0:00:00 > 0:00:11Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
0:00:16 > 0:00:28The US government filed a suit to block AT and T's massive takeover.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33The future looks uncertain for a multi million dollar infrastructure
0:00:33 > 0:00:40collaboration.
0:00:40 > 0:00:45Good morning, Asia. Hello, world. It's Tuesday. Glad you could join us
0:00:45 > 0:00:50for another exciting addition of Asia Business Report. I am a Rico
0:00:50 > 0:00:53Hizon and we kick off the programme with some breaking news from America
0:00:53 > 0:00:58and the Department of Justice has filed a suit to block a megamerger
0:00:58 > 0:01:05between at&t and Time Warner. Over one year ago, at&t offered a billion
0:01:05 > 0:01:13dollars to take over Time Warner. That would create a giant with vast
0:01:13 > 0:01:16content and services. At&t ditto press conference and said the
0:01:16 > 0:01:25company is prepared to go to trial as soon as possible. -- at&t just
0:01:25 > 0:01:29held a press conference.We are surprised to be here. We entered
0:01:29 > 0:01:33this deal with decades of clear legal precedent demonstrating how
0:01:33 > 0:01:38this merger would alternately be evaluated. We and this deal and the
0:01:38 > 0:01:43best legal minds in the country agreed it would be a proved and said
0:01:43 > 0:01:46these companies don't even need to compete with each other.Reporters
0:01:46 > 0:01:52in New York explains the background. At the time the deal was announced,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55we were in the midst of a presidential election. And then
0:01:55 > 0:02:00candidate Donald Trump that if he became president he would try and
0:02:00 > 0:02:06block that deal. Fast forward to now. In fact, earlier this month, we
0:02:06 > 0:02:11heard the Department of Justice had said to AT&T, look, if you want this
0:02:11 > 0:02:15deal to come through without any regulatory pushback, you are going
0:02:15 > 0:02:21to have to sign off and perhaps sell off some of the assets, including
0:02:21 > 0:02:28CNN. AT&T rejected that deal and once they did, this decision became
0:02:28 > 0:02:32a lot more expected. The fact that the Department of Justice is going
0:02:32 > 0:02:35to file a lawsuit to try and block this.
0:02:35 > 0:02:43In other business news, China's e-commerce giant Alibaba is pushing
0:02:43 > 0:02:47into bricks and mortar retail. It is buying into one of the largest
0:02:47 > 0:02:53market operated which operates more than 400 stores across the mainland.
0:02:53 > 0:02:59The purchase gives Alibaba a leg up in the lucrative grocery sector.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Associates from China and Pakistan are meeting today to discuss closer
0:03:02 > 0:03:07economic relations. The two have been allies since 1981 when Pakistan
0:03:07 > 0:03:11was one of the first Nations to recognise the People's Republic of
0:03:11 > 0:03:14China. Trade between the two sides and amounts to almost 13 billion US
0:03:14 > 0:03:20dollars annually and most of that is Chinese exporter to Pakistan. The
0:03:20 > 0:03:26latter has also been roped into China's ambitious one road
0:03:26 > 0:03:30initiatives which sees China investing up to 55 billion US
0:03:30 > 0:03:35dollars over the next five years but China has paid towards a
0:03:35 > 0:03:40hydroelectric dam has -- and it has been reportedly rejected by
0:03:40 > 0:03:46Pakistan. It is facing challenges. The issue is a little more
0:03:46 > 0:03:49complicated.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53We feel that the situation is a lot more nuanced than that. Number one.
0:03:53 > 0:03:58If you look at the nature of the project, hydropower is also
0:03:58 > 0:04:02relatively controversial. There is the impact on local populations,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05local environment, national security. All of this is reason
0:04:05 > 0:04:09enough to derail the project in other countries before. More
0:04:09 > 0:04:12importantly, this product is specifically occurring on a piece of
0:04:12 > 0:04:16disputed territory between Pakistan and India, namely Kashmir. The
0:04:16 > 0:04:19project had previously failed to secure financing from the World Bank
0:04:19 > 0:04:24and Asian development bank and while that was not a block of China,
0:04:24 > 0:04:29Pakistan likely rejected the financing, we think, due to Indian
0:04:29 > 0:04:35and US pressure and came out by saying we will you lash refinance
0:04:35 > 0:04:38the project.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Another country counting on China's support is bit Zimbabwe which seems
0:04:41 > 0:04:45to be in the headlines from its ongoing political crisis. Joining us
0:04:45 > 0:04:49now is our business reporter Matt Morrison. Both countries over the
0:04:49 > 0:04:54decades have had a steadfast relationship.Stead fast, heartfelt,
0:04:54 > 0:04:59going all the way back to Zimbabwe's is independent. They have been
0:04:59 > 0:05:03side-by-side. China is taking a long-term view of this. I spoke to a
0:05:03 > 0:05:07legal person in China and that he said China's policy is to
0:05:07 > 0:05:07legal person in China and that he said China's policy is to wait it
0:05:07 > 0:05:11out. They have a lot of money involved, including investments.
0:05:11 > 0:05:17They will start there and in between 2012 and 2013, they invested in 128
0:05:17 > 0:05:24projects. This trend is continuing during a president between Xi
0:05:24 > 0:05:30Jinping in 2015. $4 billion of deals were signed and just this year, a
0:05:30 > 0:05:38Chinese company investing in a mess of steelmaker in Zimbabwe. China is
0:05:38 > 0:05:41Zimbabwe's fourth largest trading partner and they put all of this
0:05:41 > 0:05:44together and call in all weather friends, rain or shine. There are
0:05:44 > 0:05:48some clouds on the horizon in Zimbabwe that China is whether when
0:05:48 > 0:05:53the storm.Matt, from what you just said, it
0:05:53 > 0:05:54the storm.Matt, from what you just said, it sounds like China dominates
0:05:54 > 0:05:59and controls of the Chinese economy. It is China being a very big or
0:05:59 > 0:06:02above.
0:06:02 > 0:06:06We are shifting our attention to Saudi Arabia and investors around
0:06:06 > 0:06:09the world are still watching nervously to see what will happen
0:06:09 > 0:06:14next. An anticorruption crackdown has seen more than 200 people put in
0:06:14 > 0:06:23detention inside rear's luxury hotels including officials. --
0:06:23 > 0:06:31Riyadh. We all wondered whether the shakedown rattled the nerves of
0:06:31 > 0:06:36investors.The public prosecutor is in charge. We will wait to see this
0:06:36 > 0:06:42investigation that will happen. Observers have described this
0:06:42 > 0:06:48crackdown as a seismic shock. One president is in Saudi history, you
0:06:48 > 0:06:55must have got nervous phone calls from investors.They do come here,
0:06:55 > 0:07:00the majority of investors are saying, look, this is the kind of
0:07:00 > 0:07:03environment we like to see and most of them because they have invested
0:07:03 > 0:07:08here, they know that going forward is what really matters. It is
0:07:08 > 0:07:14dealing with a more transparent institutional work that really
0:07:14 > 0:07:20matters to them.There is a sense, there is talk of hundreds of
0:07:20 > 0:07:23billions of dollars that could be taken in assets that are frozen in
0:07:23 > 0:07:27cases you have done. If that also part of it, that you need this
0:07:27 > 0:07:32money? And this is the way you have decided to get it?I like to talk
0:07:32 > 0:07:36about Russian but only in financial terms will stop it is the misuse of
0:07:36 > 0:07:39authority --I like to talk about corruption corruption. It is a writ
0:07:39 > 0:07:45is, negligence, it is way beyond the sounds of amounts that people are
0:07:45 > 0:07:49talking about. I cannot comment on these amounts. We wait on the
0:07:49 > 0:07:53investigation to finish and I am confident that the leadership will
0:07:53 > 0:07:58meet the right protocol.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03That was Saudi Arabia's new economy minister. Before we go, when you go
0:08:03 > 0:08:12to a country and you don't speak the language? How well does the up work
0:08:12 > 0:08:14that can do the translation for you?
0:08:14 > 0:08:20These are the Google pixel buds. Perfectly ordinary wireless
0:08:20 > 0:08:23Bluetooth headphones. Not particularly elegant, I have to say.
0:08:23 > 0:08:28They have got an amazing trick. They are going to translate 40 different
0:08:28 > 0:08:33languages straight into your evils to help me speak Hindi. What happens
0:08:33 > 0:08:37if the Google translate app opens on the vote and will listen to somebody
0:08:37 > 0:08:41speaking. There are lots of people speaking all sorts of different land
0:08:41 > 0:08:51which is around the BBC so let it is a try. Hi, Amir. How did West Ham
0:08:51 > 0:09:01two on the weekend? You answer there. It says tomorrow was a bad
0:09:01 > 0:09:07day for us. What does it mean by that?It is not a yet. It is
0:09:07 > 0:09:13supposed to say yesterday was a bad day.Let's see how it copes with
0:09:13 > 0:09:22Chinese. Hi, what is the thing you like best about living in London?
0:09:22 > 0:09:33SPEAKS CHINESE. What it set back to me is, "My favourite goes to
0:09:33 > 0:09:38London's museums and Chinatown." I kind of get the message, it is the
0:09:38 > 0:09:50sort of right, isn't it? SPEAKS POLISH. Poorly run trains in the
0:09:50 > 0:09:53subway. That sums it up.
0:10:02 > 0:10:06The best food I have ever eaten for chicken. It is still struggling,
0:10:06 > 0:10:14isn't it? Swahili is not its strong point.
0:10:17 > 0:10:22Very interesting. In the markets as we pull up the Asian boards, we are
0:10:22 > 0:10:26currently in positive territory early Tuesday trading. The Nikkei
0:10:26 > 0:10:31225 is gaining 14%. The