01/05/2017 World Business Report

All right, now it is time for World Business Report with Sally.

The French presidential election goes into overdrive.

We compare the remaining two candidates' economic programmes.

And we hear from the "green boss" who's been quietly donating millions

to environmental causes but says he's now spending the money to take

Hello and a very warm welcome. This is World Business Report. I am Sally

Bundock. Also in the programme South Korea's

latest trade numbers rocket. We'll go live to the

region for the latest. First of all, though, it is the last

week of campaigning for the French presidential election.

Voters are being wooed by the frontrunner and centrist

Emannuel Macron and by the far-right's Marine Le Pen.

The economy and prosperity have been among the key issues

in what is the world's sixth biggest economy.

So what are the two visions that they're trying to sell?

One of France's biggest problems is its unemployment

rate remaining stubbornly high at 10%.

So as far as Emmanuel Macron's is concerned, he plans to invest in

training and partnerships, especially for the young. --

apprenticeships. flexiblitiy on the

35-hour working week. To bring down the jobless rate,

Marine Le Pen wants a tax on foreign workers so that

French citizens get priority for new jobs but she says

she won't tough the 35-hour working When it comes to tackling

the high levels of public spending Mr Macron says

he'll save $65 billion with various measures including not

replacing 120,000 retiring government employees and big savings

on unemployment insurance. Ms Le Pen wants to cut

public spending by leaving the euro, which she says would give

France more flexibility She says this will give France the

freedom to boost its own economy. She also promises tax cuts for

companies who are innovative. Joining us now is Delia Dumitrescu,

Lecturer in Cultural Studies Good morning and welcome to World

Business Report. Thank you for joining us. Give us your take on the

economic policies of the two candidates, starting with Emmanuel

Macron. What is his big selling point? His big selling point is

basically trying to transform the French economy to make it a bit more

modern and to make it a bit more flexible. And this is because there

is a lot of unemployment, as you said. And a lot of people have

short-term jobs. And it is difficult for them to get those. And for

employers also to offer them. So here's trade to make it more

flexible. That is his selling point. How do you think that he will

deliver that? Given that he was and economy Minister who failed to bring

down unemployment before. They only have so much power. It is a

globalised world. I think he would just try to push some reforms if

elected my view is that the reforms, they will unlikely achieve

everything he wants to achieve. -- economy minister for Francois

Hollande. It is probably to be more moderate and piecemeal than he is

saying. Let's talk about Marine Le Pen. What is she offering the

economy? Her programme is very difficult to... Basically, a lot of

economists and business people have said it makes little sense, to be

honest. Because she has a very populist set of policies. More

recently, she has been talking about getting out of the euro, but at the

same time, talking about a common currency that would work at the same

time as the national currency. So there is a lot of uncertainty and

recently it has been said that her programme is like the Communist

Party's programme in the 1960s. So it is very... Yes. It is difficult

to know what she would be doing. But in a sense, the business community

is very worried about that. We appreciate your time so early on a

bank holiday. Thank you for getting a price.

Of course, throughout the week, we will keep you across the final push

for votes in France on the part of the two candidates. But let's look

at the other stories. It would seem we are snapping up

goods made in South Korea. It saw its exports jump in April -

the fastest surge in more than five Sharanjit Leyl, tell us more. As you

said, there was a whopping 15% jump in exports for April. Can you

believe it? 15%. That is the fastest surge they have had in more than

five years. That is mainly due to high-tech memory chips. These are

used in many mobile phones around the world, including the iPhone, and

this in spite of the political upheaval in the country, with the

removal of its president, Parkin -- Parker and hay. -- Park Geun-hye.

This seems not to have affected South Korean ability to churn out

these products and to cut away. We know there are challenges to this

growth. One challenge in the future is South Korea facing a

renegotiation of a free-trade deal with the United States. We heard

from President Donald Trump just last week saying that he is seeking

to change the deal or it entirely. He claims it entirely favours the

South Koreans. Interesting. Thank you for joining us, Sharanjit Leyl,

in Singapore. Yvon Chouinard is the founder

of the billion-dollar outdoors He started out as a rock climber,

making first ascents of some In his own words, he "never wanted

to be a businessman" and even encourages his

staff to surf and climb In a rare TV interview he told us

about the decline of the outdoors sports business and why he's

picking a fight with US My name is Yvon Chouinard. I am the

founder of Patagonia. The outdoor industry is not healthy at the

moment. It seems that young people are just sitting at home, playing

with their electronic devices and watching television. There are less

people in the outdoors and when they are climbing, they are doing

climbing in a soft way. You know, indoor climbing. So the outdoor

industry is not very healthy. But we are doing fantastically at

Patagonia. We are growing, I don't know, between 10% and 20% every

year. I think that is because a lot of the millennium generation really

care about the future. They know we are destroying the planet and they

are voting with their dollars. So everything that we do as a company

to be more responsible and to fight Donald Trump and do all these things

turns out to be good for the business. Over the years, I have

given over $80 million away, to environ mental causes. In the last

couple of years, we have given $750,000 to lobby Barack Obama to

create protected areas. -- environmental causes. With a dash of

a pen, Donald Trump can negate that. Or he think again. But because of

this new where could you give bigger grants, and they could you go to

lawsuits. The way to deal with Donald Trump is to have a million

bees around his head, so he cannot concentrate. -- because of this new

administration, we will give ideograms. We want to stop what he

is doing, which is to roll back all the environmental gains that we have

tried to make over the years. This our home. And it is worth saving.

He sounds determined. Yvon Chouinard, they are, the founder of

Patagonia. -- Madafferi. US congressional negotiators have

hammered out a bipartisan agreement on a spending package to keep

the federal government funded through the end of the current

fiscal year on September 30. That's reported by

the Washington Post. The newspaper says that Congress

expect to vote early this week on the agreement

that is expected to include increases for defense spending

and border security. That has helped move markets in Asia

today. That has boosted the main markets in

Japan and in Australia, which are open today many markets being

closed. Including Hong Kong and Singapore, et cetera. And here in

London. It is the Labour Day break, he may they break for many. -- the

May Day. The testing of primary school

children, used to make important decisions about students,

is damaging and should be reformed according to an influential

group of MPs. The cross-party Education Select

Committee says the way SATs results are used to judge schools,

causes a negative impact