16/02/2018 Asia Business Report

offences of sexually

assaulting boys.

Now on BBC News, all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

It's all smiles from North Korea and

the Winter Olympics but will that be

enough to lift sanctions on the

country. And we had to Hyderabad to

find out why this city's drawing so

much talent. Gong Xi Fa Cai, have

been Lunar New Year to all our

viewers, welcome to Asia Business

Report. -- happy. The world has

heard from North Korea more from the

last few days than in decades, their

figure skating team, cheerleaders

and North Korean leader Kim

Jong-un's sister have all won the

hearts in the Winter Olympic Games

in Pyeongchang but good this soft

diplomacy translate into loosening

sanctions against the State? Earlier

I asked Justin Hastings, an expert

on the North Korean economy, how the

international community had reacted

to the latest moves from the

country.

UN sanctions and US sanctions aren't

going anywhere so what the North

Koreans can hope to gain is

ultimately weaken South Korea's will

to enforce sanctions and maybe get

more aid or money out of South

Korea. At some point North Korea

will have to make some concessions

even for aid to be politically

palpable in South Korea itself.

Chinese sanctions play a huge role

in this as well and President Xi was

absent from Pyeongchang so far, how

is that going to affect the North

Korean economy?

China has been more

vigorously enforcing sanctions over

the past year, which has hurt the

North Korean economy somewhat. The

temperature on the Korean peninsula

decreases, with the Olympics you can

see China more willing to allow more

investment into North Korea than it

has. It pulled back, now it may be

more willing.

It's always tricky to

predict but according to some

figures the North Korean economy was

estimated to have grown by 3.9% in

2016, what do you think was the

growth in 2017 and going forward?

Any time you have a number in North

Korea it will be problematic to

speculate but I would say it would

be lower. Chinese sanctions have had

greater impact and to the extent

North Korea is engaging in trade,

it's having a slightly more

difficult time.

Seoul is perfect,

paying for the North Korean

delegation is in Pyeongchang, do you

think the Games will help the North

Korean economy by attracting more

tourists?

That is up to the

guarantees North Korea makes to

China and South Korea. Not directly.

Ultimately you could see more

willingness to give aid or have

investment from China and South

Korea. Indirectly we might see an

affect.

Iran's president is making his first

visit to India since he took office

in 2013. Trade between the two

countries is worth almost $13

billion, but President Hassan

Rouhani is hoping to drum up even

more new business with India after

crippling economic sanctions against

his company were eased following its

2015 nuclear pact. For more business

reporter Divina Gupta joins us live

from Delhi. We know what Iran wants

but what does India want out of

these talks?

Carrico

but what does India want out of

these talks?

Carrico, there will be

to clear points when India is

negotiating bilateral trade deals

with the Iranian president --

Mariko. One is energy and the other

is connectivity. India needs to

import huge amounts of its crude oil

consumption, Iran is a key player in

the region and out of the trade

India does with Iran, it is about

$10 billion of import of crude oil

that it is doing with Iran, so it

will be looking at furthering the

energy packed with Iran, and the

other is connectivity because India

is looking at Iran as a corridor to

access central agent markets. The

newly built Chabal port in eastern

Iran, will be a point where India is

looking at investment, also a place

where India is looking to access

Afghanistan to have trade relations

with Afghanistan bypassing its

partner here.

How will India balance

its economic interests in the region

cause it has a lot of diplomatic

tensions?

That's very interesting

because as we know, Iran is

dominated with one sect of Muslims,

Shias, and the Indian Prime Minister

was in the Gulf region last week, in

the UAE, he sent a signal to Saudi

Arabia that India wants to do trade

with the entire region and why

should Iran be an exception?

Thank

you for the update. Staying with

India and for years Bangalore has

enjoys a reputation as the darling

of India's tech industry but that

perception is changing because of

problems like congestion. The new

rising star is Hyderabad. In a tale

of two Indian Tech City is, we find

out how Hyderabad stacks up as one

of Asia's Silicon Valley is. --

Indian Tech City is. -- Silicon

Valleys. -- Indian tech cities.

Prices have risen, transportation is

becoming a real issue in Bangalore,

which for a start-up removes some of

the agile benefits of being a small

company.

The ecosystem is vibrant and very

dynamic. There's a lot of government

support. The ease of doing business

is a fact. Bureaucracy has been

reduced and there is a lot of

support for very early stage

start-ups.

We've grown it with a plan in place,

we've grown it in a way that makes

any everything integrated so we are

building milestones and we are

hitting a job those milestones. The

fact we have government support,

it's being done in a good man and

people here are willing to help each

other out and that's the

differentiating thing between us and

Bangalore.

In other business news making

headlines, shares in Airbus are

jumping by more than 10% after it

reported strong earnings for 2017,

which beat analyst expectations. The

firm was hit by a charge of $1.6

billion because of the delay in its

A400 military plane programme but

investors responded positively

towards its shift to commercial

models. It says it expects to

deliver 800 commercial aircraft in

2018 if engine manufacturers stick

to their commitments. McDonald's is

removing cheeseburgers from happy

meals as customers look for

healthier options. They say by 2022

they will offer a more balanced

meals on their children's menu

across 120 markets. That means meals

that are 600 calories or less, but

they still include the choice of a

hamburger or a box of chicken

McNuggets. The classic cheeseburger

will only be available at a

customer's request. US regulators

have rejected the sale of the

Chicago stock exchange to a group

led by Chinese based investors over

concerns with its ownership

structure. For more on the story we

are joined by our business reporter

Monica Miller. It was initially

approved and then put on hold, did

this come as a surprise?

I think it

did to some people. Essentially in

the 76 page document they said it

simply didn't comply with US rules

and regulations. Exchanges but the

real concern was whether the SEC

would have enough say and control if

the deal had gone through. This went

on for two years, it had been

approved but then it was put on hold

last August for further review. It

was led by Chongqing casing exercise

group, real estate, finance,

infrastructure, a big conglomerate

that had lot of blowback from

Washington because they were

concerned about security and they

didn't want the Chinese government

involved. Now, this is a Chinese

company and the bourse is only

small, only half a percent of what

US trades come through, but the deal

was going to be a global market for

equities, particularly in the

Chinese market.

I guess it joins the

long list of Chinese companies

facing these challenges in America.

Thank you for that, Monica.

A quick look at markets, lots of

Asian markets are closed today.

Japan and Australia are