23/11/2017 Asia Business Report

forecast in his budget statement

from 2% to 1.5%. Now here on BBC

News, lots more business news coming

up live from Singapore with Rico

Hizon.

Did you follow Russian propaganda

pages? Facebook is about it you. And

confectionery giant Mars Wrigley

says sales in Asia will offset

slowing growth in the US and Europe.

It is Thursday, everyone! Good

morning, Asia, hello, world. Loud

you can join us for another exciting

addition of Asia Business Report. --

glad. I'm Rico Hizon. Technology

giants are coming up with more

measures in response to claims

Russia meddled with the US election.

Yesterday we told you Google was

going to show stories from two

Kremlin owned newspaper is lower in

search results. -- news providers.

Several hours ago Facebook said it

will show its users which Russian

propaganda pages or accounts they

have followed in the like. I'm

joined by my colleague and business

reporter Monica Miller. Monica, how

big a problem was it?

They believe

roughly 150 million Facebook and

Instagram users may have seen some

of these fake accounts or organic

posts that were created by this

Russian propaganda group. Now, a

couple of weeks ago, lawmakers on

Capitol Hill grilled lawyers from

these giant social media companies.

In response, Facebook says they are

now creating an online tool that

will basically let people see if

they have been impacted by this

propaganda. The company which did

this is based in Saint Petersburg.

It is called the Internets Research

Agency, which sounds pretty

legitimate. Apparently they have

paid hundreds of people to create

these false accounts to push pro-

Kremlin propaganda onto Facebook and

Instagram.

Lots of revelations about

their presence in social media. So

what has been the reaction of

dollars in makers in the United

States? -- policymakers.

They say it

is a good step but doesn't go far

enough. They initially asked

Facebook to reach out individually

to each person who had been impacted

by this. Instead they are kind of

putting it on their help site and

some tech blogs are saying that they

are really hiding this. They wanted

this to be more in the open and more

transparent.

Thank you. Business

reporter Monica Miller. In news

Justin, Uber has been sued for over

7 billion US dollars for the massive

data breach we told you about

yesterday. The breach exposed the

names, email addresses and phone

numbers of it in million customers

and drivers around the world. This

occurred over one year ago but is

only now being made public. Well,

candy giant Mars needs little

introduction. Its stable of treats

including M&Ms, slippers and

Maltesers can be found in many

households. -- Snickers. Mars is the

world's biggest chocolate maker,

making about $35 billion a year.

That has been slowing as

health-conscious consumers in the

developed world, which makes up two

thirds of the market, begin shunning

sugar and other processed foods. But

the number of those with a sweet

tooth in Asia is expanding. Nearly

half of chocolate sales in China

from the mild selection. As the

regional boss of Mars Wrigley

Confectionery told me earlier.

Our

opportunity in Asia is phenomenal.

We have a rising middle class.

Berrer going to be more middle-class

consumers in Asia than already exist

in Europe and North America. --

there are going to be. Right now it

is about one tenth the consumption

per capita that exists in Europe and

North America.

You talk about the

middle class, but the middle-class

in Asia also becoming more

health-conscious. Shunning sugar and

processed foods. Isn't that the

competition for you?

We believe the

quality of our products are great?

-- are great. We believe in portion

control and responsible consumption.

We think people vote with their

wallets.

When I travel around the

region I notice that there is lots

of local competition as well. More

craft chocolate makers. Is this

eating up your Asian market share.

Our objection -- objective is to

grow the market category.

We think

there is room for us and others, if

we do it right, to bring this

category to where it is supposed to

be in a size potential.

The colour

is a raw material and commodity that

is used in most of your products. --

Cocoa is a raw material. Suppliers

have been depressed recently. How is

that affecting your bottom line?

Cocoa prices go up and down. We

believe in a long-term pricing

strategy to provide the best value

for consumers.

Lots of competition

in this space. You expecting, going

forward, a consolidation?

This is

possible.

Are you looking for

opportunities to buy?

I can never

project the future. But this is

possible. We are mostly focused on

growing our business. We believe

organic growth has tremendous

potential, especially in this part

of the world.

Where is the biggest

market here in Asia?

China, of

course. But there are many other

markets which are growing fast.

India, Indonesia, the Philippines.

We are excited by the number of

opportunities that are ahead of us

here.

Leaving out to Singapore, and

a report on the state of the economy

showed it expanded by 5.2% in the

three months to September, compare

to last year's levels. That is the

strongest growth since 2013. The

government is concerned about

maintaining growth. Recently it said

it may raise taxes. The goods and

services tax, or GST, is one of the

government's the sources of

revenues. It brought in $8.2 billion

last year. Singapore last raised the

GST to 7% one decade ago, and that

is still lower than many other

countries. In Japan the GST rate is

8%. In India, it almost doubles,

15.5%. In the United States, 7.5%.

In the UK, a whopping 20%. This

economist said the hike would be to

tackle longer term issues for the

economy like the Asian population.

There is certainly no hurry for them

to do that. And finances here are

into mentis shape. In most European

countries, we just have the European

-- the UK budget yesterday, the debt

to GDP ratio is 80, 90, 100%.

Singapore has a surplus. The assets

they have, the income every year,

contributes to the budget.

They seem

to be pressing ahead with this

particular goods and services tax.

They are clearly keen to raise

taxes. I think you can understand

why, in a long-term view, because

demographics is completely forecast

of all. You can understand that your

income tax base is going to shrink,

your costs like healthcare will

increase steadily over the next ten

or 20 years. They want to plan ahead

for that.

China recently relaxed

foreign investment rules for its

massive financial sector, but the

mainland's high levels of debt could

deter international investors. We

spoke to China's leading online

lending platform and asked how those

concerns are impacting the company.

What we do is to help traditionally

the underserved population. Small

businesses, rural people, really

build access to credit. These

people, these segments,

traditionally they are not well

served, or not served at all by

banking systems.

You talk about

inclusive growth and adding more of

these entrepreneurs and small

business owners, giving them access

to credit. What happens when

something goes wrong. Who takes

responsibility? Is it the company,

the government?

We utilise big data

in what we do. We utilise small

businesses, micro- entrepreneurs and

consumers, operational data,

transactional data, these are

intangible but invaluable assets.

Otherwise they could not use them in

traditional banking. For this

business, risk does exist. Default

does happen. And the business model

is that a lender actually lends to

many, many people. So with a very

small % goes wrong, he's still has a

good return. -- if a very small

percentage goes wrong.

He may not be

racing in F1 any more, but former

champion Nico Rosberg has told the

BBC he has great affinity with the

Singapore Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg

said his qualifying lap in 2016,

when he claimed pole position, was

his favourite poll performance in

any of his 206 Formula 1 starts. Now

retired, he has been looking back at

his career.

My favourite ever

qualifying lap or Singapore, India

last year, actually. It is one of

those moments where it happens very,

very rarely, actually. But you go

into this tunnel vision and sort of

start to feel completely invincible.

You feel nobody could possibly do

this corner now, or this lap, better

than I am doing it at the moment. It

is a very strange feeling. I read

about it, somebody else speaking

about this as well, and you go into

such an extreme moment and the

buildup to it and all the tension

and adrenaline and everything, it

really begins to close, narrow down,

and you find this perfection. I

found that in Singapore, and I was

on the poll by five or six tenths,

around this huge track. But was a

very special moment.

For more from

Nico Rosberg, we have a special

programme called My Life After F1 on

BBC World News. That is on Thursday

at 10:30pm GMT. That is at 6:30pm in

Singapore and Hong Kong. Thank you

for investing your time with us. I'm

Rico Hizon. Goodbye