this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. with the brexit process in chaos, how has it affected the investment climate in the uk? and just when everybody expected a downturn, chinese manufacturing unexpectedly jumps back in march. that has given financial markets a boost. as you can see, a brand—new week in asia. it is looking fairly good for share markets.

so, once again a very busy day for parliament in the uk. the uk parliament will hold an indicative vote on brexit alternatives later today. a customs union with the eu is thought to be the most likely preference. meanwhile, prime minister theresa may is considering her next move after her withdrawal agreement was defeated for a third time last week. so what does the investment picture look like in the uk since the brexit vote? government figures show that last year business investment in the uk fell 0.4% to around $247 billion. and, according to a study by the london school of economics, british companies have diverted almost $11 billion worth of new investment away from britain to the eu since the brexit vote. so, uk firms have hiked investment in the eu by 12% sincejune 2016, as a direct result of the vote, according to the lse. the study also found that new investment from the eu

to britain has fallen by 11% since the referendum, by the tune of around $4.5 billion. spencer crawley, co—founder and general partner at firstminute, joins me now. he is with us in the studio for the briefing, and firstminute is a venture capitalfirm, briefing, and firstminute is a venture capital firm, you briefing, and firstminute is a venture capitalfirm, you invest briefing, and firstminute is a venture capital firm, you invest in start—ups. venture capital firm, you invest in start-ups. yes, venture capital. given the uncertainty that is ahead, it is hard to know what the relationship will be between the uk and europe, and the uk and other countries when it comes to trade. it is understandable that we would see a drop—off in in the uk. is understandable that we would see a drop-off in in the uk. absolutely, and we should be under no illusion that the prospect of brexit has inflicted significant brand damage on the uk among entrepreneurs and

investors. what does that mean? most simply, that means people feel less welcome here in terms of whether you're a software developer thinking about moving to the uk, or an entrepreneur considering setting up a business here. i think that matters because the tech sector is significant in the uk, 8% of our gdp, and we need the best talent globally to want to come and work here. but actually in terms of how the economy is doing and how much investment has been put on hold, put to one side, many were predicting it would be a lot worse than this. some we re would be a lot worse than this. some were predicting we would be in recession right now. if the referendum went for brexit injune 2016. we are doing quite well as an economy given the circumstances. absolutely. investment continues at a good pace, not least because a lot of the details around brexit and what that will look like are as yet

unknown. we invested in a uk—based business every two or three weeks. what you are seeing is people hesitating on broad, long—term positive decisions of whether opening a new harbour in london, or expanding a team in the uk, i wouldn't say we see a huge amount of negative decisions of not committing right now in terms of investment —— hub. the longer term thinking has been put on hold. i must admit, some ceos who we speak to, small and medium—sized companies or start—ups especially in the tech sector, they are about the process, but they are still pressing on, expanding and investing, going for itjust by what's happening. that is their dna as an entrepreneur. you make the most of the opportunities. entrepreneurs are nothing if not resilient. i think there are many things that recommend the uk to start a technology business here, not least that we have a depth of technical talent coming out of our universities. london is a financial

centre of europe. we have seen many success stories in the last decade. success breeds success in terms of inspiration but also people backing the next wave of entrepreneurs. thank you, spencer, for being with us. interesting to hear your take on what's going on and the start—ups going for it despite the uncertainty as it were. let's move on now to what's going on in china, the world's second biggest economy. real concern for china and the outlook for growth. in march we saw an upturn in manufacturing. a good news? —— is it good news? let's go to our asia business hub, where rico hizon is following the story. give us a bit more detail. two leading measures of china's crucial manufacturing sector, one released on sunday, and the other one earlier today, has revealed a sharp rebound, and in the last hours are closely

watched casein survey rose for the first time in four months, similar with the official measure of menuing activity. while activity improves after the lunar new year holidays, some say the strong pickup would suggest ageing's efforts to boost lending, cut taxes and provide other stimulus measures are indeed taking effect and the news is easing fears that asia's largest economy could slip into a deep downturn. earlier today i spoke with lg bank and asked if the economy is turning a corner. i think it is to soon to say that china has turned a corner. the amount of fiscal stimulus coming through the pipeline since the end of la st through the pipeline since the end of last year is significant. we expect to see better chinese economic data by the middle of 2019. the positive numbers are pushing the

shanghai stock market up 2% by the stimulus initiatives have boosted the shanghai index by 24% in the first quarter of 2019, one of the best performing in asia. 0k, first quarter of 2019, one of the best performing in asia. ok, thanks so much. good to see you. now let's brief you on some other business stories. an investigator forjeff bezos says saudi arabia hacked the amazon chief executive's phone and accessed his data. gavin de becker was hired by mr bezos to find out how his private messages had been leaked to the national enquirer tabloid. mr de becker linked the hack to coverage by the washington post, which mr bezos owns, of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi's murder. saudi arabia has not yet commented on the allegation. the pilots' union of india's troubled jet airways says it will hold off its plan to strike and will give the carrier's new management two weeks to clear unpaid salaries. jet has delayed payments to pilots,

suppliers and lessors for months and defaulted on loans after racking up more than $1 billion in debt. the airline was bailed out last week by state—run banks. two million uk workers on minimum wages are now receiving a pay rise. workers aged 25 and over on the national living wage will receive £8.21 an hourfrom monday — a 4.9% rise. however, the pay rise comes as bills ranging from council tax to the tv licence fee become more expensive. james dawson had the idea of a healthy tea, which he thought would sell well with millennials. while they never warmed to it, he discovered it was becoming a hit amongst middle—aged people. so he decided to scrap his existing blends and start his business again from scratch.

making big decisions, big scary decisions is critical and it is something that is a small business owner it is really important to do. we've taken the growth areas of tea around green, herbal and fruit tea and added a vitamin d supplement so for the first time we are taking what has been done in vitamin e enriched waters and we are putting them into healthy hot drinks. we created a brand that was quite playful, quite informal. we thought that was what was needed to approach this millennial market. the busy working mums and the busy professionals a re working mums and the busy professionals are our core customer, they are the people that understand that health is important that have resonated with our product. we

adapted the name, we completely changed the packaging to move away from something playful and informal to something more serious and authoritative. i and the company has spent the best part of three years building upa spent the best part of three years building up a strong company and to change it overnight and scrap everything that we have done and move ina everything that we have done and move in a new direction was huge and it was something i have struggled with for some time, but it was the right decision. revenues are up 250% since making the change one year ago now. every company needs to adapt and you need to be prepared to make those risks to make it happen. time for tea with james dawson. let's look at the markets. the upturn in manufacturing activity in china has eased investor concerns about a global economic slowdown and that has given markets a reason to be cheerful as we start a new trading

week, that is friday's close in the us. that's it for the business briefing this hour. i will see you in a moment. so, 0liver willjoin me in a moment for the global media review. after a weekend of stabbings in london, teachers, nurses, charity workers and police could be accountable if they failed to spot warning signs of violent crime in youngsters. that's just one proposal which will be discussed later at a downing street summit on violent crime. 0ur correspondentjames waterhouse has more. it would put the responsibility on teachers, nurses and police officers to spot the early signs that a child is being pulled into violent crime. 0nce is being pulled into violent crime. once the alarm is raised, the idea is that social services and

specialist and again charities would step in and help turn the young person's life around. it is modelled on scotland's success in treating knife violence as a disease which needs reading at its root. the conference in downing street will hear from young people whose lives have been affected by violence and their views on where the government is going wrong. also there will be the new boss of the national police chiefs' council, martin hewitt, who ina chiefs' council, martin hewitt, who in a blog post said an extra £970 million promised by ministers isn't enough to meet all the challenges that police face. it comes as police in england and wales get more powers to use stop—and—search to deal with knife crime. we have seen that the reduce of funding for youth clubs and grassroots organisation has led to an increase of violence in the community where young people were once occupied in the youth club or occupied by a charity, third sector organisations service provider, yet

they are no longer getting that sort of activity, so they get up to other things, they get influenced by others. i know many of these initiatives and i have seen their case studies and their social impact and they are proven to be very effective. however they don't get the type of support necessary to move on and to continue the great work that they are doing. campaigners are also calling the move disappointing and a step backwards. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: british mps are to vote again on alternative brexit options, after they failed to find a majority for any of the plans put to them last week. big losses for president erdogan‘s governing party in local elections across turkey. the opposition wins in the capital, ankara, for the first time in 25 years. a vietnamese woman charged with killing kim jong—nam, the half—brother of the north korean leader, kim jong—un, has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison, but could be released next month.

now it is time to look at the stories making the headlines across the world. we begin with the guardian, with what else but brexit? this front page talks about a cabinet rift widening as mps prepare for a second round of indicative votes today. staying with that, the daily telgraph has a picture of a very weary looking prime minister may, and discusses her successor. one member of the cabinet is quoted as saying ms may's replacement must be a senior tory eurosceptic to lead the uk through the next round of brexit negotiations. on to the financial times, where mark zuckerberg is calling for more regulations for media companies like facebook. but some of his recommendations have failed to win over privacy advocates and politicans in the us, who say it appears to be a public relations effort.

heading to slovakia, in the slovak spectator, where voters have brought a rare liberal win in central europe. the broadsheet asks if the presidential win might set a trend in the region. finally, in business insider, are scooter wars coming to europe for the summer? the website says this will be the first summer well—funded scooter start—ups will be active in europe. companies argue they are better for the environment, and they get people outside. but do they cause more problems than they solve? we asked you for your views on that, and as ever you have not held back. with me is 0liver cornock, editor—in—chief at the oxford business group. beginning with the guardian's front page, ministers try to force theresa may's hand as cabinet rift widens.

that is on the