11/06/2014 World Business Report

killed a classmate in Oregan. Those the are the headlines from BBC

World News. For the latest financial news, here

is Sally. Gridlock in Europe ` thousands of ``

taxis prepare to bring London, Paris, Madrid and Milan for a `` to

a standstill as they lash out against a car hire app.

Disappointing ` the World Bank's forecast for the global economy.

Hello. A warm welcome. You're with World Business Report. Also in the

program ` bribery and corruption are the biggest concerns for 40% of the

world's top executives. We will find out why.

First of all ` Europe in gridlock. That's what taxi drivers from Milan

to Madrid, and Paris to London, are hoping to cause in some of the

biggest cities on the Continent today. They are taking action

because of a bitter row over the introduction of a phone app called

Uber. It allows customers to book a ride in a private car via the

mobile, undercutting cabbies. This united strooic in Europe highlights

the charity `` challenges for Uber's expansion after a recent funding

round valued the company at $17 billion. What is the future for taxi

drivers, whether they are behind the wheel or an Uber car or traditional

taxi? From Boston to Paris, taxi drivers

have blocked the streets in noisy demonstrations against Uber, cop

plaining drivers who use the system use Uber putting them out of

business. With Uber, you book a car online.

The computer system allocates the nearest driver, who usually arrives

within minutes. Fares are generally lower.

Ben John is one of 3,000 drivers in London who operate using Uber. You

just touch a button and a cab arrives. The fact it's cashless,

everybody feels a lot safer. So everything is just debited from your

credit card at the end, which means you can hop on and off quickly.

Their pricing could be more competitive and they can pay the

drivers a lot more as well. This Uber app calculates the distance and

the fare. Taxi drivers argue they're effectively meters which should be

fitted only in licensed taxis. They've taken their case to the UK's

High Court. We have ample legislation that prohibits Uber from

working in the way they are. All we're saying is Uber needs to comply

with the same rules as everyone else. The taxi industry complies,

existing private hire vehicles comply with the rules ` what makes

Uber so different, that they can pitch up and drive a horse and cart

through the rules in London? In Brus sells the Regional Transport

Minister has banned Uber from the streets. This has prompted one

European Commissioner to complain about what she calls the ain't

competitive practice right at the heart of Europe and this suggests

that if other cities, like London, were to go ahead and ban Uber from

operating as well, that the commission could take steps to force

the taxi trade to open up to competition.

Disappointing ` the overriding message from the World Bank in its

latest global economic prospects report. The bank has revised

downwards its growth forecast for the world to 2. 8% and says

developing economies such as China, India and Brazil are of concern with

the bank cutting the average growth forecast for developing countries by

half to 4 poipt 8%. `` 4.8%. It warns there needs to be further

economic reforms for growth. It says that growth will rise, breaking

through the 5% mark in these countries by 2015. With China being

the biggest emerging market economy, how much of a role has it played in

this downgrade? Let's go to our Asia Business hub in Singapore. It was a

downbeat report from the World Bank. What more does this mean for China

and other economies? They're still predicting a growth rate of 7. 6%

for China in 2014. That is still way off from the heady days of the

mainland's expansion in the past decade of 9`10%. This will slow down

to 7 poipt 4% by 2016. As for why? It seems the challenges of

rebalancing the economy from export`driven to consumer`driven is

the biggest issue the country now faces. The author of the World Bank

Report explains. Seeing the tensions involved currently. As you try

moving `` move buying power away from investment and towards

individuals, you will see pressure on profits. As profit pressures

rise, it will be more difficult servicing the debt that's already

been generated. That's really what we're observing. Growth slows, the

authorities are forced to respond, try to stimulate the economy, and we

get this seasaw protest. And the World Bank is concerned about the

number of factors that could impact the developing world. You have the

financial turmoil prompted by an end to the heavy doses of financial

stimulus used by central banks over the past five years, and you have

the possibility of a hard landing in China and the vulnerbility of some

emerging market economies. Now some other stories. Google has acquired

Sky Box Imaging for $500 million. Founded in 2009, Sky Box's satellite

also allow Google to improve the accuracy of mapping. It also is part

of Google's longer term plan to bring the Internet to every corner

of the planet. This expansion into satellites comes two months after

Google brought drone maker Titan Aerospace for an undisclosed sum.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has granted its first

commercial drone licence over US land to British oil giant BP. The

unmanned aerial vehicle firm Aeroviroment. It will control

pipelines in Alaska and the largest oil field in America. The first

drone flight took place on Sunday, the firm said.

Now, bribery and corruption are still some of the top concerns for

senior executives around the world, according to the latest EY survey

into global corruption. It questioned 2, 700 executives from 59

countries. Nearly ho % consider bribery and corruption widespread in

their country and say the governments there need to take

emerging risks seriously enough or at least they're not taking them

seriously enough. Let's talk to the E Wide Global

Forensics leader. Thank you for coming in. It's interesting that

these issues remain high up in the minds of execs when you think of,

say, cyber crime. Yes, this is our 14th survey and I think one of the

questions you phrased earlier on ` isn't there a bit of fatigue? That

is, I think, why we put the topic on the survey, but counter intuitively

you're seeing that it's still a huge issue on the corporate agenda. One

of the biggest findings for us was in the cyber agenda ` post Snowden,

cyber is hot. Everyone is talking about cyber, but the lack of

awareness by corporates on the type of breaches that have been going on.

For us what Snowden has done is simply pointed out that breaches are

happening all over the world for economic gain. Whether it's a

government, an activist, an organised crime, there's a lot of it

and this issue isn't going away. When you think about whistleblowers

and you think about the regulatory environment, the fines that have

been handed out to companies that have been found guilty of this kind

of activity, you would have thought there's more of a der ter rent,

there's further deterrents out there to hamper this. Is that not the

case? No, I mean, unfortunately as you probably know there's the

monitor "ation of whistleblowers where they're getting paid by the

government. In the United States? Rjts in the United States. In the UK

I would say that our statistics show ` not on the report, but probably

10% of our work now is whistleblower which there is an allegation by a

credible whistleblower and you go in and you are validating or refuting

this. So far as you're report is concerned the traditional countries

feature highly ` Africa, the Middle East, Asia, where the problem is

more prevalent. What needs to be done to counter it? In the rapid

growth markets, awareness, I think is number one, training and

enforcement. I think everyone focuses on US`style enforcement, but

I think, as I travel our global footprint and I open a local

newspaper, you are seeing much more aggressive enforcement by either

federal estate bodies in countries where in the past there wasn't that

type of enforcement. Thank you. We appreciate your time.

And that is all from World Business Report. Stay with us. We will be

reviewing the financial press in a few minutes. See you then.

Many thanks to Sally for that. Now, a US study suggests that there may

be a link between eating lots of red meat and breast cancer. The risks

are judged to be small, though, compared