22/11/2017 Asia Business Report

and secure a bright future fault

ridden. We will have live coverage

of that here in BBC News. -- bright

future for Britain.

Now on BBC News, all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

And the economy in tatters. We look

at Robert Mugabe's devastating

legacy. And this couple of coffee

cost more than $60. We find out what

makes this cuppa a costly brew.

Hello, and welcome to Asia Business

Report. I'm Sharanjit Leyl. A new

era for Zimbabwe, as the country's

long-running president, Robert

Mugabe, vows to pressure and

resigns. But for the country's next

leader, many challenges lie ahead,

including revitalising the economy.

Critics blame Robert Mugabe for

ruining Zimbabwe's economy. Over one

fifth of the population live in

extreme poverty, and three quarters

of them live on less than $5.50 a

day. That is according to the World

Bank. Its currency was scrapped in

2009 after hyperinflation reached

several billion %, and it was

replaced by foreign currencies,

mainly the US dollar. This economist

says the country is literally

running out of money to pay its

debts.

The Zimbabwean economy has

less than one month of cover for its

international reserves. Basically,

the international benchmark is

looking at three and a half to four

months of cover, but because of the

severe liquidity crisis that has

faced the economy, it has got to the

point where there is virtually no

money to support the payment coming

in. So you have had people who would

ordinarily have transacted business

with other people or other

international partners, kind of

stepping back a bit because they are

just not too sure when they will get

paid, and they are not too sure,

even if they get paid at all, they

can take money outside of the

economy.

Now, as the European Union

and the United Kingdom battle over

what shape their divorce will take,

some countries are trying hard to

thrash out a trade deal with both

sides. One of them is India. It is

the UK's Allders trading partner,

but the European Union also has a

lot to offer. -- Aldous. We spoke to

India's commerce minister.

India is in a win-win situation with

both the EU and the UK. The EU is

India's largest trading partner, at

$80 billion worth of goods and

services exchanged last year.

Outside the bloc post-Brexit, the

United Kingdom trade with India

could surge as much as $2.5 billion

per year. So which side will be the

winner? India's commerce minister

told me that it is a close fight.

We

are not playing one against the

other. The EU has great exports in

wines and chocolate and automobiles,

many other things. The UK is also

pretty strong. They have developed

as a great financial centre. It is

not one against the other, they are

independent of each other. But the

EU, we have been in talks, we are in

the 16th round of talks with the EU.

So why should the UK hurry up? For a

start, India and the EU have

restarted their free-trade agreement

talks after a gap of four years.

Aside from that, the UK may not have

access to the single market. So it

will be looking at other countries

for greater market access. Emerging

markets like India offer much.

As

you can see, we are already trading

with the UK, there is already a

convergence of interests. We need to

elevate it to a new level. Then we

can make an offer. Whatever works...

So what can the UK offer India in

return? Well, for one, India once

liberalised visa rules for its

students and skilled workers. New

Delhi also wants to protect over 800

Indian companies operating in the

United Kingdom, providing over 100

-- 100,000 jobs.

It is my duty to

protect the interests of India, to

promote the interests of Indian

businesses, to make sure that

whatever deal we have as a result of

these changes, we definitely support

them.

So what now? What are the next

steps that need to be in place for

India and the UK to sign a free

trade agreement?

I will be going to

London early next year. We will be

beginning a trade dialogue, we will

take it forward from there.

That was

the Indian commerce minister. In

other business news, either Mack

says personal data Mac belonging to

16 million customers and drivers was

breached one year ago. -- Uber says

personal putter. The CEO released a

statement saying that email

addresses and phone numbers had been

accessed by a third party data

provider. He says sensitive

information like to placate in

history, credit card numbers, bank

account numbers and Social Security

numbers were not access in that

breach. -- trip location history.

Google says new stories from two

Kremlin owned news providers, Russia

today and Sputnik, will be placed

lower in search results amid claims

Russia has interfered with foreign

elections. Russia's communications

watchdog said it would consider

retaliatory measures. Taiwan's

government will hold a public

hearing on Wednesday on a

controversial proposal to revise a

labour law which has been in effect

for less than a year. The

legislation in question was aimed at

allowing Taiwan to catch up with

other affluent developed economies

by giving workers a mandatory two

days off a week to help create a

work-life balance. So why is the

government reversing its decision? I

put that to our correspondent.

The government did not expect the

strong opposition it got from both

the employers, but also the

employees. Basically, what happened,

the employers found it too expensive

to give their employees two days

off, because they would have to hire

more workers, and they also found it

too expensive to pay them more

overtime, because under the new law

they would have to pay more for

overtime. What they ended up doing

was shutting up shop early. The

employees ended up not making as

much money because they couldn't

work overtime any more. So everybody

was unhappy and the government was

forced to make changes to the law.

What they propose right now is

giving the employers more

flexibility, meaning that they can

require their workers to work 12

consecutive days as long as they

give them one day off at the end of

the 12 day period. Also, employers

now pay less overtime pay and are

allowed to make their workers work

longer hours, overtime hours, at

each month. So that has caused the

Labour groups to be unhappy. They

have protested outside Parliament

and the Ministry of Labour. They say

this is bad for employees and it is

taking things back to the way they

used to be, so there is no

improvement at all. Now, for many of

us, working professionals, a cup of

coffee is an essential start to the

day, especially on mornings. But how

much are people actually willing to

pay for it? Well, a cafe right here

in Singapore and Hong Kong is

charging customers over $6 per cup

of coffee. You heard me right, over

$60 a cup. That is because the

coffee beans were acquired at an

auction. I went to find out what was

so special about them.

This coffee, it is Panama Geisha, a

crop she scored 94.11, the highest

scorer in the world. This coffee is

auctioned at 601 US dollars per

pound. For the OK, the notes, the

interesting flavours of teachers,

like she is and Jasmine, which is

rarely found in the natural product.

-- peaches, lychees and jasmine.

People are looking into coffee like

fine wines. Natural crops and

products are appreciating in value

because of the better practices, and

it is getting more complicated and

complex.

I have to cups in front of me. One

is more than $60, the other is just

$8, just the regular copy they serve

you. I don't know which is which but

I'm going to taste and try to find

out. OK. That tastes like regular

coffee. Now, I think it's this one.

Am I correct?

Correct!

Excellent.

Thank you. I think it was only

because it is not like any other

coffee either the tasted before. --

I've ever tasted.

I don't know about paying that much,

but it certainly puts you in the

mood breakup of coffee. Let's look

at the markets before we go. They

are doing incredibly well. The Hang

Seng is up. It closed at a

seven-week high yesterday. Today it

is taking those cues from Wall

Street, which also ended much

higher, especially technology

stocks. In fact, I should say the

Hang Seng is up over 35 are sent on

the year. So it has certainly been

going gangbusters. Australian

markets are doing particularly well,

metals prices used in a