28/11/2017 Asia Business Report

Two pharmaceutical firms have said

they'll invest more than £1 billion

in the UK, creating

nearly 2,000 jobs.

Now on BBC News all the latest

business news live from Singapore

with Rico and Asia Business Report.

Soaring to new heights Cormac

Bitcoin is fast approaching the

$10,000 mark. -- heights: Bitcoin.

And the dreams of turning Ho Chi

Minh in two as start-up capital. --

into. Glad you could join us Asia

Business Report. I am Rico Hizon.

The Queen has done it again. Even

though many have warned it was a

asset bubble about to burst, it

soaring to new heights. -- it is an

asset bubble. It has climbed to

$8,200, and gone further to $9,700.

It is now approaching $10,000 US.

Keep in mind that in 2010, one

Bitcoin user famously traded 10,000

Bitcoin for two pizzas, which was

then roughly $25. If he had those in

Bitcoin is, he would be a

millionaire by now. Earlier, I asked

Cedric Jensen from Bitspread if it

would hit the milestones on.

If you

look at Facebook, where Pete market

capitalisation is $140 billion, with

billions of users all over the

world, the Bitcoin network is soon

to become billions of users. -- the

market. The market capitalisation is

only a third of Facebook fought

Bitcoin.

If you look at Bitcoin

against Facebook, if you look at the

share price, it is based on what?

Earnings per share? You are talking

about valuation. But is there such a

thing would be Bitcoin?

I think

Bitcoin, the value is basically for

e-commerce globally. This is of

tremendous value that many people

here have not realised is the best

way to actually send money, if you

want, or token, or value, peer to

peer. Having a website in Thailand

in Asia, or any country where you

can receive from all over the world,

for your goods and services,

Bitcoin, that is phenomenal.

But in

China, they basically cancelled the

trading of Bitcoin 's. They wanted a

more regulated. -- Bitcoins. Is that

why Bitcoin has now surged to

heights we have not seen before?

Because it is being regulated and is

now legal?

Yes. I think the Reggie

Leach is a good thing. We saw Japan

recently in June introduce a legal

bill legalising the payment, or

rather it as a meanss of payment. He

can now bid used anywhere in Japan

to pay for goods and services.

But

now, apart from Bitcoin, there are

other derivatives. Could there be a

downside here with more types of

crypto currencies in the market?

I

think we are now seeing the interest

in the Bitcoin blockchain to

increase basically its transaction

rate, so the number of transactions

you could do her second per minute.

This is what I think people are

focusing on: Improving network on

capacity.

That was Cedric Jensen

from Bitspread. In Bali colour the

airports are closed due to ash and

smoke from Mt Agung. So far, only

40,000 have evacuated. Officials

said more than 400 flights were

cancelled on Monday. More than

57,000 passengers were affected. On

how this will affect business and

industry, I am joined by Matt

Morrison. Is it already starting to

have an impact?

It has. -- Mat.

Travel is down since it started

bubbling. An official said gives it

that the two Bali tourists to

encourage them to come back shoot to

the kindness and friendliness in

Bali. How big is too as a? Looking

at the numbers, in 2016, nearly 5

million overseas visitors came to

the island. Australians were the

largest group. If you look at that

against the population in Bali

itself, that is only 4.2 million. So

there are more tourists than there

are residents. The GDP growth there

last he was almost six in the

quarter, compared to Indonesia's 5%.

So it is outperforming the rest of

the country. -- was almost 6.25%. We

will have to see how these

cancellations affect the island

further, and to put it in

perspective, we have seen this

before in Iceland, wet they had a

$1.7 billion impact on the tourism

industry.

-- Maggie Throup. This is

not the first time this has happened

to the Bali economy?

If we look at

2002, when we saw the Bali bombings.

-- where they had. People are scared

away and hopefully once these things

settle down, tourists will come

back.

Hopefully it will be soon,

because Brierley needs the tourism

dollars. -- Maggie Throup. Look into

other news, epic of alphabet is

asking a US judge to temporarily

pool B brakes on the upcoming trade

secrets trial against Uber. The

Californian -based firm said it was

to look into whether the company

withheld information in relation to

its case. It is due back in court on

the fourth of September.

Into an armed, Southeast Asia's

fastest growing economy saw an

almost 7.5% expansion in the

economy. -- in the market. This is

partly due to the area's young,

skilled, and enthusiastic labour

force. Our Asia business

correspondence looked at Ho Chi Minh

City. A Communist country with

modern ambitions. This is Vietnam in

2017. It has always been an

entrepreneurial nation, but this new

generation is turning to technology

to broaden their opportunities. Take

Pups Worldwide. They early

recognised the need for the image

content worldwide. As a young girl,

this woman except none, but in 2007,

Vietnam allowed overseas Vietnamese

people to come work in the country.

We had to swim on our own. We are to

try to find our own tables and

chairs and workspace and investors

and really had to convince Mt Agung.

Now there is a lot of buzz about

Vietnam, citing it is different,

now.

You know, everything will you,

Vietnam producers of the 150,000

engineering graduates. This useful

and energetic population is one of

the key reasons why 70 people think

this country could become Asia's

NeXT technology powerhouse. The

government built this space to link

up fresh talents with experienced

mentors. It also has a cafe and a

small to working space, but is very

much a work in progress. --

coworking. Does that we are trying

to look at other areas like Malaysia

and China. But the kinds of

universities and schools we have

different.

TRANSLATION:

We are trying. That is

way we as the government need to

help.

But the gamut is not providing

what the start-ups need right now:

The money to scale up. For this

organic grocery delivery service,

that could be what makes or breaks

the company. -- but the government.

Most of our investors come from

overseas. Local start-ups, even if

they have a good idea, they usually

don't have the right support network

to get them to the funding stage.

This venture is not his foes. Even

start-ups in California and Canada

before. He is under challenging. But

what keeps him and others coming

here are the opportunities and be

hunger to make an impact. -- he is

finding it challenging. And with

that, we end this edition of Asia

Business Report. It is so much for

investing your time with us. I am

Rico