08/02/2018 Asia Business Report

say they're pleased to have won

the right to challenge the decision

to free him from prison.

Lawyers will be allowed

to scrutinise the Parole Board's

reasoning.

And now on BBC, all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

A rare critique of India's Argent

from the governor of the country's

central bank. I am live at the

Singapore airshow, the world is

facing a shortage of airline pilots

at higher pay and women pilots may

be a solution.

It is a Thursday, everyone. Good

morning, Asia. Hello, world. Glad

you could join us for this edition

of Asia Business Report. I am Rico

Hizon. Usually stays quiet and this

commentary to others but the

governor of the reserve bank of

India has spoken out about the

budget and the country's economic

direction. For more on this, let's

cross over to a Asia Business

Report, who attended the

government's press conference. Thank

you so much for joining us, what did

the governor said?

Well, the

Governor opened up about various

issues related to the economy and

specifically the budget announcement

which took place, which the

government decided to introduce

long-term capital gains tax on

stocks. Up until now in India, there

was no long-term capital gains tax

on stocks. If an investor bought the

stock or mutual fund and sold within

a year, there would be 15% tax on

it. But if an investor held the

stock for more than a year, they did

not have to pay any taxes, but now

the government has decided that they

will charge 10% tax even if the

stockholder holds a particular stock

for more than a year. This has had

an inverse reaction here in India,

especially the stock market, they

have been falling since this

announcement came in. In regards to

that, the governor said that there

are only so many forms of taxes on

capital and this is the fifth form

of tax that has been introduced.

This will have an impact on

investments and savings, he did

raise concerns. This is a governor

who is usually very silent, does not

comment too much on the Indian

government and its policies, clearly

this is the first time that he

really opened up and said that the

government should we look at this

particular policies.

It will surely

dampen investment sentiment in

India's key capital markets. Thank

you so much for joining us. Staying

with India, one of the country's

oldest and largest car makers is

considering making an electric

version of its budget car. We caught

up with Tata motors at the auto Expo

in Delhi.

Urban mobility requires a

compact vehicle, if this is going to

be a modified car or something new,

let's wait and see what kind of

conclusions we draw but the lower

segment is one of the segments where

we believe in electrification

because the urban city was the

context of the urban traffic

environment and with the highest

level solutions, is the one where

such kind of solutions is the most

urgently needed.

For a start, Tata

is betting big on electric vehicles

with six battery-powered cars and a

fully electric bus ready to be

rolled on the Indian roads. But do

you believe there is infrastructure

for this electric vehicle rollout?

Defer significance, that electric is

going to take place on the fleet

business, it may be a vast fleet or

taxi fleet, for example. -- the

first significance. Because in the

moment, it you have a dedicated

infrastructure where you provide

charging stations, the maintenance,

you have the spare parts, and the

car can be done overnight and next

morning, it goes back on duty.

North

Korea is expected any moment now to

kick off a military parade

showcasing its defence muscle. This

comes ahead of the Winter Olympic

Games in the south. Pyongyang is

believed to spend around $10 million

a year -- $10 billion a year, about

20% of its gross domestic product,

on its military. Can it afforded

given the sanctions it faces?

At

this point, it is really hard to

assess the sanctions. The sanctions

at this point in time are relatively

comprehensive, on paper 90% of North

Korea's exports are under sanction

but these sanctions are relatively

of recent vintage. The kinds of

distress signals that you would

expect to see, for in the black

market exchange rate of North Korean

rice wine, cut back on the kind of

gifts that the regime gives to the

elites in Beijing supporters, we

have not seen those kinds of signs

of distress, and so the sanctions

appear tough on paper, we don't

really see the implications on the

ground level.

What about the latest

sanctions? Could this put some

stress on the North Korean economy,

particularly visas for North Koreans

working overseas, those are the

targets of the sanctions, which

shows that remittances are the

second biggest forward exchange

earners for Pyongyang. Could this

impact the economy going forward?

Shawl, the North Koreans probably

make somewhere in the hundreds of

millions of dollars from the

organised export of labour. It is

important although it is not

absolutely critical to the economy,

but the problem with the sanctions

is that although they are tough on

paper, the way they have been

designed almost frustrates

limitations. For example, on some

categories of exports, they have

been put initially under ceilings or

with respect to the export of

labour, it is that existing

contracts were able to be continued,

new contracts were not entered into.

So, in your view, what will really

hurt Kim Jong-un and the economy?

If

China actually enforces sanctions.

Aviation in Asia is in the middle of

a boom as the growing middle class

takes to the skies. In fact, the

industry is struggling to keep up

with demand. Let's cross over now to

the Singapore airshow. How I airline

is dealing with pilot shortages?

Well, they have in it really

desperate and in fact, they have

actually raise the retirement age

for pilots from 55 to 60 and then to

65, but now that can't be extended

any further for safety reasons, so

they are looking into hiring more

people, offering more money. It is

some anecdotes of retired pilots

being offered a lot of money to come

back from retirement and fly again.

But even though at the Singapore

airshow, we have not really seen

that many orders, that shortage is

real. It is not just pilots,

engineers and technicians as well.

Lastly, I went to a training

facility here in Singapore to find

out what they are doing to produce

more pilots. Training to be a

pilots, it takes up to two years to

learn how to deal with emergencies

inside and around an aircraft. For

28-year-old dean, it was his

childhood dream.

When I was young, I

took a flights to New Zealand and

around the mountains, and just being

away from everything, it was just

fantastic.

But it is competitive to

get in. Here in Singapore, 600 apply

for 60 spots annually and it is not

cheap, up to 140,000 US dollars to

complete the course. Many of the

cadets, including this 24-year-old,

paid for the training themselves.

The price is a bit on the high side

but I think that it is worth it for

the investment because in the long

run, this is my passion. I think it

is worth it.

And he will likely get

his money's worked because there is

an acute shortage of pilots. Air

plane maker Boeing is forecasting

that global air airlines will need

to hire 637,000 new pilots over the

next 30 years. Some 40% of that

demand comes from Asia.

To address

the Chinese market that has

effectively tripled their pilot

numbers, and this trend is going to

continue for the next 20 years, we

have effectively quadrupled our

capacity in terms of pilot training

in Australia.

But take a look at

this classroom. Where are the women?

Well, this school has seen three to

five female cadets each year but

globally, only about 3% of all the

pilots are women.

It is still very

much male dominated, the training is

also not conducive for females. I

think we have to start very early

on, motivating, encouraging and

making it possible for women to have

family life and become a pilot as

well.

This pilot shortage has even

cause some airlines to cancel

flights and more Asian carriers are

now making efforts to hire women,

not just as ground staff will flight

attendants but as their pilots. So

we may soon start hearing more

female voices from the

And before we go, here is a quick

look at the markets. So far so good.

That is despite Wall Street's

volatility overnight. Thank you so

much for investing your time with

us. I am Rico Hizon, Sport Today is

coming up next.