this is the business briefing, i'm sally bundock. back to work or not? many factories in china remain shut as the death toll from the coronavirus exceeds 900. the singapore airshow kicks off despite the outbreak. we look at the lack of qualified pilots as the industry faces growing demand. and a new trading week starts on a shaky note in asia, as investors continue to fear the impact of the coronavirus.

let's begin with the coronavirus outbreak, because firms and factories in china are expected to get back to work this week after an extended spring festival break. but across the country, some factories will stay closed, including carmakers toyota and honda, and what happens in china matters for the rest of us. china alone now accounts for 39% of global growth. to give you a sense of scale, china is the world's largest oil importer, and so global oil consumption has fallen around 20% since the outbreak began. the spread of the coronavirus could also affect the phase one trade deal that the us and china worked out last month. our asia business correspondent karishma vaswani takes a closer look at what happens when the world's factory shuts down because of an

international health emergency. from iphones to t—shirts, to even your medicine, china is the factory for the world. more than a third of the world's clothes and shoes are made there, so when factories shut down and people stop going to work, that has an effect on when the rest of us can get our stuff. looking for a new iphone or airpods? well, almost half of apple's workshops and factories are in china, making speakers, screens, batteries — you name it. then there are cars and car parts. wuhan and the wider hubei province are major manufacturing sectors for the auto sector. it's in lockdown. everyone from honda, nissan, to peugeot—citroen, they have operations there. and south korea's hyundai auto was the first to suspend production.

analysts say more will follow. medicines like penicillin and popular antibiotics are affected. indian drug firms that make them get a lot of key pharmaceutical ingredients from china. we are not running out of medicine yet, but the longer factories stay shut, the bigger the problem. how quickly factories start producing again will depend on how soon migrant workers, the backbone of china's economy, get back to work. the coronavirus is a reminder ofjust how dependent we are on china, and what happens when the world's factory shuts down because of a virus. let's get more on this story. graham parker, ceo of gravity supply chain, joins me now from singapore. graham, yourcompany is graham, your company is looking and enabling supply chains, as it were. what are you seeing as a consequence of coronavirus?” mean, it is major disruption on an unprecedented scale. it has never been seen before stop

it's not just never been seen before stop it's notjust the impact of the exporters coming out. it is also the impact of what is going into china as well. it is truly devastating. i think you also have to feel the people that have been involved in it, the people that have lost their lives, and the global supply chain is one thing, but the loss of life and devastation that has gone along with it is very sad. is it possible at this point to assess what this could mean going forward? of course, we don't know if this virus has peaked yet. we're still waiting for information and data from the chinese authorities, but is it possible to assess what impact this could have in the long—term?” think it is impossible to say right here, right now. some of the factories are opening, some of them aren't opening, trying to repatriate their workers back to where the factories are stop the lockdown of the vessels carrying, the vessels being left in ports. the airlines, obviously some are still flying but the vast majority have pulled out of china. the impact is huge, it

is significant. i think we're looking at a minimum of six months before we can really and truly understand the true implication of what this will mean. so it would have definitely a knock—on effect on growth in china. it is slowing anyway, some are suggesting we could see a couple of percentage points of chinese growth in the first half of this year. i think it is absolutely going to have a bigger and far greater knock—on effect on people can even begin to imagine, purely because you just don't know when the factory is going to be able to get back to full capacity. they have extended holidays by week, you have the additional problems where people are unable to get back to the factory. so in terms of understanding when the factories can get back to full capacity, it is pretty much unknown. they say it is pretty much unprecedented. and talk us through what it means for you doing yourjob in singapore. to what extent are you personally impacted, if at all? we're not really impacted in as much as we provide real—time visibility to supply chains, so provide

visibility to shippers of where their products and stock is. so obviously what we're doing is we are monitoring situation with our risk chain. we are able to predict probably about four or five days before some of the major carriers started to be limited in the port, so we we re to be limited in the port, so we were able to get them to move product to regions where the carriers would still be able to fly into and the ships would still port call. but we provide the real—time updates and insights of exactly what is going on in terms of their merchandise and stock positions. we will have to leave it there, but thank you, graham parker. joining us from singapore. now let's brief you on some other business stories: amazon is the latest major company to pull out of one of the world's largest tech shows because of risks posed by coronavirus. the organiser of mobile world congress in barcelona, which attracts 100,000 people, said it will go ahead. south korea's lg electronics, ericsson, the swedish telecoms equipment maker, and us chip company nvidia have already withdrawn from the conference.

non—disclosure agreements, also known as ndas, should not be used to prevent someone from reporting sexual harassment in the workplace, according to new guidance. the uk's arbitration service, acas, has published advice for firms and workers about ndas, including how to avoid misuse. the airline industry is soaring to new heights in recent years, especially in south—east asia and india. the problem is there aren't enough qualified commercial pilots. so how will airlines meet the demand without compromising safety? the bbc‘s monica miller reports. this cadet is kicking her new career into gear as a commercial pilot. the 23—year—old decided to abandon a career

in the medical profession and follow her passion, but she initially had her doubts. i thought that this male—dominated industry was too hard on females. and most significantly, i am short, so i did not know if i could fly a plane or even step on the rudders or the brakes. the asia—pacific region has seen a boom in air travel and first—time flyers, but the small pool of qualified commercial pilots is not meeting demand. in fact, boeing said globally airlines will need more than 800,000 new pilots in less than 20 years. roughly one third of those jobs will be in asia. aircraft like airbus's a321 run on autopilot. and normally the trip is fairly smooth, but pilots will have to deal with the unexpected. that's why they spend hours in a simulator like this one, to build up confidence to steer themselves out of trouble. on this test run, i'm seeing how sharp my skills

are at flying through a rainstorm in manila. major airline manufacturers require 200 hours of flight time, but some airlines want to change the rules. 0ne aviation instructor says the industry is moving towards a different type of licence that only demands 70 hours of flight training to become a co—pilot. the technology now is really driving up. we are now going to a level where flying is digital. but, as the boeing 737 max fatal crashes demonstrated, pilots only have a split second to make a life—or—death decision. some analysts say red flags were raised about training. being a pilot, 99.99% of the time, it's all very routine, very boring, very stable.

but then you have this 0.001% of the time that you really earn your money as a pilot, and they have to be ready. until the hiring glut shrinks, pilots will face growing pressure to meet the industry's demands. but before we go, here are the markets. you have seen that there has been a big sell—off, no surprise with regards to coronavirus. it will be a big week, we hearfrom alibaba, nestle and others regarding earnings. apple's main manufacturer in china has the green light to resume some production. that has brought some hope to financial markets. you can see how commodities are trading. and that is your business briefing.

a bbc news investigation has uncovered further claims of preventable baby deaths at an nhs trust which has already been criticised for its maternity services. four families say their babies would have survived had east kent hospitals trust provided better care. michael buchanan reports. the joyous scans of a growing baby. but this baby was stillborn last november, on the day he was due, and outcome his pa rents say day he was due, and outcome his parents say was wholly avoidable. they should have asked us to come in that night. if they had induced me that night, he would have been here. 100%. his parents had called the qeqm hospital in margate at iam in the morning as kirsty was in pain and her son's

movements had noticeably changed. she was advised to ta ke changed. she was advised to take painkillers and go to bed. i6 take painkillers and go to bed. 16 hours later she called again and was invited in this time, where staff discovered reed had died. being a first-time mum, i suppose you put too much trust in these people to advise you and get you through something as vulnerable as this. and so you don't question it. east kent hospitals trust say they are investigating the case, but three other families we have spoken to have told us their babies would have survived if medics in east kent had provided that care. that is in addition to the sudden preve nta ble addition to the sudden preventable deaths revealed last month. the trust have apologised in two of the new cases, and denied wrongdoing in the third. an inquest last month found harry redford's death in 2017 was wholly avoidable. now the coroner in that case has written to the trust demanding they make 19 improvements to ensure better

maternity care. ministers are due to receive two reports into maternity care at east kent today and will decide whether today and will decide whether to ta ke today and will decide whether to take any action. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: history at the oscars — as korean—language drama "parasite" becomes the first non english language film to win best picture. it also picked up prizes for best original screenplay, best international feature film, and best director. joaquin phoenix was best leading actor and renee zellweger won best leading actress. millions of chinese citizens are due to go back to work after the extended lunar new year break. but coronavirus restrictions mean many businesses remain closed. the number of deaths from the epidemic has now risen to more than 900 after hubei province reported 91 new fatalities.

now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with politics and the irish times, which reports that sinn fein candidates have stormed to a series of spectacular victories in general election counts last night. now moving onto the telegraph's front page — like many of today's papers, it focuses on the attempts to trace a uk businessman believed to be a coronavirus ‘super—spreader‘. the paper says health chiefs are under pressure to reveal the movements of the unnamed british businessman. the financial times also leads on coronavirus, as the chinese government struggles to encourage businesses in china to reopen. the sydney morning herald reports that sydney has been hit by its heaviest rain in 30 years, bringing flooding and travel chaos. and finally the oscars!

the bbc website has got all the news on the winners and highlights of the night, including south korea's bong joon—ho, who won the oscar for best director for parasite, the third on the night for the film. and of course as we have said, making history winning best picture. with me is mark davies who's ceo of strategy consultancy camberton. let's get stuck in. the irish times, as you would expect, the entire front page analysing the results as they have been coming in. we have the final —— not have the final numbers yet that have taken place. it is a huge shift. sinn fein have got 2496 huge shift. sinn fein have got 24% of the vote as things currently stand, and it looks unlikely that a government can be formed without some kind of participation from them. given that leo varadkar said that he would not