:00:00. > :00:00.at the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham.
:00:00. > :00:20.Now on BBC News, all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:21. > :00:27.Round one of Nafta talks wrap up as the US, Canada and Mexico try to
:00:28. > :00:31.revamp the 20-year-old trade agreement. And find out why an
:00:32. > :00:42.entrepreneur in Japan is staking her future on DNA analysis. It is a
:00:43. > :00:46.Monday, everyone. Glad you could join us for this edition of Asia
:00:47. > :00:52.Business Report. I am Rico Hizon. The first round of talks aimed at
:00:53. > :00:58.revamping the North American trade agreement, or Nafta, ended a few
:00:59. > :01:02.hours ago. The US, Mexico and Canada held meetings in Washington, DC and
:01:03. > :01:05.covered more than 200 different negotiation topics. Our business
:01:06. > :01:10.reporter has been following this story. A lot of wheeling and
:01:11. > :01:15.dealing, but was there progress made in this negotiation process? Based
:01:16. > :01:19.on the joint statement the countries put out following the first round of
:01:20. > :01:22.talks, it looks as though there was progress in the fact they are
:01:23. > :01:26.committed to coming to a deal by early next year. That is the hope,
:01:27. > :01:30.and they are committed to making sure they are try and achieve that
:01:31. > :01:35.through the next couple of rounds of talks. The next three rounds will
:01:36. > :01:42.take place in early September, as well as October, in Mexico, Canada
:01:43. > :01:45.and the US. The US is warning substantive changes to the Nafta
:01:46. > :01:49.agreement, not just tweaks, so experts are saying that when they
:01:50. > :01:57.want to compress changes that takes years in two months, that will take
:01:58. > :02:01.be difficult to achieve. It is a 23-year-old trade deal, so President
:02:02. > :02:06.Trump says it has been imbalanced and he wants to bring changes to it.
:02:07. > :02:10.And abroad is calling this as the dating game between the three
:02:11. > :02:15.countries involved. Which country has -- everyone is calling this a
:02:16. > :02:20.speed dating game between the three countries involved. Which country
:02:21. > :02:24.has the most at stake? It is a top priority for the US administration
:02:25. > :02:28.but the issues at stake had to do with things like dispute resolution.
:02:29. > :02:32.What happens when one of the countries, Canada, Mexico, or the
:02:33. > :02:36.US, has an issue with dumping or subsidies, how will they resolve
:02:37. > :02:40.that conflict? Another thorny issue with all the countries involved has
:02:41. > :02:45.to do with where the products come from, especially cars. And it is not
:02:46. > :02:50.only Nafta that President Trump wants renegotiated. He also wants a
:02:51. > :02:54.renegotiation of the South Korea US trade relationship. Looking ahead to
:02:55. > :02:58.what is on the economic and business calendar this week on later today
:02:59. > :03:02.Thailand will release its gross numbers for the three months until
:03:03. > :03:06.June. First-quarter growth beat expectations but it will be
:03:07. > :03:11.interesting to see how the Southeast Asian country performs in the second
:03:12. > :03:15.quarter. Tuesday, we will get the full year earnings from Australian
:03:16. > :03:19.mining giant BHP Billiton. The recent swings could impact financial
:03:20. > :03:23.performance there. And on Thursday it is the annual meeting of
:03:24. > :03:28.prominent central bankers and finance ministers in the US state of
:03:29. > :03:32.Wyoming. This meeting comes as the US central bank, the Federal
:03:33. > :03:35.Reserve, has raised the cost of borrowing already twice this year
:03:36. > :03:41.and has signalled it will raise rates one more time. The question
:03:42. > :03:47.now is exactly when. And the weak wraps up with earnings from
:03:48. > :03:50.Australia's Qantas. Earlier I spoke with a representative of the London
:03:51. > :03:55.School of Economics who says his focus on the annual meeting of
:03:56. > :04:00.central bankers in the US, and what the outcome could be for Asia. For
:04:01. > :04:05.Asian businesses, the cost of funds is important and my cost of funds
:04:06. > :04:11.would be very dependent on what the Fed or ECB do. Jackson hole is a
:04:12. > :04:16.coming together of Central Bank governments, as you have said. The
:04:17. > :04:19.economic backdrop right now is one of cautious optimism. No one is
:04:20. > :04:23.talking about disinflation any more so it looks like demand is picking
:04:24. > :04:30.up at least sickly glee. So the question is one of assessing how
:04:31. > :04:37.sustainable is the current update -- cyclically. But if we see another
:04:38. > :04:42.rate hike, this will raise the cost of funding. It is a surgical
:04:43. > :04:50.operation and the surgeons are meeting in Wyoming. It will raise
:04:51. > :04:55.the cost of funding. Over to Japan, which has one of the world's lowest
:04:56. > :04:58.start-up rates and an even lower number of female entrepreneurs.
:04:59. > :05:02.Generally Japanese women who set up their own businesses tend to be in
:05:03. > :05:06.predictable industries such as fashion or beauty but our
:05:07. > :05:14.correspondent tracked down a female entrepreneur who took the road less
:05:15. > :05:18.travelled and set up a business analysing people's DNA. A typical
:05:19. > :05:23.networking event for Japan's entrepreneurs. Despite the
:05:24. > :05:29.government's effort to encourage more women to go into start-ups, it
:05:30. > :05:34.is mainly made. This 28-year-old stands out. She is the founder of a
:05:35. > :05:43.company in a very unusual industry, analysing people's DNA. Less than 1%
:05:44. > :05:46.of Japan's population has had their DNA tested to find out what kind of
:05:47. > :05:55.illnesses they might develop in the future. It means almost everyone in
:05:56. > :06:00.Japan is her potential customer. So this is the kit that you will
:06:01. > :06:09.receive at home. It costs 500 US dollars, and you will get the result
:06:10. > :06:13.in about four to six weeks. The practice of gene analysis is
:06:14. > :06:17.controversial among doctors and industry experts, because there is
:06:18. > :06:23.no proof of its effectiveness to predict future illness. TRANSLATION:
:06:24. > :06:29.Because it is DNA, customers tend to think that the results are 100%
:06:30. > :06:33.accurate. You can even end up with two very different results if you
:06:34. > :06:38.use different companies. And controversy was not the only
:06:39. > :06:42.challenge for Junko. TRANSLATION: I knew my parents would be surprised
:06:43. > :06:46.to hear that I wanted to start my own company. I thought they would
:06:47. > :06:55.probably object to it, so I didn't tell them for six months after I
:06:56. > :06:59.founded Gene Quest. You feel your face discrimination because of your
:07:00. > :07:03.age and your gender? I sometimes get treated like what is this young
:07:04. > :07:08.woman doing? But as a result people remember me more, so being a young
:07:09. > :07:12.female CEO is not just a disadvantage. Shoko has managed to
:07:13. > :07:17.overcome the challenges of being a young female entrepreneur by
:07:18. > :07:20.ignoring her critics, something that most women here still don't feel
:07:21. > :07:29.comfortable doing in this Mail dominated society. You might be
:07:30. > :07:34.familiar with this saying. Only two things are certain in life, death
:07:35. > :07:38.and taxes. Well, this week we are looking at the economics of death.
:07:39. > :07:43.How much does it cost and who covers the bill? And we are starting our
:07:44. > :07:47.coverage in New York. It is no secret that real estate prices in
:07:48. > :07:50.the Big Apple are among the highest in the world, and guess what. It is
:07:51. > :07:55.a similar scenario for those planning on residency six feet
:07:56. > :08:00.under. Our correspondent went to find out more. Deals worth dying
:08:01. > :08:05.for? Not in Brooklyn. In a city where land is at a premium, it may
:08:06. > :08:09.come as a surprise that even cemeteries are pricing people out.
:08:10. > :08:14.This cemetery still has room to grow but they are also trying to maximise
:08:15. > :08:17.the space they already have. We wanted to provide the people of
:08:18. > :08:21.Brooklyn especially with an option where they can have affordable
:08:22. > :08:26.burial, and in their own neighbourhood. At a $2400 per square
:08:27. > :08:31.metre, this is some of the priciest land anywhere in the city. It is
:08:32. > :08:35.just like buying real estate, location, location. A grave which
:08:36. > :08:41.will bury three people, and we bury one on top of the other, can start
:08:42. > :08:47.as low as $4500 and can go as high as 18,000, depending upon the
:08:48. > :08:51.location. 1-way people are avoiding the hefty pricetag associated with a
:08:52. > :08:55.7.5 metre plot is by cremation. Something which is on the rise here
:08:56. > :09:01.in New York. It still leaves the question of what to do with the
:09:02. > :09:04.Ashes. This is a little, little closer to the New York border.
:09:05. > :09:09.Jozsef sources granite from around the world to make tombstones,
:09:10. > :09:18.mausoleums and grave markers for pets. It is very expensive to bring
:09:19. > :09:23.something in from South Africa. Correct, it is very heavy and very
:09:24. > :09:27.laborious. People may be cremated more, but Ashes are often left in
:09:28. > :09:32.the closet and forgotten. We are working with a cemeteries to create
:09:33. > :09:35.programmes very close to fishing, to have people's cremated remains
:09:36. > :09:41.buried in the cemetery, a place where families can gather and there
:09:42. > :09:45.is a name on the wall. If that name is not inscribed on the stone,
:09:46. > :09:50.you're never here. The cost of burial is going up as land is being
:09:51. > :09:55.used for other things but in a place like New York it is hard to put a
:09:56. > :10:00.price on being remembered. Let's have a quick look at the markets. As
:10:01. > :10:04.you can see, on our screens at the moment, flat and lower for most
:10:05. > :10:10.Asian markets. Still being impacted by the Barcelona deadly attack and
:10:11. > :10:16.deepening concerns over US President Donald Trump's economic agenda. The
:10:17. > :10:20.Nikkei 225 down by seven points and the all ordinaries index giving back
:10:21. > :10:26.47.5 points. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies, as continued
:10:27. > :10:34.uncertainty over the economic agenda of President Trump pushed investors
:10:35. > :10:35.out of the US dollar. Thank you so much for investing your time with