15/01/2018 Asia Business Report


15/01/2018

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Now on BBC News all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

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Hit or miss, we find out if China is

experiencing a growth spurt when new

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data comes out this week. Commuters

are not fond of Janat words, search

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pricing. Find out how it works and

how you can get around it. -- surge

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pricing. Good morning, Asia. Glad

you can join us for this edition of

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Asia Business Report. We start with

the business calendar, and the

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report cards from corporate America.

Kicking things off, quarterly

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numbers from Alcoa and big banks

including Morgan Stanley. On

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Thursday or all eyes will be on

Chinese growth numbers for the

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December quarter, and 6.8 is them

that it number for analysts.

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Attention is back on the US at the

end of the week. Friday is the

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deadline for the spending bill from

Congress to avert a government shut

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down one day after the first

anniversary of Donald Trump's

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official start at the White House.

Asian analyst David Ho from the

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Motley Fool says he expects a

gradual slowdown in Chinese growth

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rates.

It doesn't mean time is slowing

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down, it is growing not as fast as

it did previously and many think

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that 2017 it will grow at about 6.7%

but Premier Li said he thinks it

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will grow at 6.9%, so I am going to

say it 6.9% in 2017.

6.9% in 2017,

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so surely it will be better than

2016, so what about 2018, what is

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your projection, better than 2017?

I

think we will see a gradual slowdown

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and I think what we will see is 6.4%

in 2018, and that is inevitable,

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because China's economy has to slow

because most of the growth so far

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has been fuelled by debt. China has

borrowed a lot of money. That cannot

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continue. What will have to happen

now is those companies will have to

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grow on their own. They won't be

able to borrow as much as they did

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previously. I think 2018 we will see

more of a slowdown to a round 6.4%,

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I think.

And 6.4% is also the World

Bank's forecast for Chinese economic

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growth. It is also earnings season

in the US. What will have a great

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impact on the Asian markets, US

earnings or China's GDP?

I think

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both. I will hedge my debt and say

both are very important. People are

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looking to America simply because

what they are saying in America is

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that if the companies in America can

continue to deliver good earnings

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and it will drive the stock market

over in America, which would drive

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the stock markets not only here in

Hong Kong, but certainly where you

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are in Singapore and the rest of

Asia.

In other news making

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headlines, VW said car sales rose to

a new record last year thanks to

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rising demand in China and the

Americas despite the omission

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cheating scandal, overtaking Toyota

as the best selling car maker in

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2017. The German carmaker announced

plans to spend $3 billion on

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development and production of new

models in North America from 2018 to

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2020. Ford says the company will

increase investment in autonomous to

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$11 billion by 2022 and have 40

hybrid and fully electric models in

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its lineup. He made the announcement

at the Detroit Auto Show. Mainstream

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automakers are reacting to pressure

from regulators in China, Europe and

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California to slash carbon emissions

from fossil fuels. And they are

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facing competition from Tesla which

has inspired would-be owners to line

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up outside showrooms and flood the

company with orders.

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The Trump administration is

rewriting regulations about

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autonomous vehicles. The

Transportation Secretary said they

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would unveil the guidelines by

summer. It would cover not only self

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driving cars but also the

integration of the technology behind

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motor carriers, transit, trucks and

infrastructure. The days of having

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teaching in to live TV to watch your

favourite TV show and movies are

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long gone and the Internet is

increasingly now a very crowded

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space. There is fierce competition

between Netflix, Amazon and HBO. To

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try to win over customers, Amazon

produces original, local content in

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three Asian markets with Japan,

India and South Korea. James

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Farrell, who heads the region's

Amazon Prime Video told the BBC how

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the programmes are produced.

The one

commonality is local content is king

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in all of those countries. We

started with licensed content on the

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service and then a good example was

a popular kids show on TV for 45

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years, we went to the producers and

we said, this is a great show,

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people love to watch it, how can we

do something new, creative and

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different with the brand? We sat

down with them and we brought up a

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re- creation of a 70s series, except

this was no holds barred on the more

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violence and action. That became the

first Amazon original series in

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Japan. My favourite so far is

Documental, a comedy competition,

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with ten comedians in a room and

they have to see who can make each

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other laugh the fastest. As soon as

you laugh you are out of the room.

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There are no rules. They go crazy.

What they can do on TV and other

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platforms, there is limitations.

Wattell advertisers support? You

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know, TV regulations. With Amazon,

we connect comedians and their crazy

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ideas and what we want the favourite

comedians to do. Matsumoto-san said,

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what can we do, so we connect them

and that is why they have been so

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successful and that is why people

love to watch it. We came to the US

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and we put the service out in Japan

or other countries and they don't

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work. People say that unlike the

content, better understand what's

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going on. Pat Schiller is one where

we heard all about. We said there is

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this giant space in Japan where

people are making variety shows and

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comedy -- Bachelor. No one is doing

large-scale romantic reality series,

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so let's do the biggest and best,

which is the Bachelor and everyone

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said it was a horrible idea but it

is the top five show for us. We are

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happy to take the risk and customers

are super happy with it.

James

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Farrell from Amazon Prime Video.

Everyone knows the law of supply and

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demand but no one likes it when it

means you and me, the customers,

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fork out more from our wallets and

we are talking about surge pricing.

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To find out how it works and if

there is a way to work around it for

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your next taxi ride.

Surge pricing is a dirty word in the

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digital age, like spam or pop-ups.

Whether in rush-hour or after a big

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event you will have to pay more.

That is because quite simply the

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demand for the right out numbers the

number of cars on the road so to

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avoid paying the surge prices you

have to understand how the companies

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do it in the first place. Heat maps

based on real-time information, that

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data is collected by a geo- tag in

the cars and alerts are sent to the

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drivers to try to move them to the

areas where the demand is greatest.

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Some situations where it is unfair

to do that, let's say if there is a

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flood in the city, it is unfair to

charge 44 that, so the platform

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allows the ability to ingest news

into the decision-making, the

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weather information into the

decision-making, and that is how in

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this case you will not have surge

prices in that area.

So that is the

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company. What about ask? What can we

do to avoid the surge prices? Moved

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to another area, across the street

or down the road. Then again, you

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can wait it out, so if demand goes

down, surge prices might go away.

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And finally, number three, book a

car beforehand. If you know you need

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a ride it is a good way to take the

guesswork out of getting home.

From

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surge prices to Japan's latest girl

band, let me show you, they are

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called the Virtual Currency Girls,

yes, you heard me right, they each

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play a character like the bitcoin

Etherium bought the Ripple and they

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warn against fraudulent operators

and they urged people to make sure

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of online security. Let's listen in.

And, if you want to take a picture

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with them, fans had to pay 0.001

Bitcoin, about 15 US dollars, and

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Japan recognises Bitcoin as legal

tender and one third of global

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Bitcoin transactions are denominated

in the Japanese yen. Thank you so

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much for investing your time with

us. I'm

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