some China backed

projects led to protests earlier this year from locals unwilling to

sell their land, homes and farms for development. There are others who

object more broadly to what they call a sale of Sri Lankan territory.

Any land we give China, we don't like. Any country that comes to take

land from Sri Lanka, we don't like. But not all Chinese investment has

been without benefit. The many highways and roads constructed have

helped boost tourism. But Sri Lanka is tap -- trapped in a debt crisis

and owes $8 billion to China alone. So whether good or bad, the

government here does not have much room to negotiate on the kind of

deals it strikes to help its economy and its people. And for those of you

who like watching our programmes, guess what, we have a new programme

debuting tonight, Talking Business. Viewers in Asia can watch the

programme at 9:30pm here in Singapore and Hong Kong and 7pm in

Mumbai. A quick look at the markets. Currently flat. Shrugging off all of

those tensions and concerns around the missile launch in North Korea.

That is it. Thanks for watching. The Japanese government has

condemned North Korea's latest Around two thousand people

are still thought to be trapped in the southern Philippine city

of Marawi as troops battle militants Both the Conservatives

and Labour Party, have been focusing on national security today

in the election campaign. The Home Secretary Amber Rudd,

reaffirmed that the Conservatives would set up a commission

to promote British values and tackle extremism,

while Labour wants to recruit 1,000 security experts in addition

to 10,000 extra police. Here's our Political

Correspondent Alex Forsyth. In the aftermath of such

an atrocity, inevitable questions about how to stop something

like this happening again. The actions of this man,

Salman Abedi, forced a pause Now preventing others like him

is part of the debate. The Home Secretary said today

the Government had for the first time used powers to prevent

suspected terrorists On the Manchester attack,

she said police and security With questions about who knew

what and when, she was asked about reports that friends

and community leaders had raised Was Salman Abedi on

a surveillance list? I don't know those details that

you have set out to me because the intelligence services

are still collecting information But I wouldn't rush to conclusions,

as you seem to be, that they somehow People had phoned the terror

hotline, as they are told to do. And the reason we have put

in place the terror hotline, the reason we have put in place

the Prevent strategy is because we recognise

the scale of the problem. So what would different parties do

to tackle the problem? Well, the Conservatives

would introduce So far short on detail, it

would advise new laws and policies. They say they have committed extra

funding for counterterrorism agencies and are recruiting

more security officers. Labour, too, has promised more

security and intelligence staff and 10,000 more police officers

as well as more prison In the battle for power here,

Labour are attacking the Conservatives over cuts,

saying they have left The Tories are defending

their record on crime. But like so much in this election,

they want to make this The Shadow Home Secretary was asked

again today about past comments she had made,

seemingly supportive of the IRA. It was 34 years ago, I had a rather

splendid afro at the time. I don't have the same hairstyle

and I don't have the same views. Labour says the focus now

should be how to keep people safe from this,

an attack which, rather than undermine the democratic

system, has highlighted the choice Who is best to lead,

who is best to protect?