0:00:00 > 0:00:02of staff.
0:00:02 > 0:00:08Now on BBC News all the latest business news live from Singapore.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22The world's biggest retailer Walmart offers a pay hike just before laying
0:00:22 > 0:00:29off hundreds of workers. Is the bubble bursting? Bitcoin
0:00:29 > 0:00:40falls as South Korea plans are trading ban. Good morning, Asia,
0:00:40 > 0:00:46hello, world. Glad you could join us for Asia Business Report. Starting
0:00:46 > 0:00:52with Walmart and mixed messages from the world's biggest retailer. It was
0:00:52 > 0:00:58initially good news for President Trump when he said he would give
0:00:58 > 0:01:01more than 1 million staff a pay rise thanks to his tax reform Bill. Wages
0:01:01 > 0:01:06would be increased from $10 an hour to $11 and there would also be a
0:01:06 > 0:01:111-off bonus of $1000 for staff who have been at the company for more
0:01:11 > 0:01:15than 20 years. But shortly after the announcement it was revealed that
0:01:15 > 0:01:20the firm is shutting down dozens of its wholesale shops and laying off
0:01:20 > 0:01:24hundreds of workers. Puppies as reporter in New York said other
0:01:24 > 0:01:34companies have offered similar things.We've heard it from
0:01:34 > 0:01:39airlines, and other companies. This is a permanent sort of reduction in
0:01:39 > 0:01:43corporate tax that has been brought on by the new bill. It will mean
0:01:43 > 0:01:47billions of dollars and in some cases it could be tens of billions
0:01:47 > 0:01:51of dollars over the course of the future. The amount they are paying
0:01:51 > 0:01:57their employees today amounts to about $400 million and the
0:01:57 > 0:02:01Republican pitch was that this money would come back into the economy in
0:02:01 > 0:02:06the way that it expands the economy here. So it will create jobs and
0:02:06 > 0:02:10people's wages would go up in a significant way. If that happens
0:02:10 > 0:02:14then you could sort of see the government then earning more by way
0:02:14 > 0:02:18of tax. But there are no indications, apart from this
0:02:18 > 0:02:22particular bonus that is being given, and the only wage increase in
0:02:22 > 0:02:27the US where that's the amount it increases by is actually the minimum
0:02:27 > 0:02:30wage and there are competitors in the market who are already paying
0:02:30 > 0:02:35more than that amount. So we could just be competition that has forced
0:02:35 > 0:02:40them to increase these wages.Our reporter in New York. If you are
0:02:40 > 0:02:44regretting not buying Bitcoin when it was cheaper, think again. It has
0:02:44 > 0:02:51fallen by as much as 14% after South Korea said it was planning to ban
0:02:51 > 0:02:56the currency and other crypto currency. I asked if the hype was
0:02:56 > 0:03:03over.I think the bar has already -- always been set higher, and even
0:03:03 > 0:03:07more so given this regulatory oversight, especially with this
0:03:07 > 0:03:10latest announcement by Korea. It could spread to other local markets
0:03:10 > 0:03:16and the fear is that if there is further you regular tree oversight
0:03:16 > 0:03:20this could really dampen investor sentiment towards coins in general.
0:03:20 > 0:03:25There is already this growing trend amongst Asian governments to tighten
0:03:25 > 0:03:28controls on not only Bitcoin but other Bitcoin currencies, so the
0:03:28 > 0:03:36likes of China and Vietnam?I think that all oil down to the
0:03:36 > 0:03:42unsophisticated traders. They feel they have to put some defensive
0:03:42 > 0:03:45mechanism in the markets to control this volatility because a lot of
0:03:45 > 0:03:50people stand to lose a lot of money if the boy naturally does crash.And
0:03:50 > 0:03:57on the flipside there are more companies now getting into the
0:03:57 > 0:04:01technology that underpins crypto currencies and the Bitcoin, like
0:04:01 > 0:04:07Kodak.The thing they will succeed? I think there's a practical use for
0:04:07 > 0:04:11blockchain technology as the go through the next decade and I think
0:04:11 > 0:04:15consumers are actually seeing value in this. If we look at how
0:04:15 > 0:04:20technology launched itself over the last two decades, this does bode
0:04:20 > 0:04:24well and we could see Bitcoin technology advance.Over the oil and
0:04:24 > 0:04:30the price of crude oil as -- has hit $70 a barrel for the first time in
0:04:30 > 0:04:35over three years. You can see this chart shows it moving north,
0:04:35 > 0:04:39gradually climbing over the past year. At today's followed the
0:04:39 > 0:04:44announcement of the oil producing giant OPEC, that he would continue
0:04:44 > 0:04:49to limit supplies. This news just in. Intel has asked some of its
0:04:49 > 0:04:53customers to hold off installing patches that would address security
0:04:53 > 0:04:57flaws, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company confirmed last
0:04:57 > 0:05:01week that the chip used in our computers could allow hackers to
0:05:01 > 0:05:06steal sensitive information. In social media Facebook says it will
0:05:06 > 0:05:10change the newsfeed ranking over the next few months. Chief executive
0:05:10 > 0:05:14Mark Zuckerberg said it would emphasise meaningful social
0:05:14 > 0:05:18interactions within UN gill friends, rather than the type of newsfeed
0:05:18 > 0:05:25that critics say is addictive. China is waking up just now and let's
0:05:25 > 0:05:29check in with the team in India about the latest business story. The
0:05:29 > 0:05:32security regulator has banned a global accounting firm from auditing
0:05:32 > 0:05:39listed companies in the country for two years, and to tell us more about
0:05:39 > 0:05:43this latest development I'm joined by my colleague in Delhi. Please
0:05:43 > 0:05:49explain to us what happened. Why have they been suspended?Let's
0:05:49 > 0:05:56rewind the clock to 2009. It was in January when the founder of the then
0:05:56 > 0:06:03leading company had in a letter confessed to fobbing the accounts of
0:06:03 > 0:06:07the firm. It came to about $2 billion fraud and that's when the
0:06:07 > 0:06:10market regulator in India was entrusted with the responsibility to
0:06:10 > 0:06:15probe the matter and whether the auditing firm was complicit in this
0:06:15 > 0:06:26as well. Price water Cooper was at that time the accounting firm from
0:06:26 > 0:06:322000 until 2008. -- PricewaterhouseCoopers. The market
0:06:32 > 0:06:36regulator said PricewaterhouseCoopers was complicit
0:06:36 > 0:06:47in the fraud. They were able to establish that. Also the statement
0:06:47 > 0:06:52from Pricewaterhouse is denying any wrongdoing and they are looking at
0:06:52 > 0:07:01this stage from Indian quote on the sword.Thank you for updating us.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04For centuries the world's wealthy have tried to help tackle the
0:07:04 > 0:07:10problems of poverty and income inequality, but to some experts the
0:07:10 > 0:07:13traditional philanthropy model is no longer suited to 21st-century
0:07:13 > 0:07:19realities. I spoke to someone from the Rockefeller foundation which
0:07:19 > 0:07:22disperses millions of dollars year and he told me what the foundation
0:07:22 > 0:07:26looks for when it comes to helping those in need.What I care a lot
0:07:26 > 0:07:31about is what it costs to move a family out of poverty, what it costs
0:07:31 > 0:07:38to save a child's life under the age of five who might die of diarrhoea.
0:07:38 > 0:07:43We know we can do that for 10- $15. For a few hundred dollars we can
0:07:43 > 0:07:52move the family out of poverty. Give them a job that allows them to use
0:07:52 > 0:07:57their own ingenuity to build a brighter future. That's the ratio of
0:07:57 > 0:08:01the return on investment that I care about.What is the current state of
0:08:01 > 0:08:10philanthropy in Asia, regarding the West?There are more than 100,000
0:08:10 > 0:08:13foundations in the US. The Rockefeller foundation has been
0:08:13 > 0:08:18around for 104 years. In Asia there are 10,000 foundations. Part of the
0:08:18 > 0:08:28purpose of expanding our philanthropic projects, we are
0:08:28 > 0:08:34measuring and knowing the impact, ensuring money is free of
0:08:34 > 0:08:39corruption, for those types of families we think there is a
0:08:39 > 0:08:43tremendous potential as wealth and dynamism in Asia continues to
0:08:43 > 0:08:46explode. We want to work with the next generation of Asian
0:08:46 > 0:08:52philanthropists to change the world. Did you know that is, look at that
0:08:52 > 0:08:59happy face, the first nonstick frying pan was called the happy pan?
0:08:59 > 0:09:02It made washing up so easy and Teflon was the miracle chemical
0:09:02 > 0:09:08behind it. It made billions of dollars over five decades. There is
0:09:08 > 0:09:20another side to its history. It is Teflon! The stuff that makes
0:09:20 > 0:09:27your frying pans nonstick. So, how was it discovered? It was discovered
0:09:27 > 0:09:40by accident in 1938 in the labs. An engineer was looking at TFE, the
0:09:40 > 0:09:45stuff that kept our refrigerators cool. He installed it in canisters.
0:09:45 > 0:09:49One day he went to get some and found the gas had turned into some
0:09:49 > 0:09:55strange dry flakes. He found the mystery stuff incredibly slippery,
0:09:55 > 0:10:01so he worked on it and came up with a chemical called Teflon. In 1961
0:10:01 > 0:10:09the first Teflon frying pan was sold in America and it was called the
0:10:09 > 0:10:14Happy Pan because it made washing up so easy. Now it makes $1 billion
0:10:14 > 0:10:20seafront Teflon and spin-offs. But Teflon used to contain a chemical
0:10:20 > 0:10:25called PFOA, which is linked to cancer and other diseases. Last year
0:10:25 > 0:10:30Teflon had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to thousands of
0:10:30 > 0:10:34people after that chemical leaked from this American factory and
0:10:34 > 0:10:41that's a sad legacy for the so-called happy pan.
0:10:41 > 0:10:43Thank you so much for investing your time with us.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46I'm Rico Hizon.
0:10:46 > 0:10:50Sport Today is up next.