20/12/2017 Asia Business Report

I'm Babita Sharma with BBC News.

Our top story:

Donald Trump's

overhaul of the US tax system is set

to be approved by both

houses of Congress.

It managed to get approval

in the House of Representatives

and a vote in the Senate is expected

in the next few hours.

Final approval will have

to wait until Wednesday.

China has called on the US

to abandon its cold war mentality

after Donald Trump's speech

on national security accused Beijing

of trying to erode

American security.

And this story is

trending on BBC.com.

A coffee shop in London's Oxford

Street claims to be able to make

the world's first selfie drink

by printing a chocolate powder

portrait from a photo

on top of your drink.

They're calling it a selfi-cino.

That's all from me now.

Stay with BBC World News.

And the top story here in the UK:

Police say they've taken action

to foil an alleged Islamist terror

plot that could have been carried

out this Christmas.

Four men were arrested

in counter terrorism raids.

Now on BBC News, all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

Will it continue to sizzle or start

to fizzle? We look at what's been

driving the trend is for Bitcoin and

other crypto currencies.

The US is getting closer to

reforming its tax structure for the

first time in 30 years but what

could this mean for multinationals

in Asia?

Good morning, Asia, hello, world,

glad you could join us for this

midweek addition of Asia Business

Report, I'm Rico Hizon. The price of

Bitcoin has plunged more than 10% to

below $16,000 on some crypto

currency exchanges, from $20,000

earlier this week.

A couple of reasons, the US

securities exchange commission has

suspended trading of a popular

Bitcoin related stock that has

soared in recent weeks, citing

concerns about market manipulation.

Their share price had risen an eye

watering 1700% between the end of

September and Monday evening before

the SEC intervened. Analysts are

citing profit-taking ahead of the

holiday period as another reason for

the price. Bitcoin has captured the

attention of the world this year and

Asia has been at the forefront of

the crypto currency craze with

investors in Japan, China and South

Korea driving up the price of the

Bitcoin and other digital

currencies. But pared to traditional

investments and the use of cash,

crypto is are still fairly niche --

but compared. Investors world urged

to use caution and some Asian

countries have banned some

institutions from using it. But the

hype around crypto currencies has

more Asians are looking at them

despite the risks. Karishma Vaswani

has more.

Cash... It is still king in so much

of Asia these days. In fact, a

recent survey shows more than half

of us preferred this to any other

form of digital payment. But there's

a small but growing number of Asians

who are keen on digital currencies,

all crypto currencies as they're

known, both to spend and to invest

in. This Bitcoin ATM was set up in

Singapore two years ago but it's

only since the digital currency's

value has shot up that more people

are buying.

They see it as digital gold, a form

of savings. It dovetails into the

saving idea of being a saving Asian,

that's what we're hearing from

customers.

But you don't need to go

to an ATM to buy a Bitcoin, you can

also mine one.

Dexter set up this bit, crypto

currency mining workshop a year ago,

he makes and sells computers that

solve complex mathematical problems.

Bitcoin has gone higher and higher,

previously we could only sell two or

three a week, now we can sell 15 to

anything in the hundreds now and if

more countries like Japan fully

legalised Bitcoin and crypto

currency... More people feel they

can invest in crypto currencies.

Bitcoin has soared more than 1000%

since the beginning of the year, a

lot of that demand has come from

Japan, China and Korea but recently

Beijing and other Asian nations have

cracked down on crypto currencies,

increasing volatility in the market.

A lot of the easy money has already

been made, if anyone wants to get

exposure now you have to be able to

stomach massive downside volatility,

50%, 70%, maybe even more.

Still, that's not stopping some

businesses from cashing in on the

crypto craze. At this bar in

Singapore, customers campaign for

their drinks using another popular

and increasingly expensive digital

currency. Then the payment is made!

For now it makes up only 2% of

transactions, but club owners expect

that to grow. Don't pop open the

champagne yet, though, crypto is

maybe worth less than a cocktail in

the future. Karishma Vaswani, BBC

News, Singapore.

Crypto currencies gave investors a

wild ride in 2017 but since it has

no intrinsic value some analysts

have called it an extremely risky

investment.

America's biggest tax overhaul in 30

years is inching slowly to being

real, but there was another

roadblock as a bill makes its way to

Donald Trump's desk for a signature.

One of the biggest changes the plan

offers is cutting the corporate tax

rate to 21%. At the moment it's at

35%, the highest in the developed

world. The big winners will be

multinationals Stoppila Sunzu did I

explain where the heads next.

It cleared the vote in the house,

Rico, now it's going to the Senate

and we expect voting later today but

we're hearing there are minor

elements of the draft of the bill

cleared by the house that might be

in violation of Senate rules, which

means even if the Senate clears that

draft without those elements, what

will essentially happen is it will

need to go back to the house for

approval tomorrow, which means just

one more step in this long drawnout

process for the Republicans to get

this tax reform passed and they're

all trying to get it done before

Christmas. If and when it happens it

will be Donald Trump's first big

legislative victory since taking

office. He promised to make America

great again to get this economy

growing, and to bring jobs to this

country, and the Republicans

certainly think this is one way of

doing it. Their pitch is that if

companies are making these savings,

14% less corporate tax they have to

pay, if they're making these

savings, Republicans say they will

reinvest that money here and that in

turn will create jobs.

YouTube has signed a second global

multi-year agreement with a major

music label, universal, which

represents artists like Taylor Swift

and Jay Z, they say the deal will

provide performers with more

flexibility and paid. It made you to

sign a deal with Warner Music -- in

May YouTube signed. Christmas comes

early for you?

Absolutely.

It has had tough negotiations with

the music labels to come to this

deal with Universal Music group as

well as Warner and according to

reports they have a third label

under their belt, giving them the

license of Sony music. Essentially

YouTube is looking to pave the way

for a music service as early as

March next year so they'll be taking

on the likes of Spotify and Apple

Music, because YouTube is being seen

as behind the curve on the trend of

people listening to music online

through certain streams. What

they've agreed to with Sony and

universal music is to protect

copyright, to police it more

strongly as well as to give them a

cut of the royalties when it comes

up. YouTube is popular with millions

of subscribers so the next logical

step is for them to set up another

tier for people to pay for certain

streams of music they want to

subscribe to.

Are you into music

streaming?

I am, I have a Spotify

account and I watch YouTube all the

time.

I still have my CDs and my

vinyls! I don't know what will

happen to them! Thanks very much! A

South Korean start-up has unveiled a

huge robot designed to make humans

stronger and more mobile. The

machine is the work of Rainbow

Robotics, a spin-off from South

Korea's advanced Institute of

science and technology's Robotics

lab.

This robot can be used for carrying

a person from A two B without his or

her physical effort, that means it

can help a disabled person and also

his arm is very powerful and it can

be used for carrying heavy trays.

There are many possible applications

in the future.

This kind of robot is not ready to

be used in very critical areas yet.

Instead it can be used for more

entertaining purposes. It can be

used for some kind of amusement Park

or events.

Technology and innovation, Star Wars

is here! Let's have a quick look at

the markets.

You

You can see, Asia is moving

sideways. At the moment the Nikkei

225 up by 13 points and the Hang

Seng opening lower by 55 points and

the All Ordinaries an inch higher at

6165. This is after US equities

slipped overnight as selling crept

into the market as most traders see

the positive impact of the tax-cut

bill already being priced in.

With that we end this edition of

Asia Business Report. Thank you so

much for investing your time