:00:00. > :00:18.Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
:00:19. > :00:24.Irma churns through the Caribbean towards Florida, one week after
:00:25. > :00:30.Harvey slams into Texas. But who bears the cost? And earning a degree
:00:31. > :00:34.in winemaking. Find out why this dude and are choosing to learn the
:00:35. > :00:40.trade in Australia. -- these students. Welcome to Asia Business
:00:41. > :00:49.Report. As you've been hearing Newsday,
:00:50. > :00:55.Hurricane Irma is barrelling through the Caribbean towards the US. Irma
:00:56. > :01:00.arrives a little over a week after Hurricane Harvey slammed into Texas,
:01:01. > :01:03.which caused severe flooding and displaced more than 1 million
:01:04. > :01:09.people. The damage bill from Hurricane Harvey is currently
:01:10. > :01:14.estimated at about $180 billion, with much of the bill going towards
:01:15. > :01:18.the taxpayers. Earlier I spoke to someone from research house and
:01:19. > :01:23.asked who is likely to foot the bill. The range of damage can vary
:01:24. > :01:28.tremendously, however the consequences for the population is
:01:29. > :01:37.very much linked to insurance. So the ability of the countries to
:01:38. > :01:42.ensure and take private cover varies tremendously and that also in packs
:01:43. > :01:46.and long-term impact. Nonetheless, with the intensity of storms and the
:01:47. > :01:50.frequency, surely this will take a toll on the insurance industry?
:01:51. > :01:56.Certainly, but they prepare for this over hundreds of years. The
:01:57. > :02:01.insurance industry has been quite resilient in its capacity to cover
:02:02. > :02:04.events because they use actual estimates the project potential
:02:05. > :02:10.losses. How much are they prepared to deal with the intensity that we
:02:11. > :02:14.are seeing now and the frequency? They've had some good years and
:02:15. > :02:18.build up reserves. Of course insurance companies also use
:02:19. > :02:23.reinsurance so they spread the risk between insurers, citing they have
:02:24. > :02:26.the capacity. Of course one of the big problem is that happening right
:02:27. > :02:34.now is climate change is changing the dimension of the intensity of
:02:35. > :02:37.storms and the projections by many scientists are that the damage from
:02:38. > :02:44.such weather-related events will intensify.
:02:45. > :02:49.US credit reporting agency Equifax may have suffered the country's
:02:50. > :02:55.biggest cyber bridges, potentially compromising the personal details of
:02:56. > :02:59.about 143 million consumers. Shares were down as much as 13% in market
:03:00. > :03:05.trading. Our reporter has more. What's happened? We know that cyber
:03:06. > :03:09.attacks are becoming more commonplace. What makes this
:03:10. > :03:13.interesting is the size and scope of this attack, one of the largest to
:03:14. > :03:18.head to America behind the large one that he Yahoo last year. Equifax is
:03:19. > :03:23.one of three credit reporting agencies in America. They collect
:03:24. > :03:28.financial data into build a credit score. People need this in order to
:03:29. > :03:33.buy a car or house or apply for a student loan, for example, to which
:03:34. > :03:36.we imported. With 143 million people potentially affected by this
:03:37. > :03:42.information breach, that's about half of the US population. The
:03:43. > :03:46.hackers targeted wings like names, addresses, birthdays, driving
:03:47. > :03:49.licence numbers, social Security numbers and about 200,000 Americans
:03:50. > :03:55.also saw their credit card numbers taken. So the CEO of the company has
:03:56. > :03:59.apologised for what he called a disappointing event, but it will
:04:00. > :04:04.take a long time to recover from this and assure customers that they
:04:05. > :04:07.can protect their information online. Quite a worrying
:04:08. > :04:12.development. Thank you. In other news, Japan's government
:04:13. > :04:16.has revised the economy's growth rate in the second quarter. Gross
:04:17. > :04:20.domestic product rose by 2.5% in the three months to June, but that's
:04:21. > :04:25.down from a more preliminary estimate of 4%. The revised figure
:04:26. > :04:29.came in below the average forecast, but still marks Japan's longest
:04:30. > :04:33.period of economic expansion in more than a decade.
:04:34. > :04:40.Amazon Fire TV a second headquarters in North America, with a whopping $5
:04:41. > :04:43.billion. US states like Colorado are now going to compete for the
:04:44. > :04:48.contract, which could bring in about 15,000 new jobs. Separately, a
:04:49. > :04:52.former analyst for Amazon Fire TV guilty to insider trading will stop
:04:53. > :04:56.the former employees sold details about its results to a form of
:04:57. > :05:00.fraternity brother before the actual earnings were released.
:05:01. > :05:04.Students from China are hoping to emulate the success of companies in
:05:05. > :05:09.Australia by heading there to study winemaking. In the last 20 years,
:05:10. > :05:16.the value of Australian wine exports has more than doubled to over 1.8
:05:17. > :05:20.billion dollars US. Last year China became its biggest customer, with
:05:21. > :05:23.orders up 44% in the year. The students enrolled at the University
:05:24. > :05:28.of Adelaide spoke to our correspondent.
:05:29. > :05:33.Learning techniques tested over decades, these students hope they
:05:34. > :05:38.are on the path to prosperity. You don't have to be a connoisseur to
:05:39. > :05:42.know turning grapes into wine can be a very profitable business. But by
:05:43. > :05:48.coming to learn in Australia, home to some of the world's exist wine
:05:49. > :05:56.brands, they can clearly see opportunities ahead. Hopefully I can
:05:57. > :06:01.be a winemaker in a big winery at the beginning and in the and I can
:06:02. > :06:04.have my own winery. Do you think one day you can make Chinese wine that's
:06:05. > :06:08.as good as or even better than French, Italian or Australian wine?
:06:09. > :06:13.Probably, definitely. But there are differences because we have a very
:06:14. > :06:19.short winemaking history, so there's a long way to go. The University of
:06:20. > :06:23.Adelaide has seen a number of Chinese didn't in rolling for
:06:24. > :06:27.winemaking degrees travel in five years. Drawn not so much by the
:06:28. > :06:33.weather, but by the booming local industry. Winemaking here in the
:06:34. > :06:37.Barossa Valley is known around the world. Australia is the fifth
:06:38. > :06:42.biggest wine producer over the planet -- on the planet, but could
:06:43. > :06:47.soon be overtaken by China. The Chinese wine makers are issue won't
:06:48. > :06:53.be the quantity and quality. And that doesn't come quickly. Australia
:06:54. > :06:58.took decades to shake off the snobbery attached to wine, so can
:06:59. > :07:05.China do the same? Vignettes are only ten or 15 years old, so they
:07:06. > :07:10.are several decades behind where Australia was -- vineyards.
:07:11. > :07:14.Knowledge is needed to know what works best. Used well, that
:07:15. > :07:20.knowledge can have international awards. This winery in the Adelaide
:07:21. > :07:25.Hills has won gold medals for extra rows and plenty of orders in China
:07:26. > :07:28.as well, but customers are becoming more demanding. You start to see the
:07:29. > :07:35.trend of using Chinese imagery or Chinese references like the number
:07:36. > :07:38.eight. I think we are seeing a consumer that's getting on the back
:07:39. > :07:41.and realising that Australian wine needs to be about the Australian
:07:42. > :07:46.story and our pedigree, a region a key.
:07:47. > :07:52.As China's wine market mature is, these students hope they will have a
:07:53. > :07:56.part to play and get to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
:07:57. > :08:02.Well, it's not just Australia or China, Europe, the traditional home
:08:03. > :08:06.of wine, and in European wine consumption is slowly falling. Asia,
:08:07. > :08:10.specifically China, is the new growth market for wine, expected to
:08:11. > :08:14.become the second most valuable maker by 2020. Is it time for
:08:15. > :08:18.producers to pop the court and celebrate? Earlier I spoke to the
:08:19. > :08:21.global chief executive of a champagne maker and asked how
:08:22. > :08:27.important markets like China were for her company. We are not so much
:08:28. > :08:36.interested in trying to become like a fashion brand, because when you
:08:37. > :08:40.take over a house, there's so much craftsmanship and it is limited in
:08:41. > :08:49.its volume, you take 20 years to make a champagne. You have to be
:08:50. > :08:54.very careful and try to work with market that are stable, where you
:08:55. > :09:00.can guarantee the sustainability and long-term stability. So it's crucial
:09:01. > :09:05.to try to meet that demand. Let's take a look at global champagne
:09:06. > :09:10.sales. They fell by 2% in 2016 will stop this was partially driven by
:09:11. > :09:15.lower sales in the UK due to Brexit. In France as well, your home market,
:09:16. > :09:19.where there were terror attacks, fewer tourists visiting, are you
:09:20. > :09:26.worried about the future of the industry? Though. I'm not worried
:09:27. > :09:30.about the industry. I think it's a normal temporary kind of thing. In
:09:31. > :09:35.the case of France, there is a big consumption and very low price for
:09:36. > :09:42.champagne, which is not very healthy. So it will change and in
:09:43. > :09:56.the case of the UK it is Brexit, but also very significant is per se --
:09:57. > :10:01.Prosecco. For a long time Japan has been one of your biggest markets. It
:10:02. > :10:08.is a big market. In the past, 40 years ago, it was a big spirits
:10:09. > :10:15.market. In its evolution, it is now an important market for champagne.
:10:16. > :10:21.Let's take a look at the markets. The Nikkei over in Japan has opened
:10:22. > :10:26.lower. Of course as stronger Japanese yen isn't helping and there
:10:27. > :10:30.are continuing geopolitical worries over the Korean crisis. The
:10:31. > :10:34.Australian market is flat, mirroring what happened on Wall Street
:10:35. > :10:35.yesterday. That's it. Thanks for watching Asia