18/01/2018 Asia Business Report

This is BBC News.

I'm Babita Sharma.

Our top story: North and South Korea

have agreed to march under the same

flag at next month's

Winter Olympics in South Korea.

The arrangement is a sign

of the thaw in relations which began

when the North Korean leader,

Kim Jong-un, offered to send a team

to the games in a New Year speech.

A former CIA officer has been

arrested in the US on charges

of retaining classified information

in a case thought to be linked

to the crippling of the agency's spy

operation in China.

And this story is

trending on BBC.com.

Space Invaders - the game

which spawned a multibillion-dollar

industry celebrates

its 40th birthday.

To celebrate images from the game

have been projected onto the window

panes of a Tokyo skyscraper.

That's all from me for now.

And the top story here in the UK:

The bill transferring all European

legislation into UK law -

after Brexit - has cleared

the House of Commons.

After 80 hours of debate,

the European Union Withdrawal Bill

now goes to the House of Lords.

Now on BBC News, all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly

swear... It has been nearly a year

since Donald Trump took office. We

assess how Asia has fared under

America's 45th president. And

assess how Asia has fared under

America's 45th president. And China

is expected to show slowing growth

as the government cracks down on

rising debt. Good morning, Asia.

Hello, world. It's Thursday. Glad

you could join us for another action

packed addition of Asia Business

Report. Saturday marks the one-year

anniversary of Donald Trump's time

in office. When he became president

he promised three things relates to

Asia. To get rid of unfair trade

deals, make trade more reciprocal

and thirdly, bring back jobs to

America. Did he make good on these

promises? Our Asia business

correspondent looks at what is fact

and what is fiction.

We can no longer tolerate these

chronic trade abuses and we will not

tolerate them.

One of the things

Donald Trump also is -- always said

he would kill off a big multilateral

trade deals, particularly the

Trans-Pacific Partnership trade

agreement, or the DPP. He did pull

the US out. Given America was the

biggest economy in the deal, and he

thought it would die, it didn't. The

11 other countries decided to push

ahead without the US. The US looks

like it could be the one losing out

geopolitically at least as the rest

of the world carries on. The US

still buys more from Asia than it

sells. Donald Trump's and this has

been to renegotiate or initiate

bilateral trade deals with

individual Asian countries. He is in

the business of renegotiating one

deal and that is the US- South Korea

agreement but that is it for now.

China, another target for trade

rage. He said he was going to call

China currency manipulator on his

first day in office and slap tariffs

on Chinese goods. He didn't, but we

have seen US moves to keep Chinese

companies out of the States and he's

made some headway in getting US

financial firms more access to the

Chinese market.

They have taken our

money, they have taken our jobs.

Japan's Softbank said it was going

to create 50 -- it doesn't opt in

the US. Alibaba from China said it

would create a million. But Trump

did put enough pressure on Toyota to

make it promised that it was going

to build one factory in the US which

would create some 4000 jobs. Donald

Trump hasn't been as tough on trade

with age as he said he was going.

But he straps -- drastically change

the direction of American trade

policy, putting America first. While

there has been a lot of rhetoric,

not a lot in the way of concrete

deals and action so it is doubtful

whether his strategy will push

America first or end up leaving

America behind.

In China, manufacturing and

infrastructure spending and

government stimulus have kept the

world's second largest economy

chugging along since the Global

Financial Crisis but over the past

year, authorities have been cracking

down on investments. That is

expected to have dampened growth in

2017. Fourth-quarter GDP numbers are

out on Thursday and our China

correspondence has more on what to

expect. The trend has been the

growth in this country's economy to

go down. It's still growing but that

trend is growing down but the

figures later today according to the

Chinese Premier Li could show growth

around 6.9%, above the figures for

the previous year. They came in at

6.7. Quite a way above what the

government's official target of 6.5%

is, probably because early on of the

year we have that continued

investment from the Central

government. We had a healthy

recovery in the global economy. I

think that continues to help China

in terms of its exports with the

rest of the world but at the same

time, as you pointed to, a clampdown

the cost of lending in this country.

A clampdown on risk within the

lending industry in particular and

cooling of the housing market,

housing a key driver of GDP here in

China but nonetheless, there is

expectation of something a bit more

surprising later. Whether China's

economic growth accelerates or slows

down, critics doubt the numbers.

They say the Chinese government

massages it to basically please the

markets.

We talk about this all the

time. There is received wisdom that

growth in Chinese economy could be

half of what the government

officially says that over the past

few weeks, we've had growing

evidence of provincial governments

here admitting that they have been

their numbers. At the end of last

month. Liaoning up North said it had

been faking the numbers, boosting

them to the benefit of their

political leaders. Also Tianjin in

the north-east has admitted faking

GDP numbers and inner Mongolia, very

dependent on coal, up in the north,

admitting it has been faking some of

its numbers all of this is firm

evidence to support the claims,

support the suspicion among many

that frankly, these numbers, no

matter what they show, can't be

trusted.

Our China correspondent.

Israel's Prime Minister may not go

back empty-handed from his trip to

India. A major multi-million dollar

deal that was once taken up the

table could be back on track. The

latest, let's go to our reporter in

Mumbai. India had cancelled this

deal.

Why the change? I had

cancelled the deal two months back.

In November, it announced the deal

was off the table. Israeli

government was quite disappointed

with that decision but now Prime

Minister Netanyahu on his way back

told reporters that the deal is back

on the table. They are working on

the details. The Indian Army will

procure anti- guided missiles.

Something the Indian Army has been

desperate to buy. Officially, the

Indian government hasn't commented

on it but sources say one of the key

reasons that could be the Indian

Army needs this in the immediate

future. Where the Indian government

wanted its own weapons agency. To

procure this over the next 2-3

years. That is why there is pressure

from a section of the Army that it

would be too long, it could delay

the process. So in a way, it's good

news for Israel because the Prime

Minister won't be going back

empty-handed but clearly, some

people in the Indian ministry might

not be happy with this decision

because they wanted the Indian Army

to manufacture these arms.

Prime

Minister Netanyahu is in the home

stretch of his tour of India. How

significant so far?

It's been a 6-

day long tour, quite significant. We

have seen both prime ministers

Netanyahu and Modi travel to the

state of Gujarat, which is the home

state of Prime Minister Modi. Their

friendship has been on display. The

defence deal is back on the table.

Israel will have something to share

back home when they go back. Israel

looks at India as a crucial economic

partner in the long-term. Defence

relationship is important. Also,

agriculture, given the state of

India's farm sector. Israel feels it

could provide the expertise to help

India.

A new era of cooperation

between India and Israel.

In other business is making

headlines, ride hailing company Grab

has bought an Indian payment

platform, iKaz, which helps the

diverse payments to landscape. They

will join Grab's research and

development centre in Bangalore. The

price was not disclosed. Let's take

a look at the markets. A lot of

traders are smiling from ear to ear.

A positive day for the Asian stock

markets. We are seeing the Nick Kay

up by more than 200 points. Hong

Kong opening in positive territory.

And the All Ordinaries down by 33

due to a fall in oil prices. This is

after the US bourse closed higher

last night. Breezing past 26,000

115. A new record high. Thank you so

much for investing your time with

us.