30/04/2013 World Business Report

latest headlines from BBC World News. Now for the latest financial

Taking responsibility - Canadian retailer Loblaw joins Primark in

saying it will compensate victims of the Bangladesh factory collapse.

BP gets set to announce a sharp fall in profits as it sells assets

to pay for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Welcome to World Business

Report. I'm Sally Bundock - also in the programme its a done deal in

the lucrative social networking business in China. Alibaba buys a

stake in Weibo. We will discuss that. A Canadian company Loblaw has

joined clothing retailer, Primark, in saying it will compensate the

victims of the collapsed Bangladesh factory where hundreds of people

died. Loblaw which had some products for its Joe Fresh clothing

line made in one of the garment factories in the building said in a

The announcement by Loblow follows a similar move by UK retailer

Primark who pledged to provide long-term aid for children who lost

parents, financial aid for the injured and payments to families of

the victims. There is some real concern that this latest disaster

will force western retailers to reconsider doing business in

Bangladesh which relies on garments for 80% of its exports. Judy

Gearhart is Executive director of International Labor Rights Forum in

Washington and joins us via webcam. Thank you for joining us. Companies

are taking responsibility which is good news in terms of where the

individuals and victims of this case. Give us a sense of where the

right start of these individuals who have been affected. It is

horrible. We have had a tour here with one of the victims from the

other factory fire from November. Over 100 workers died. The victim

who came with us to see us in the USA, a young woman, jumping from a

window so that her parents could find her body. Some people she

jabbed with did not survive. She broke her leg and her arm and

received compensation of $1,200. She said that 75% of that went to

pay for the medical bills and the rest covered fight marks of

expenses and she is now without anything to live on other than her

family support and she cannot work because of her injuries. She is not

mentally prepared to go back into the factory. That is just one

example. We are really excited to hear this announcement from Primark

because that means that there is a possibility of building more

appropriate compensation. A package for the families. That's for the

deceased and for the injured. I wish some of the US companies from

the previous buyer and other big labels Brands could come forward

like Primark ed Loblaw. The next step is to get them to participate

in a programme to make changes on the ground in Bangladesh. That is

going forward, where things need to change. The safety of the factories

needs to be a priority. International companies to make

sure that is the case before they do business in Bangladesh. The

issue now is for the economy of Bangladesh which has relied upon

garment trade. We are very clear. We're not telling the brains to

leave Bangladesh by any means but we are looking at this where the

companies have profited from investing and buying products from

Bangladesh and the need to help clean up this mess created by the

industry which has grown up too quickly and has worked with the

Government which cannot Police the company's with complexes and

building permits. Some more than eight storeys high. Some of these

developments and the low wages and low costs for infrastructure needs

to change. We are pushing for the brands to sign Fire and building

safety agreements which will be a contract to work with suppliers to

make these changes. They need to keep the workers say including much

more transparency. That will involve local trade unions and am

international trade unions. Right now we only have programmes that

sideline the workers with no solution. Thank you for your time.

I'd like to make an apology. If you see many images appearing on the

screen we are having technical problems. Please bear with us as we

try to continue with his live broadcast. As you can see, you are

seeing many different people appearing. Thanks for your patience.

Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce group, has bought an 18% stake in

Weibo, China's largest Twitter-like service, as it looks to tap into

the fast-growing social media sector. Rico Hizon is at our Asia

business hub in Singapore with the details. This is worth about $600

million. It's a very big stake. It's like Twitter in China and it's

expected they will drive traffic away which is half a billion uses

in China on its website. It's very popular. It will also help generate

more advertising revenue. According to these two companies the

partnership will bring in more than $380 million worth of advertising

and Commerce over the next three years. It's a very popular chairman

and he is optimistic about the deal saying that this strategic alliance

will help create a stronger social media in China unleashing value in

e-commerce activities. Ali Baba will have the right to increase

ownership in the company took over 30%. It's a win win situation for

both companies. Thank you for telling us in. The ongoing fallout

from the Gulf of Mexico disaster is expected to overshadow BP's first-

quarter results. In a few hours the oil giant is expected to say

profits were down some 30% to $3.27 billion in the first three months

of this year. The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig three years

ago this month where 11 people died could end up costing the company up

to $90 billion. BP has sold more than 38 billion dollars worth of

assets to raise funds for the compensation payout. The company is

still embroiled in a court case in New Orleans which will determine

the share of blame between BP and its partners. With me is Nick

McGregor, an oil analyst at Redmayne Bentley. Let's speak about

the P. All the attention is on the Gulf of Mexico disaster. The fall-

out from that, will we get much information today in terms of the

cost? We will get very little but we would get a statement with the

result highlighting the litigation. They will say they cannot quantify

this about the cost. The provisions they have left after the $40

billion set aside will not cover this. In terms of the fall in

earnings, it's a very big about in the quarter expecting this to

continue because of course liabilities still there? The fall

in earnings is due to the fact that they face higher costs with lower

oil prices and higher production costs. The idea was that they would

slim down and make themselves more profitable. Many people look at the

results not the deep water Horizon issues but strategy going forward

and how they will be able to grow. What is the future and some of its

peers as they become more difficult to get the oil out of the ground.

What will they say about that? They need to stay interested with the

shareholders. They will highlight two big areas, the first is the

work in Africa where they will invest serious money in and bowler

and the second is in Russia where they have 20% of the vast state

there. That will open the doors for oil companies within Russia.

terms as the pension fund, it's a very big player in the UK. Many may

not be aware that they invest in the company. It's very hard not to

invest in the company in the UK. It's a huge amount of people. Unit