this is the business briefing. i'm sally bundock. making america great again! president trump hails his success in bringing about a blue colour boom in the worlds biggest economy. a report out today into diversity in the boardroom shows britain's leading companies are failing to improve. and on the markets: where seeing gains across the board, even in asia. most markets are headed higher today.

a short while ago president donald trump concluded his third state of the union address to the joint houses of congress. as expected, mr trump struck an upbeat note in a speech that set out a case for another four years in office. let's get more on this story from samira hussain who joins me from new york. she was watching that very long speech in which he boldly claimed he'd done so much for the us economy. in almost 80 minutes, we heard from us presidents donald trump really talk about the us economy. it's because that is something that has been going very well during his presidency and remember, this is the state of the union address that was given it during a year he is fighting for real election. it is unsurprising that the president spent the first part of his speech really dedicated to

really highlighting his economic accomplishments. let's listen to what he said. in just three short years, we have shattered the mentality of american decline and we have rejected the downsizing of american's destiny. we have totally rejected the downsizing. we are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago and we are never, ever, going back. how does what he had to say in that speech match with reality? look, if you look at the way the us economy has been performing that yes, it is true that we are seeing the longest expansion in its economic history. we are seeing record low unemployment, a rate we haven't seen in more than 50

yea rs. we haven't seen in more than 50 years. and if you look at the us economy, yes, it continues to grow. but if you look more specifically, the idea that the growth that where seeing is being unimaginable as claimed by mrtrump, well, being unimaginable as claimed by mr trump, well, that's not exactly true. this is a president who said he wanted to see the us economy grow at three, four, five or even 6% but the reality is the us economy has been growing at a solid two, 2.5%, the same level it was under a previous president. he was at pains to point out everyone has benefited from his presidency and of course, he was speaking to those who will vote for him at the end of the year. the blue—collar worker. again, is that reality or not? if you look at some of the polls where seeing that the president is getting pretty high approval ratings on their way he is handling the economy. where

seeing that consumer confidence is ata seeing that consumer confidence is at a high and 63% of americans believe that mr trump is doing really well when it comes to the us economy. that is than we have seen in the last 20 years for any other president. but if you look specifically in terms ofjust how that middle class, how those blue—collar workers have been doing in terms of where they are in a building jobs, but of course, is questionable because the trade war between the united states and china had an impact on the manufacturing sector without question. thank you very much the mirror. to asia now, where fears of the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak are causing banks to cut their estimates for china's gdp growth. let's go to our asia business hub where rico hizon is following the story. i'm not surprised to hear this at all, he is saying what? we have a top investment banks

such as anz, mcquarrie, citibank, the economist saying that sadly, where does betty five days into the new year and banks are already changing their economic forecast for this first quarter and for the year. as the coronavirus outbreak hits the world's second—largest economy. economic activity in many of the mainland cities has been stocked as factories closed for the week long lunar new year holidays and have been extended in many places. a move that will surely impact global supply chains and the services sector has also been heard as people are encouraged to stay home. in 2019, china's full year. gdp growth was down 6.6% from there before. before the coronavirus, economists were predicting growth of 6% in 2020 but the fundamentals have changed. anz, has forecasted growth from january to march to 45% . growth from january to march to 45%. the economist intelligence

unit say the outbreak could reduce global to as slow as 4.9%. while macquarie bank has one of the worst case scenario shaving gross form 5.9% to 4% this quarter. thank you. -- a growth. britain's leading companies are failing to improve ethnic diversity at their leadership levels, according to a major report published today. the 2020 parker review into leadership has found the increase in the number of black, asian and minority ethnic — or bame — board directors of major uk companies has been far slower than hoped for. it shows that 37% of britain's most valuable ftse 100 companies do not have any ethnic minority representation on their boards. the survey also looks at the next tier of boards in uk firms — in ftse 250. of all the firms surveyed, 69% of ftse 250 companies had no ethnic diversity on their boards. according to recent data from involve, the uk economy is losing an estimated $3.4bn — or £2.6bn — due to ethnic minority discrimination. the research also found that there are more chief executives called ‘steve' in the ftse 100 than there

are from ethnic minorities. it's a similar picture in the us where achieving diversity in the boardroom has been a slowjourney. research carried out in 2018 by deloitte found that only 23% of new directors sitting on boards of fortune 100 companies were non—white. raj tulsiani, chief executive officer of green park — an award—winning consultancy that offers executive search and diversity & inclusion across the private, public and third sectors — joins me now. so why are we still having this conversation? i think the leadership of these organisations is failing. this report is a very skilfully

construct conciliatory documents aimed at making chairs, chief executives and senior independent directors more aware of the problem. i think they are ready know what it is but it misses out on the big three questions which is, why are we failing? why is it less likely that talented minority individuals in the uk would rather move abroad than sit on these boards? and why is that the supply chain at the promised so much around increasing diversity failed to deliver? the supply chain is quite important is it that because what you put in is what you end up with in terms of what you get out. the supply chain, all those who had hunt, all those who recruit, is the same situationjust all those who recruit, is the same situation just going around and around. absolutely and in any other part of business, if you expect different outputs, you would then not retain at the same input or suppliers. we have in this report and similar reports is total unwillingness by our

institutions to talk about any form of institutional bias or prejudice within the industry that suppliers our institutions. unfortunately, if you have disparity in promotion, people getting on boards, exits data, even in the pay, that it is really difficult to say that there is no deeper issue that needs to be addressed company by company. we've been talking about this for years and years, do you think we need to see the law change. there has to be a quota or some sort of stick from that perspective because clearly carrots are not working? i think that is partially for the generation, they are finding it difficult to look at diversity in the way that says leadership competence as they do in private, climate change and will have to soon. personally, i'm in favour of quotas but professionally i'm not. i don't think our institutions are robust enough to ta ke

institutions are robust enough to take that away from governments. if you look at the financial reporting councils, pa rt financial reporting councils, part of this report, it doesn't seem part of this report, it doesn't seem they have the appetite for it either. we will have to leave it there and i feel i'm going to have this conversation again in the nearfuture. thank you for coming in and sharing your expertise. i just want to squeeze in a couple of other business stories. disney is certainly feeling the force today with some marvel—ous result as the firms star wars and superhero brands helped the house of mouse to increase revenue for the quarter by 36% to $20.9 billion. and it wasn't just the traditional business that's been doing well — subscriber numbers for disney plus also reflected well on the entertainment giant's move into streaming. chinese technology firm, huawei, says it will set up manufacturing bases in europe to make components for the 5g networks it will build there. analysts say building factories in europe will help persuade eu countries not to follow us calls to reject huawei's hardware.

that's it for the business briefing this hour. up next — newsbriefing — we'll take you through ther stories making headlines in the global news media today including: more than a0 people have been arrested across england as part of a crackdown on courierfraud, where people are tricked on the phone into taking out large sums of money and handing the cash to someone posing as a courier or police officer. city of london police says there've been 3,000 victims over the last two years, many of them elderly people. our home affairs correspondent, danny shaw, reports.

early morning in central london, police are out in force for a raid on a flat in kings cross. it's part of an operation targeting criminal gangs involved in courier fraud, a sniffer dog is brought into find items that may be hidden like mobile phones, sim cards a memory sticks. carol norton was a victim of courier fraud. she was tricked into handing over £4000 in cash after being phoned by a man who said he was a detective and needed to — make her help on an undercover investigation. needed to — make her help on an undercover investigationlj believe undercover investigation.” believe every word he said. he really sounded... he was concerned about me. he did say he was concerned about my husband and he just seemed a genuine police officer. when you learned it was a scam, how did you feel? what was your reaction? i just did you feel? what was your reaction? ijust cried, it was awful. i really felt upset

because i let my husband down. police believe courier fraud because i let my husband down. police believe courierfraud is a growing problem across england and wales. in the past two years, there have been over 3100 victims and £12 million have been stolen were some people losing hundreds of thousands in pensions and savings. in police raids since november, 44 people have been arrested, including two men at the flat in london. they since been released while investigations continue. 14 others have been charged as police continue to tackle what they say is a despicable crime. danny shaw, bbc news. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: president trump has given his annual state of the union address, taking credit for what he called the great american comeback. partial results from the iowa caucus show pete buttigieg narrowly ahead of bernie sanders and elizabeth warren. joe biden is back in fourth place.

now it's time to look at a few stories making headlines in other media. we begin with president trump's state of the union address to congress. bloomberg highlights his theme, the great american comeback. mr trump stressed the united states' economic growth, putting him in a strong position for re—election later in the year. the guardian leads with the international reaction to the coronavirus outbreak in china. the british government has told the 30,000 british citizens currently living in china to get out if you can. that may be easier said than done. the financial times front page carries another development in the climate change debate. the uk is to bring forward the deadline for an end to petrol—driven cars to 2035. the paper highlights assertions by the car industry that being too ambitious could backfire. crossing the channel, and the website euractiv looks at efforts by paris to unseat london as europe's top financial hub. with the relocation of the european banking authority there, in the wake of brexit, the city's authorities

are hopeful. the bbc news website carries the story of funke abimbola and her struggle to be treated fairly by employers. it follows a report from an official equality commission which found that around a third of ftse100 companies have no ethnic minority representation on their boards. with me is anju solanki, founder of mea consulting group, a company advising firms on gender diversity. let's start with the state of the union address. i would imagine you had the pleasure of

listening to some of that live while you