:00:23. > :00:27.Foxconn announced a ten million dollar investment to build a
:00:28. > :00:36.manufacturing plant in the United States. On Facebook reports a major
:00:37. > :00:41.bump in profits. Hello and welcome to Asia Business Report. I am
:00:42. > :00:45.Sharanjit Leyl. Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn
:00:46. > :00:49.just announced plans to build a flat panel screen plant in the United
:00:50. > :00:55.States. At an elaborate press conference in the White House a
:00:56. > :01:04.short while ago, Foxconn said it is investing million -- $10 million. I
:01:05. > :01:08.asked our correspondent how big a deal this is for the US economy.
:01:09. > :01:12.President Trump campaigned on the idea of bringing manufacturing jobs
:01:13. > :01:15.back to the United States, especially in America's heartland.
:01:16. > :01:21.So certainly from his perspective, and from his base's perspective,
:01:22. > :01:26.this is a really big win. You see this company coming in, investing
:01:27. > :01:31.$10 million, that is going to create 3000 jobs, and is just beginning.
:01:32. > :01:35.From the perspective of the governor of Wisconsin, where the plant will
:01:36. > :01:40.be built, he has said this is going to then explode into up to 13,000
:01:41. > :01:45.jobs. So there is certainly a lot of hope with this company coming into
:01:46. > :01:48.Wisconsin. All right, lots of jobs being generated there, but we know
:01:49. > :01:51.these are going to be expensive jobs. These companies are going to
:01:52. > :01:56.have to pay American workers a lot more than they would their workers
:01:57. > :02:00.elsewhere. So presumably costs are going to go up for these firms. Do
:02:01. > :02:04.they know quite what they are getting into? So that of course is a
:02:05. > :02:08.concern, so there was one local politician who really called this as
:02:09. > :02:15.sort of package, because just how many tax breaks Foxconn was offered
:02:16. > :02:20.in order to come to the state of Wisconsin is something around $3
:02:21. > :02:24.billion in tax breaks. So it is possible that those kinds of lures
:02:25. > :02:29.really helped to get Foxconn into Wisconsin. All right, and I guess
:02:30. > :02:33.this would be seen to be a bit of a victory for President Trump. Has he
:02:34. > :02:39.been revelling in it, and seems really happy with it? Absolutely. It
:02:40. > :02:43.was really quite an event. You had the head of Foxconn at the White
:02:44. > :02:47.House, accompanied by the Governor of Wisconsin, by the vice president
:02:48. > :02:53.of the United States, either House Speaker, Paul Ryan, and of course
:02:54. > :02:58.President Trump himself -- by the house speaker. He said if I was not
:02:59. > :03:03.elected, Foxconn would not be investing $10 billion. Facebook is
:03:04. > :03:09.again beating analysts' expectations. They just reported a
:03:10. > :03:15.71% jump in profit in the second quarter. Facebook's revenue rose
:03:16. > :03:21.more than 44%, to $9.32 billion. Their push into video ads helped
:03:22. > :03:26.boost growth in their advertising business and worldwide the social
:03:27. > :03:30.media giant has 2 billion monthly active users. That is about one
:03:31. > :03:35.quarter of the world's ovulation. One in three Facebook users fall
:03:36. > :03:40.into the age group of between 25 and 34, an advertising is the key driver
:03:41. > :03:45.of Facebook's earnings, amounting to 97% of total revenue last year. I
:03:46. > :03:51.asked our correspondent what she thought of the numbers. I think that
:03:52. > :03:56.Facebook is one of the most amazing companies on earth, and even though
:03:57. > :04:00.they have 2 billion monthly active users, there are at least 7 billion
:04:01. > :04:05.people on earth, and many of them are now... More and more of them are
:04:06. > :04:08.coming to the internet for the first time because of mobile. Particularly
:04:09. > :04:14.in Southeast Asia, with Indonesia, with the Philippines, there is tons
:04:15. > :04:19.of growth, and it is great to hear that video advertising is coming to
:04:20. > :04:24.Facebook, because there is a lot of room to grow, particularly on video.
:04:25. > :04:28.Video, for the first time, if you think about it, in developing
:04:29. > :04:32.countries, there are still a lot of optimisation that can be done. So I
:04:33. > :04:37.do believe that Facebook will continue to grow, particularly with
:04:38. > :04:42.video advertising. Now, you mention that 2 billion people, surpassing
:04:43. > :04:46.that mark. But the near saturation, though, in the United States, just
:04:47. > :04:49.about everybody is on Facebook, so where else can they look for growth?
:04:50. > :04:54.You mention Southeast Asia, countries around here, but of course
:04:55. > :05:00.the one place they are not in its China. Yes, I think no matter how
:05:01. > :05:05.much mark running in front of Tiananmen Square, April we will be
:05:06. > :05:12.awhile before Facebook can enter China -- Mark. There are also
:05:13. > :05:18.countries with over 1 billion, like India, Indonesia, the Philippines,
:05:19. > :05:21.and these are countries with huge populations and Facebook has been
:05:22. > :05:26.doing a lot of work in India and trying to provide free internet. I
:05:27. > :05:31.think all of these moves will continue to help them to grow in
:05:32. > :05:36.terms of monthly active users, which will also equal advertising dollars
:05:37. > :05:40.for them. Right, now let's talk about those advertising dollars, the
:05:41. > :05:43.majority of their money made from mobile advertising. Where else can
:05:44. > :05:50.they look to continue to sustain this sort of growth? Well, there are
:05:51. > :05:59.a few other things. Facebook have not yet completely monetised on some
:06:00. > :06:04.things yet, one is WhatsApp, the huge acquisition they made with
:06:05. > :06:08.WhatsApp. They kept that intact, and I imagine once they start monetising
:06:09. > :06:15.WhatsApp there will be huge opportunities. In other news, the
:06:16. > :06:22.chairwoman of Hewlett-Packard has stepped down from the board of
:06:23. > :06:30.directors. She has been named as a possible contender for the top job
:06:31. > :06:34.at Uber. She is leaving the computer maker after a tumultuous time on the
:06:35. > :06:39.desktop PC market, which has hit the company hard. Boeing's shares have
:06:40. > :06:43.climbed after reporting better-than-expected quarterly
:06:44. > :06:47.earnings. Shares in the aerospace giant finished up nearly 10%. The
:06:48. > :06:51.result showed how cost-cutting has helped offset the effects of lower
:06:52. > :06:57.commercial plane deliveries in the first half of the year compared with
:06:58. > :07:00.a year ago. And Amazon joins the $500 billion club. Its market value
:07:01. > :07:06.climbed just a little past that yesterday. The US -based company has
:07:07. > :07:10.expanded its services beyond goods, to include cloud computing services
:07:11. > :07:14.for a broad range of companies. The e-commerce giant recently announced
:07:15. > :07:19.it is increasing its footprint in Southeast Asia by launching its
:07:20. > :07:22.services here in Singapore. Over in the United States, the Federal
:07:23. > :07:26.Reserve has left benchmark interest rate unchanged, which pleased
:07:27. > :07:32.investors, because if you take a look at how the Dow Jones ended up,
:07:33. > :07:36.it was actually at a record high at the close. And the central bank was
:07:37. > :07:41.widely expected to keep monetary policy steady. Fed chair Janet
:07:42. > :07:47.Yellen laid the ground work for wound winding down the stimulus in
:07:48. > :07:50.September. Earlier I spoke to a correspondent in Sydney and asked if
:07:51. > :07:55.there was anything to worry about in the Fed's recent statement. Just the
:07:56. > :07:59.risk of lower than expected inflation derailing the programme,
:08:00. > :08:02.to raise rates and withdraw that $4.5 trillion in funds they pumped
:08:03. > :08:06.into the global monetary system. They have pointed to other key
:08:07. > :08:10.risks, and the wording that as long as the economy evolves as expected
:08:11. > :08:14.clearly implies there are some risks. Markets have immediately left
:08:15. > :08:18.to the potential for the debt ceiling in the US to not be raised
:08:19. > :08:22.by September. If that is the case, we could see another government
:08:23. > :08:25.shutdown, and turmoil in markets generally, and especially bond
:08:26. > :08:30.markets. If that were the case Fed would likely step away from its
:08:31. > :08:34.programme. And we saw that equity markets seemed relieved by the
:08:35. > :08:37.prospects of lower borrowing costs and the chances of another rate hike
:08:38. > :08:42.in September being discounted. When do you think they will hike rates
:08:43. > :08:45.again? I think December will be the first, and we will see that in
:08:46. > :08:48.September when the meeting minutes a release. The Fed estimates there
:08:49. > :08:52.will be one in December and three next year and nothing in the
:08:53. > :08:55.statement today suggest they have moved away from that rather hawkish
:08:56. > :09:00.view for interest rates. Michael McCarthy speaking with me earlier.
:09:01. > :09:05.The push for cleaner and greener cars is gaining momentum, with of
:09:06. > :09:14.course the industry looking to clean up, and to move away from emissions
:09:15. > :09:19.standards. And in China they have already started that. China is the
:09:20. > :09:22.world's diggers car market, and they are requiring tougher emission
:09:23. > :09:28.standards for all cars by 2020, investing heavily in electric
:09:29. > :09:32.vehicles. France banned petrol and diesel cars as part of the
:09:33. > :09:35.President's plan to make the country carbon neutral by 2050 and the
:09:36. > :09:40.British plan, similar to the French one, is part of the government's
:09:41. > :09:44.strategy to curb air pollution. We have to get rid of petrol and diesel
:09:45. > :09:48.cars off our roads if we are going to deal with not only the health
:09:49. > :09:52.problems that air pollution causes, but to meet our climate change
:09:53. > :09:54.targets and the good news is that the car industry is already moving
:09:55. > :09:58.in this direction. The Chancellor has authorised more than ?200
:09:59. > :10:02.million of additional spending to help local authorities come up with
:10:03. > :10:06.the right approach in order to deal with air pollution on the roads. And
:10:07. > :10:09.that was the UK Environment Secretary. Looking at the markets,
:10:10. > :10:14.we have some Asian markets currently open. Tokyo has opened flat.
:10:15. > :10:19.Australia making some strong gains, up 1% and taking those cues from the
:10:20. > :10:23.strong gains on Wall Street. It was mainly due to the good corporate
:10:24. > :10:27.earnings we have been seeing. We have also seen oil prices rebounding
:10:28. > :10:31.somewhat, and that is helping a lot of the commodity reliant stocks in
:10:32. > :10:32.Australia. That is it for this edition of Asia Business Report.
:10:33. > :10:39.Thank you for watching. The top stories this hour:
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