this is business briefing. i'm sally bundock. the dice are rolling and the wheels are spinning. macau opens its casinos after two weeksclosu re over the coronavirus. —— macau opens its casinos after two weeks' closure over the coronavirus. but what are companies doing to minimise disruptions and find out why india is facing its worst slowdown in a decade. and on the markets: a very weak yen is giving the main markets injapan a boost today. but as you can see in asia it is a mixed picture for financial markets.

the world's biggest gambling hub starts a fightback against the new coronavirus today. macau reopens its casinos after closing them for more than two weeks, because of the outbreak. it's a vitally important sector for the chinese territory, which — last year brought in almost $36.5 billion. it comes as many companies around the globe struggle to cope with the impact of the outbreak. in china, tech firms like tecent, alibaba and microsoft have said their staff will work from home for the next one to two weeks, with some estimates suggesting hundreds of million of workers are affected by the shutdown. injapan, the telecoms giant ntt has started encouraging 200,000 employees to work from home or travel during off peak hours. in singapore many firms are conducting health check

for staff entering buildings and authorities have issued guidance for firms including working out a continuity leadership plan in case senior managers are affected. dr simone krummaker, senior lecturer in insurance and course director for insurance and risk management at cass business school joins me now. we will talk through the logistics. welcome, simone, to business briefing. for companies such as microsoft and other big names, those based in mainland china and elsewhere in the region, this is a logistical nightmare, isn't it? yes, it is. forthem it logistical nightmare, isn't it? yes, it is. for them it is very much about containing the effects of this crisis in terms of their own stuff but also in terms of how the supplier network, the global supply chain network can be managed if there might be a shortage or a problem along these global

supply chains. some companies are starting to estimate what this will mean in terms of a dent in their profits. apple warning earlier this week about what a good mentor their manufacturing but also closure of the retail stores. to what extent a re of the retail stores. to what extent are businesses enjoyed against this happening? business interruption usually only comes into play if we have a physical loss like a fire in a physical loss like a fire in a manufacturing site and then the consequences for financial losses and further expenses might call —— covered by this interruption policies. similar to supply chain insurance policies. but these usually exclude nonphysical risks like viruses or bacteria. so, actually, in the case of coronavirus for companies that have seen enormous disruption and also staff impacted, they may not be covered at all by any insurance policy? , yes, that's correct. it would be rare. there may be specialist

pollen see —— policies for event companies or travel or healthcare. for standard business it is excluded. it could be a business opportunity going forward. this could well happen again. we have seen it with sales and other epidemics. exactly. we hope that particularly large business will have learned and taken something forward from the sales crisis in terms of insurance, yes, think this could be a business opportunity looking forward into inclusions oi’ looking forward into inclusions or may be specialist business interruption including health risks. but we don't see any response in that direction at the moment. but we are in the middle of this crisis at the moment, so maybe there will be some. . . moment, so maybe there will be some... future policies that will cover this kind of thing. against the devil will in the detail. because it is so, so complicated, as we've mentioned, there are companies putting in place various measures just to make sure that their staff, if anyone is u nwell their staff, if anyone is unwell at a very senior level

oi’ unwell at a very senior level or in quarantine, for example, the business keeps going and i’u ns the business keeps going and runs as usual. yes. but i would hope this contingency plans are pa rt hope this contingency plans are part of any business's risk management strategies anyway, not only because we have this health crisis at the moment, but key people could, even by accident, go missing at any point in time. but of course it is about managing the health of your staff, but also thinking about supply chain and looking into where it is coming from. 0k, dr simone krummaker, thank you your time. good to you on your the programme. qantas has warned it could have an impact. tell us more about what one has had to say? hello, sally. it seems like we are here every day talking about how the coronavirus has impacted a company or an

economy and it's thursday and todayit economy and it's thursday and today it is qantas airways that, as he said, is warning of a severe financial impact, that's because of a drop in demand for flights in the region. people arejust demand for flights in the region. people are just too scared to travel. they don't wa nt to scared to travel. they don't want to catch the virus. the australian airline has said it has had to cut flights to asia by 50% and that is at least until the end of may. that's like rounding the equivalent of 80 planes. it could cost the company up to $99 million this financial year and the impact could be seen in the next financial year. the chief executive, alan joyce, financial year. the chief executive, alanjoyce, said that the company has been forced to suspend flows to mainland china, there has also been an impact on hubs like hong kong, singapore, japan, which have all seen a large amount of cases of people infected. all right, thank you, sarah, for now. the chinese tech firm huawei says america's efforts to ban it will only damage

the us economy. in an interview with the bbc, its chief security officer accused america of trying to ‘carpet bomb' huawei. when asked about the uk's decision to allow huawei to build parts of britain's new 56 network — he described it as a positive move. he spoke with the bbc‘s zhaoyin feng. if we are forced to buy the components that recently comprise 30% of all huawei products around the world, if we are forced to go and not just from nearly 300 american companies at 11 billion dollars a year, if we are forced to not use google for our operating system for the second—largest mobile device make any well, we are going to be fine. but what is certain is that the 40,000 americanjobs that is certain is that the 40,000 american jobs that depend on the $11 billion we spend are going to be negatively impacted. unfortunately, if the government keeps going the way

they are they are going to hurt america much more than they hurt huawei on much more than they had china. uk has decided to include huawei in its 56 products but only the core product. the court aspect of the telecommunication is the most sensitive confidential information. so the uk government is trying to be responsive to the incredible pressure from the united states, so they are trying to put some measures in place that can be called risk mitigation. even in the uk huawei is considered high risk and is not included in the core infrastructure of the sg network. how was that an endorsement for huawei? the united kingdom, despite probably the greatest lobbying campaign in the history of the united states, less relative to the uk, despite that campaign, has decided to push back to the us and to allow the relationship, the 11 year relationship, the 11 year relationship between huawei and the uk to continue. that's not a giant victory. it's a small

step forward. the kind of step that we hope will help demonstrate to the world that despite political pressure people can deal with that and people can deal with that and people need to look and address real cyber security risk in a comprehensive manner. interesting. the chief security officer of huawei. let us show you financial markets. the dollar has strengthened significantly on the latest economic news coming out of the united states. that has caused japan to have a bit ofa has caused japan to have a bit of a boost with a lovely week yen, which means its exports overseas are that much cheaper. that has helped markets in japan. as you can see, elsewhere in asia it is a mixed picture. that is your business briefing.

liverpool is the latest english city to declare that it wants to regulate its buses in a london—style system, in a bid for frequent services and cheaper fares. it's the latest sign that a shake—up of the way buses are managed in many parts of england is on the way, as our transport correspondent, tom burridge, reports. a shakeup for buses in liverpool could be on the way. in england, buses outside of london are not regulated. that means bus companies decide which routes to run and they said fares. after a two—year study, the mayor of the liverpool city region believes that should change. well, where not in control of our own destiny, currently, as a transport authority and that's why we are looking at the powers in the 2017 act, the bus services act, to ensure that we can use the additional mayoral

powers so that we can re— regulate our bus service by steve rotheram once a london star system, where buses are regulated. transport for london, which reports to the mayor, decides the roots and sets the fares. and companies bid for contracts. buses in london are frequent and cheap. but they are heavily subsidised by transport for london. greater manchester is already ona similar greater manchester is already on a similarjourney to a regulated system like liverpool. and the government backs other moves in other parts of england. but bus companies is a regulation isn't a silver bullet. more bus lanes, they say, is a greater priority, because congestion is often the biggest problem. tom burridge, bbc news. for more on that story, breakfast is coming up at six o'clock with sally nugent and charlie stayt — they'll have all the day's

news, business, and sport. this is the briefing from bbc news. the latest headlines: police in germany say a man suspected of two mass shootings has been found dead at his home. another democratic debate in the us presidential race — and this time michael bloomberg joins the fray. now it's time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. we begin with google confirming reports first broken by reuters that they'll move data on british customers outside of eu jurisdiction to the us, where they information will be left with less protection. another data story is on the front page of the financial times — the eu plans to force big tech companies to share data with smaller rivals to break the near monolopy held by the likes of google and amazon. the reality check section of the bbc news website looks at the uk's stricter immigration rules — in particular, can

the shortfall in workers really be made up by british people not currently in work? coronavirus is the main story for the times, in particular concerns that retailers could soon be left with large stock shortages because of ongoing factory closures in china, aimed at stopping the spread of the virus. ‘burger king breaks the mold' is how america's abc puts it. this story's everywhere — burger king using photos of its whopper burger going moldy as part of an ad campaign — sorry if you're having your breakfast! and finally, business insider covers a story from italy, where a town's practically paying people to go and live there to boost its population — but only if they have children and promise

to stay three years. it is tempting. they have to say. with me isjustin urquha rt—stewa rt co—founder of seven investment management. justin urquhart—stewart from seven investment management joins us again. we have a reuters story that google has confirmed, google is thinking of moving its british users peoples data to outside of the eu. this is to get around the general data protection regulation or gdpr, it's known. whole point of that was to actually try to protect people's information. what is the most valuable part of a business these days? it is not the widgets it produces, intends be the data, that's the information. the more data you can control the greater strength you have got. people are google and other tech companies are very strong in this area. but here is the nub

of this. you've got these large companies which, in days gone by, were being almost a by antitrustjewels by, were being almost a by antitrust jewels in america because they are running monopolies, in effect, that they now have more power. britain now finds itself in a position where we are not part of europe, not the eu, not part of europe, not the eu, not part of the us, as yet, so whose rules will we be under and can we make up our rules will we be under and can we make up our own rules will we be under and can we make up our own rules and if we make up our own rules and if we do, actually, the likes of google and others will say we are taking your data and putting it in the us where we can do what we like with it. a worrying development for those of us who do use google andi those of us who do use google and i did put it out of the viewer is one day, are you able to not use google? when you think about google maps, gmail, searching, the various elements of bits and pieces that people have in their homes. the amount of data they have on us is off the scale. it is ubiquitous. most of us don't really have a heads around of it, it's just data, just information. if you can actually control what is

that you are offered to buy, things you can have, actually he was going to