26/02/2018 Asia Business Report

Now on BBC News, all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

The magic 7%. Will India's latest

growth figures deliver? We will look

at factors affecting India's

economic potential. Trade deals you

can sink your teeth into. I know

about the possible impact of the

changes to the American free trade

agreement. -- North American Free

Trade Agreement. Good morning, a

ship. Hello, world. It's a Monday,

the start of a new trading week.

Glad you could join us for another

exciting edition of Asia Business

Report. I'm Rico Hizon. We take a

look at the markets and it's going

to be an busy week when it comes to

economic development in Asia. Here

is what we are tracking. We start

off with India releasing its latest

growth numbers for the three months

until December. Also on Monday, the

latest indicator on China's

manufacturing activity. And Jerome

Powell makes his first major

appearance as Fed chief in front of

Congress.

The market only looks at

that possibility although the Ranger

now it's about a 6.5 - 7% GDP

numbers. Generally, it's improving

from October to December period.

Rate remains to be seen the.

Do you

think the Chinese forecast is for it

to slow down? Is it likely to

reflect to manufacturing activity

this month?

This could really be the

case. There are some Chinese

distortions but I think the numbers

the macro expansion territory, the

market should not be too. The

government is focusing on more

sustainable growth moving forward,

so that current number should not

matter too much. For manufacturing.

All eyes will definitely be on new

Fed chief Jerome Powell this week.

Will he basically say what was

already said in the minutes of the

previous month? Higher inflation and

potentially three or four rate hikes

in 2018?

I think he is one who will

champion continuity, in this case we

focused on inflation. In upbeat

sentiment towards growth. I don't

think there's going to be too much

of a surprise to the market. The

respect of the volatility we are

seeing... It will be something to

look at.

India's reportedly looking

for government backing for a project

in Wales. Let's cross over to Delhi.

Do you think this will materialise?

Thank you. We are looking at about

4000 jobs in at the moment. Even as

Tata steel is going ahead with the

merger. Looking at Tata steel

seeking £60 million from the UK

Government, that's the UK tax payers

money. This, they feel, is essential

to keep operations up to speed. And

isn't it addition -- is in addition

to a £30 million that was also

invested by Tata steel last year.

Port Talbot has been at the centre

of negotiation with the UK unions

for Tata steel and this, when it

announced his plans for its merger,

they were worried about the risk of

job losses. That time, it was agreed

that about $1 billion would be

invested, given the market

conditions. And now it seems that

Tata steel wants to raise this money

from the UK Government according to

reports. Official statement is yet

to be made.

Thank you so much. Our

business reporter. In

telecommunications, if you want to

see the future shape of mobile

phones, Barcelona is the place to be

this week. The industry's biggest

annual shindig, the mobile Congress

gets underway today. And some of the

newest models have already been

unraveled. Take a look at the

throngs of people going through the

crowd to see the latest mobile

phones. Art technology correspondent

reports that it's getting ever

harder to make new phones stand out

of the crowd. The fastest moving

industry on earth is in Barcelona

this week. But lately, the

mobilephone business has hit a speed

bump. Smartphone sales dipped at the

end of last year and the phone

companies know they need to get

people new reasons to upgrade.

I

want access to the Internet wherever

I am, I want instant access to

everything.

If my phone slows down

to the point where it's not

processing the way I need it to,

that's where I go get anyone.

I feel

like it would have to replicate the

iPhone a lot because that's the

standard. It would have to almost

exceed expectations of the iPhone.

Don't tell that to Samsung which

believes its galaxy smartphone set

the standard. The industry's jackpot

the spectacular -- spud on a

spectacular show to release the

latest version, which seems very

similar to last your's model.

Getting a high-end smartphone to

stand up from the crowd is getting

ever harder but Samsung believes

slow motion could be the answer. The

camera on the phone can make

anything happen about 30 times

slower. Another gimmick, you can

create an animated emoji that looks

just like you. It is this me,

really? Well, sort of. Samsung has

decided it is the camera and

everything it can do that is now

keep.

We know annually this over a

Trojan photos shared globally. Today

on a daily basis, people share 5

billion um oh geez --

... It's not just for taking photos

any more.

Nokia continues. This

time, another retro phone, the

so-called banana phone. It seems

every company is struggling to look

different.

Albeit devices, pretty

much black rectangles. Consumers

ultimately are going to gravitate

towards big brands, the best deals

and I think you really going to

nothing about replacing the funds as

quickly as they used to.

Mobile

phones are not sophisticated

supercomputers offer so much more

than just calls and text. Impressing

jaded consumers gets ever harder.

Negotiators from the United States,

Canada and Mexico will be spending

this week reworking the North

American Free Trade Agreement. US

President Donald Trump has

threatened to walk away from the

Nafta altogether if it is not

changed in America's favour. As Joe

Miller found out in his locker

diner, winding back Nafta could be

very messy indeed. -- in his local

diner. Donald Trump talks a lot

about trade deals. In case you

missed it, he's not really a fan.

Every trade deal we have is

horrible.

He claims they take away

from American jobs and really hurt

American producers and farmers. But

one thing we know the president is

definitely a big fan of is the

all-American burger. But the thing

is, this burger is really only made

possible thanks to Nafta or the

North American Free Trade Agreement.

And that's the very agreement that

the Trump administration is

currently in the process of

renegotiating. Just to give you an

example of how complex that is, take

the beef from this burger. American

farmers grow corn. They send that

corn into Mexico, to Canada.

Ranchers there use that to feed the

cattle him about 2 million cows to

be processed. The bun is almost

certainly made with Canadian wheat.

You've got your tomatoes, your

lettuce, they are almost certainly

from Mexico. And if you like

mushrooms on your burger, which I

quite frankly think is a crime

commitment again depending on the

variety could come from any of the

three countries. And no burger is

complete without french fries, which

believe it or not, probably come

from Canada because Canada is

actually one of the world's largest

exporters of frozen french fries.

Renegotiating Nafta does not mean

this burger ceases to exist but what

he might do is take a complex dish

and make it even mark-up located.

For now, I'm quite hungry. -- make

it even more complicated. Me too.

I'm really getting hungry. Ready for

my breakfast. Let's have a quick

look right now at the markets.

Currently all Asian entities are in

positive territory. This is after US

equities rose on Friday. Thank you

so much for investing time with us.