06/11/2017 Asia Business Report

police found pornography

on a computer in his office

nine years ago.

Now on BBC News all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

A huge new league of financial

documents known as the Paradise

Papers has revealed how the powerful

and wealthy secretly invest vast

amounts of money in offshore tax

havens. And it will President Trump

toned down his tough talk on trade?

In his trip to Asia.

Good morning, Asia. Hello, world.

Glad you could join us for this

exciting addition of Asia Business

Report. I'm Rico Hizon. The first

results have been with the least --

released in one of the biggest

documents of offshore secrets. 13

million document mostly from an

offshore firm called Appleby. They

reveal the tax affairs of rich and

powerful people around the world.

They have been obtained by a German

newspaper and shared with

international consortium of

journalists including the BBC's

panorama programme. They show how

the Queen's private estate invested

around £10 million offshore. It is

important to say that tax avoidance

is not illegal at it is

controversial and these latest

revelations are bound to fuel the

political debate around offshore tax

havens and whether governments

should do more to clamp down on

them. What are they and why they so

controversial? Our economic editor

explains.

For centuries, Britain has been a

centre for global finance. Focused

here on the city of London. That is

seen by many as good for our economy

and the development of global trade.

To support that, we allow the

companies to set up in the UK and

not be taxed here. Our imperial past

is also important. Across the world

what are called Crown dependencies

like overseas territories, places

like Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man.

They have an arms length

relationship with us and have based

their economy of low tax to hold

some of their wealth. Others are

more for flung places like Gibraltar

or Bermuda. Virgin Islands, Turks

and Caicos, the British Islands.

Some insist they are good for growth

as they allow firms and individuals

to avoid being taxed multiple times

by different countries. There have

been a lot of new rules on

transparency as well. But, they are

criticised for being too secret. Too

criticised for being too secret. Too

weak on regulation and to open to

corruption. -- to open.

They can move vast amounts of money

around the world at the touch of a

computer key. We are not the only

ones who have used tax competition

and light punch regulation to lure

companies to our shores. Other

countries include Switzerland,

Singapore and America. -- light

touch. They have low tax situations

in many of its states. There is also

an important distinction to remember

when speaking about tax havens. Tax

evasion is illegal while tax

avoidance is using legal structures

to produce tax. How much can it be

worth two national exchequer is like

the Treasury? Well, globally,

anything between £75 billion and

£180 billion. Many now believe that

avoidance has now become so

controversial there needs to be a

complete change of global tax laws

so that taxes are paid in a country

where the firm or the individual is

based. That would mean that the

total tax take would be up which

some might disagree with but public

controversy would probably die down.

The leak documents also show that

commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has

shed in a secret -- company with

Kremlin ties. It is Navigator

Holdings which transport oil and gas

for the -- for a Russian company.

They are under US sanctions and a to

President Putin. It includes a

Venezuelan oil company which is also

under US sanctions. The revelations

made uncomfortable reading for

President Trump. Staying with Mr

Trump and he has held its first

press conference of the five country

trip to Asia. He said he's

optimistic about trade between the

nations but the current trade

situation is unfair. How will his

message go down in Japan? For the

latest, we are joined by my

colleague Monica Miller. It looks

like they are good friends when it

comes to maybe playing golf that it

may be on the trading floor or on

the meeting room, they are not.

Nine

holes of golf is a distant memory

already for Mr Trump. He came out a

short while ago and was complaining

about the trade relationship between

Japan and the US, saying it is not

fair and not open. , what is the

relationship between these two

countries? Well, Japan accounts for

almost $70 billion of the US trade

deficit in terms of goods in 2017

but it has now re-emerged at the

second largest country to the trade

deficit for the first time in three

years. One other sticking point is

the TTP. Japan have taken a

leadership role and it is a sore

point. One of the first things Trump

did was pull out of it when he took

office in January and had the US

stadium, it would have been 40% of

the world's GDP. Now the 11 members,

it is about 13.5% GDP globally which

is a very different situation and

will find the rest of us out in a

few days in Vietnam. --I end. Now

they are faced with creating a

bilateral trade agreement which they

really didn't want to do.

We have to

wait and see how it all pans out. US

Japanese trade relations, off and on

the golf course. They key, Monica, a

business reporter. -- thank you.

There is a complexity and achieving

good sound and pathetic. As part of

a series of by design, we are

looking at a concert hall in Tokyo

which seems to have hit all the

right notes. We spoke to an

architect who worked on the project.

TRANSLATION: Audience come here and

listen to music only once. It

matters what space you listen to the

music in because it will be part of

your memory.

It is a great mystery how the

architect came up with the short --

shape. I wish he had --I wish I had

asked him before he passed. Locks on

the ceiling diffuse the sound.

Without them, sound reflection

becomes too simple and the sound

will not be evenly distributed. But

with the sound reflector, the sound

is diffused and well blended and it

is delivered to the audience.

Since the hall is shaped like a

shoebox, how sound reflector from

the sound walls -- sidewalls reaches

the audience is important. The

architect analysed how sound is

reflected with an acoustic steam.

Because this distorted pyramid

ceiling had never been used before.

Using wood makes the sound better.

The hall is like a musical

instrument, like a violin, the sound

gets better with time. But, it is

rare to find a concert hall made

entirely out of wood. In fact,

designing this involves a lot of

work and time. But the cost of

building this concert Hall are no

different from many other concert

halls. So spending a lot on

construction doesn't mean it is

better.

construction doesn't mean it is

better.

Hair is a look at the markets. Asia

is often a good start in the

brand-new trading week. -- here is a

look. This is after US stocks

finished at a fresh all-time highs

on Friday with technology shares

leading the way with a solid US jobs

report strong Apple earnings. All

the three major indices at fresh

record highs. NASDAQ gained 50.

Thank you for investing your time

with us. I'm Rico Hizon. Sport Today

is coming up next.