Skip to main content

tv   Asia Business Report  BBC News  May 14, 2018 1:30am-1:46am BST

1:30 am
including their children, carried out suicide attacks on three churches in the city of surabaya. at least 13 people were killed in the attacks on sunday. local media reports say the family had recently spent time in syria. the couple's four children were aged between nine and 18. israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has called on other countries to follow the united states and move their embassies to jerusalem. he was speaking ahead of monday's opening of the new american embassy in the city. and this story is trending on bbc.com. the rise and rise of liverpool and egypt striker mo salah. he made premier league history today by becoming the first ever player to score 32 league goals in a season. that's all from me for now. stay with bbc news. and the top story here in the uk: two british tourists released by their kidnappers in the democratic republic of congo say they are very relieved. they were abducted on friday in virunga national park, famous for its gorillas.
1:31 am
now on bbc news all the latest business news live from singapore. china's struggling telecom giant zte gets help from an unlikely person, president trump. we will explain. and meet marvel‘s first—ever chinese superheroes in a new graphic novel out this week. welcome to asia business report. us president donald trump says he wa nts to us president donald trump says he wants to help save one of china's biggest telecom firms. in a tweet, he ordered the us comms department to give the company zte away two,
1:32 am
quote, get back in business, after the department banned american businesses from working with them. this is a major u—turn from a president who's spent a lot of his time campaigning and bashing china for stealing american jobs. that's right. a year and a half ago, when he was on his election campaign, his number one issue was usjobs, how china campaign, his number one issue was us jobs, how china was taking campaign, his number one issue was usjobs, how china was taking us jobs. he talks about that a long time. in fact all this conversation about the steel and aluminium industry is about protecting the jobs of us workers, a huge u—turn, because china's second largest telecoms company, zte, the us has a ban on that company, and it's causing financial ruin for them. they are at the point of collapse because of this export ban. do we know what led to this ban in the first place? it goes back a couple of years. a couple of years ago, zte was trading
1:33 am
with iran and north korea, both countries the us had sanctions against, and because they had components in them that were made in the us, that's why it was particularly problematic. last april, last month, rather, the us implemented this export ban, so no american companies can export to zte. this is a big problem for them because one third of their products have components made in the us. chips, semiconductors or even google‘s android software. that's used in the product, so it was predicted to lead to a loss of growth, basically to halve its growth. it seems to have done worse than that, so they had to stop trading on the hong kong stock exchange, and they went to cease operations a couple of days ago as well, so it's basically put them on life—support. do you think this is something of a conciliatory measure ahead of these crucial talks this week between washington and china? yes, so analysts are saying this is perhaps about bringing beijing to
1:34 am
the table, so we saw them meet in china, and they are meeting in washington next week, so this is being seen as a conciliatory move by donald trump. he said, don't worry, this seems to be their first sort of move towards peace. famous words! thank you so much for that. malaysia's stock exchange resumes trading today after being closed immediately after last week's shock election result, and all eyes will be on how its new prime minister said they would get rid of the goods and services tax. the economy has stabilised and while many analysts are concerned, the chief economist says he has a lots of confidence in the economy moving forward. it will mean lots of opportunities for malaysia and businesses. the main problem with chinese investment
1:35 am
in malaysia is that most projects had chinese investors doing the construction work. these companies we re construction work. these companies were essentially cut out, so they will now get an opportunity to get back into business. that is going to be positive. in addition, lots of malaysian companies likely white dear, they haven't invested much in malaysia over the last 20 years, they have invested overseas. now they have invested overseas. now they will be looking to go back in. the fact that robert kwok is part of the new council of elders is a symbol. we already have a well-known businessman, tony fernandes, apologising for backing the ousted prime minister, noted razak, so corporate alignments will change, because this is a country where
1:36 am
backing the right horse is good for business. the airline sector is a very regulated sector, but he also appears to have made an awful political mistake, just before the election, so he is quick to apologise. i think a lot of corporate malaysia is actually quietly thrilled at this new administration, particularly because they've had a lot of experience with it. in pan am, they've got two states that the opposition coalition ran for the last ten years and did it so well that the electorate gave them a resounding victory in those two states. very quickly, the reason why malaysia has suffered so much reputational damage was due to the state fund imdb and the scandal associated with it, and how it was associated with it, and how it was
1:37 am
associated with it, and how it was associated with najib rezak and his high spending wife. they will have to face the music. of course there isa us to face the music. of course there is a us department ofjustice investigation going on, and there are investigations in singapore and switzerland, and they have made good progress. the only thing stopping them from coming to the conclusion is that, in the end, the former prime minister was heavily involved. in other business news, us secretary of state mike pompeo says the american private sector will be allowed to invest in north korea if officials agreed to fully dismantle their nuclear weapons programme. he also said americans will help invest in north korean infrastructure and agriculture to help feed its people if the country meets us demands. xerox says it is ending its planned deal with fuji film and has reached a settlement with its investors in a statement on its website. xerox
1:38 am
cited material deviations in the audited financial is of an existing joint—venture known as fuji xerox which is controlled by fuji film. its chief, jeffjacobson, which is controlled by fuji film. its chief, jeff jacobson, will step down as part of the settlement, along with several other xerox directors. while trade tensions between the us and china may be strained at the moment, there is one area where the relationship is warming, and that is — superheroes. because us comic giant marvel has published comics featuring the first chinese superheroes, this through a partnership with china internet firm netease. but panther made about $1.3 billion worldwide since it opened in debris, and since it's releasejust two weeks ago, avengers the infinity war has pulled in more than $1.2 million —— $1.2 billion in ticket
1:39 am
sales. not bad investment for disney, which bought marvel for $4.2 billion in 2009, and now with a chinese superhero will that help it to conquer the market? it's finally there, ina to conquer the market? it's finally there, in a way that's very much resonating with chinese audiences. they don't have to think they are just seeing foreign characters, and asi just seeing foreign characters, and as i think some of your earlier reports have referred to, there's been a lot of tension going on between the us and china, so this is definitely a bright spots on both sides, especially marvel. is this a little like the technology transfer we keep hearing about, that us companies fear, in 0rtho or technology for instance? generally speaking, yes. to a certain degree. you frequently hear that media companies, and i must confess that i'm in one myself, just like with
1:40 am
the bbc - i'm in one myself, just like with the bbc — with also have severe limitations put on us in mainland china. you have a reality where you can't just bring content china. you have a reality where you can'tjust bring content indirectly, and even movie content is heavily quotaed so you don't have free access to the market. in another sense, you could probably argue that marvel would have to do that anyway. it would have to work with local talent and have a local provider to better distribute its products, so like we see injapan and other markets which are technically more open than china's you would think this would be a worthwhile strategy to pursue. what about disney as a company? looking at the members, it seems to have made a great investment with these marvel characters. it's riding high on the success of marvel? that's true. i was associated with marvel as an
1:41 am
advisor prior to the disney acquisition, and they really did get the value of the company very, very cheap, not just in the value of the company very, very cheap, notjust in terms of what you cited in those two box office figures, but marvel films, so far, in china, have made more than $1 billion. so the metrics are extremely good, and the future of these sort of character —based action heroes is also very strong. let's ta ke action heroes is also very strong. let's take a quick look at the markets, the ones that are open, just before we go. they are fairly flat: really carrying on from last week's games. that's it from this week's asia business report. thanks for watching. theresa may's plans for customs arrangements after brexit have been dealt another blow by a senior cabinet colleague. the environment secretary, michael gove, a leading brexiteer,
1:42 am
today publicly criticised the idea of a customs partnership, saying the concept was flawed. he said there were serious doubts about whether it could be put into practice. here's our political correspondent chris mason. once again, with her cabinet divided, the prime minister is defending her approach to brexit, telling voters and her mps in a sunday times article, "you can trust me to deliver", adding on the most difficult issue, "we will leave the customs union". but acknowledging in the overall settlement, "there will have to be compromises". the prime minister has laid out a very clear flight path for us. michael gove, who campaigned for brexit, sounding very diplomatic today. but hang on a minute — while he wasn't quite as colourful as borisjohnson, who described the option of a customs partnership union with the eu as "crazy", mr gove said it was flawed. boris pointed out that because it's novel, because no model like this exists, there have been significant question marks over the deliverability of it on time. more than that, what the new customs partnership requires
1:43 am
the british government to do is in effect to act as the tax collector, and the effective delivery of regulation for the european union. the reason these technical arrangements matter is because all sides want to avoid the introduction of customs checks here at the border between northern ireland and the republic. to achieve this, one option is the so—called customs partnership. 0ption two is to rely on technology, but while plenty in the cabinet don't like the first idea, the irish government doesn't like the second. we just simply think it won't work. the only way we can find a solution here that means that we have a fully seamless border with no physical infrastructure or related checks and controls is to maintain alignment, in terms of rules and regulations, on both sides of that border. labour is committed to staying in a customs union.
1:44 am
it says the government's approach is a shambles. we are in a farcical situation at the moment. nearly two years after the referendum, the cabinet is fighting over two customs options, neither of which frankly are workable, neither of which are acceptable to the eu. there is, though, a ferocious internal debate within labour, too, about their approach to leaving the u. the prime minister will discuss brexit with her most senior ministers on tuesday, as she tries to find a solution that her cabinet, parliament, and the eu can accept. chris mason, bbc news, at westminster. that's it from me. we will be back in15 that's it from me. we will be back in 15 minutes for the rest of the day's news. time now for all the sports news in sport today. hello, i'm gavin ramjaun. and this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre. coming up on the programme: liverpool have guaranteed champions league football next season, regardless of
1:45 am
what happens in kiev. they hammered brighton to claim fourth spot on the final day of the premier league season. juventus clinch a seventh straight italian league title, sealing the crucial point they needed against roma. and world champion lewis hamilton dominates a dramatic spanish grand prix to win his second race in a row. welcome to the programme. we'll also tell you shortly how barcelona's dream of going the whole la liga season unbeaten was denied in their penultimate game in a shock result. but first, the english premier league season has come to an end, and what a way it finished. a goal—scoring frenzy, and late drama, involving the champions manchester city just one of the stories. the race for the champions league got plenty of attention too. liverpool claimed the final qualifying spot available with a 4—0 win over brighton. mo salah scored his 32nd goal in the premier league,

121 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on