amazon in the spotlight, after a pro—labour senator in the us accuses the company of a disastrous safety record. and we sit down with the head of the german tech giant siemens to get a sense of the opportunities he's eyeing here in asia. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm monica miller. online retail giant amazon is facing a us congressional hearing into the working conditions at its warehouses. that's after senator bernie sanders wrote to amazon's chief executive on tuesday, accusing him and the company's founderjeff bezos of "creating a corporate culture that treats workers as disposable". bernie sanders, a self—styled socialist from vermont, has long been a fierce advocate for workers�* rights and the need for bigger welfare programmes in america. his promise to create a national health system

helped him come close to winning the democratic nomination for president in 2016. so his decision to investigate the working conditions at one of america's biggest employers is sure to capture headlines and set up a robust argument about worker protections. now, for its part, amazon has been criticised for the conditions its warehouse workers face in facilities all over the world. it's already being examined for its safety record by multiple us government agencies. amazon is also notorious for resisting all efforts to unionise its workforce. now, in response to mr sanders�* letter, amazon strongly disagrees. it says it has been able to reduce injuries across their us operation, and has invested more than $1 billion into safety initiatives over the last four years. meanwhile, indian prime minister narendra modi has arrived in the united states

for a state visit. he earlier chatted with tesla's boss elon musk in new york, who said the ev maker will try to be in india very soon. mr modi's visit is expected to see both countries expand their cooperation in defence and high—technology sectors. singapore—based tech trade grab is laying off 1,000 employees. that's about 11% of its workforce. its chief executive said that the move was needed so that the company could reorganise to work faster and smarter. now, this is the first time grab has cutjobs since 2020, when the covid—i9 pandemic hit demand for its services. german manufacturing giant siemens is expanding its footprint in asia. it announced it was setting up a new plant in singapore and it still has a healthy amount

to spend for expansion in europe and the united states. we caught up with the chief executive roland busch and asked about the opportunities he is seeing. singapore is always a market for us because it is a high—tech manufacturing market and there is a lot of technology, it is a big ecosystem. and you see malaysia which is already quite mature, also in the gdp per capita, activities in malaysia. indonesia is coming up, indonesia's policy not to export raw material only, but to add a certain value at the first process steps, this requires investments. this is very interesting for us. but then, you also have vietnam, which is ramping up in their digital expertise, a lot of off—shoring and software is already going to vietnam. 30% of the world market of the industrial space comes from china. and this is our home turf. we have a very strong market share there. 0ur revenue which comes from china is 13%, 14%,

so it's not over proportional. and the strategy is very simple. we are there since 150 years, we will stay also in the future. we want to increase our market share in china. siemens is serving a 500 billion market and the outlook is that this market has a growth, combined annual growth for the next five years of 7%. which is much higher than we used to have, maybe 2% to 4% in the past. the reason is that our portfolio is geared for mega trends — climate change. so it's all about sustainable business and technologies. megatrend is urbanisation, which puts huge pressure on the infrastructure. is it mobility infrastructure? is it the distribution grid? massive investment to come. is it what we call ageing societies? that means it is a huge

demand for health care, but also the labour shortage. labour shortage means you have to have a high level of automation and digitalisation, which is our portfolio. and we have a global world, which is getting more local touch, so distributed manufacturing, what does it mean? more resilience, but it also means more greenfield investments in different regions. this is a business for siemens. and last but not least, one of the big megatrends which is accelerating all the others is digitalisation. and here, our portfolio is unmatched. we can combine the digital world is unmatched for any company because we are strong in software and we are strong in automation. and this combination means we have a great outlook for our business short—term, but also long—term. that is roland busch. a recent report estimated that tech spending in asia pacific will grow almost 6% this year,

to hit over $730 billion. and most of that won't be coming from developed economies like japan, but from places like southeast asia. earlier, i spoke with principal analyst lesleyjoseph and he explained why. so asia is between the new and the old at this point, but there are several nuances, so i thought i would illustrate this with three stories. the first is, if you think about developing asia like indonesia, it particularly offers a very apt metaphor for this inherent tension between developing asia, growth and legacy and future and past. the capitaljakarta, for example, incredible place, it has a young, digitally native population, bursting at the seams with digital adoption. there is also a healthy venture capitalism ecosystem and significant tech talent. all of this is happening while the city itself is sinking into the java sea, due to uncontrolled

ground water use and global warming. the second story is japan. japan offers another glimpse into another phase that has traditionally been more developed than the rest, but the population is ageing, the economy has turned to investments in robotics and automation. to offset that, the other major trend injapan is the fact that there is this gross undervaluation of tech talent. the wages for tech workers in most countries is somewhere between 8% to 10%, but in japan, it is slightly lower. now they need an influx of foreign workers to support the digital economy, so what will that do to the culture of the country because smack that is open. the last few years haven't been easy for the global the ukraine recovery conference gets under way in london. the ukraine economy shrank 29% last year due to the russian invasion.— year due to the russian invasion. ~ ., ~ ., , invasion. we would like to see continued _ invasion. we would like to see continued support _ invasion. we would like to see continued support to - invasion. we would like to see continued support to ukraine i continued support to ukraine for the essential social expenditures, which we consider

so important to maintain human development. bi; so important to maintain human development-— development. by social expenditures? - development. by social. expenditures? pensions, development. by social- expenditures? pensions, social safety nets. — expenditures? pensions, social safety nets, teacher _ expenditures? pensions, social safety nets, teacher salaries, l safety nets, teacher salaries, medical services to the population. secondly, we want to see priority investments in areas such as infrastructure, energy transport, agriculture, housing, incredibly important for ukraine. and thirdly, we want to make sure that we also look very carefully at the interplay of public and private, because there is no way we can do this by only the public sector.— public sector. you talk about the essential _ public sector. you talk about the essential things - public sector. you talk about the essential things that - public sector. you talk about the essential things that the | the essential things that the private sector want to see, to help them be able to invest in ukraine. things like raw materials, electricity access, internet access. what are the practical steps that you were at the world bank can do to help with this situation? 50 at the world bank can do to help with this situation? so we have 'ust help with this situation? so we have just done _ help with this situation? so we have just done a _ help with this situation? so we have just done a survey, - have just done a survey, actually, of about 2,000

domestic firms and multinationals, and what we have seen is actually quite interesting. of course they have had an impact on their revenues and employment. but overall, there is a great level of resilience. so four out of five firms are still staying engaged in ukraine, which is great. but they have changed and they have had to adapt. they have had to adapt geographical location and to act. what they need is of course continued support and mechanisms to stay engaged. if we look at the money that you want for ukraine can be given the state of the global economy, people talking about recession in the united states and europe, china's economy not firing on all cylinders, what is your expectation, do you think the money will be forthcoming?— think the money will be forthcomina? ~ . ., , forthcoming? well, i certainly ho -e so forthcoming? well, i certainly hope so because _ forthcoming? well, i certainly hope so because what - forthcoming? well, i certainly hope so because what we - forthcoming? well, i certainly| hope so because what we have lead in the world bank is you have to stay engaged during conflict. and i think that the international community coming around to help and support ukraine has helped arrest what otherwise would have been even

more devastating humanitarian impacts on the country. but more devastating humanitarian impacts on the country.- impacts on the country. but is it fair to say — impacts on the country. but is it fair to say ukraine _ impacts on the country. but is it fair to say ukraine can't - it fair to say ukraine can't recover by itself and it is going to need external help for many, many years? i going to need external help for many, many years?— going to need external help for many, many years? ithink so. i think even _ many, many years? ithink so. i think even if— many, many years? ithink so. i think even if the _ many, many years? ithink so. i think even if the war _ many, many years? ithink so. i think even if the war was - many, many years? ithink so. i think even if the war was to - think even if the war was to end today, there would be an adjustment period. the economy has changed a lot. poverty in ukraine has gone up. the dynamics and the demographics have changed. so there will need to be support for the time to come. but ukraine also has a lot of potential to turn a lot of its assets into economic opportunity and recovery. and thatis opportunity and recovery. and that is something that i am sure we will be discussing also during this conference.- during this conference. that's all we have — during this conference. that's all we have for— during this conference. that's all we have for this _ during this conference. that's all we have for this edition i during this conference. that's all we have for this edition of| all we have for this edition of ag report. you can keep up with the latest news by visiting our news website or download our app “ news website or download our app —— asia report. i'm monica miller, thanks for watching. bbc news, bringing you different stories from across the uk. this was birmingham's balti belt at its height.

dishes created by the pakistani community here put the city on the gastronomic map. very tasty, and it's quite reasonable in price. i've tried making this up at home. it never comes out anything like it. the ladypool road here in balsall heath was once the heart of the balti triangle. in its heyday, 20,000 diners a week would visit the dozens of balti houses here. now, just four remain — including shababs, which zaf hussain's family started in 1987. this is what a proper balti is. thin—pressed carbon steel. and it's cooked in here and served in here, and typically eaten out of here as well. a bit of chilli powder. why are you one of the few remaining? a lot of restaurants, in its sort of peak time, there was probably about a0 or 50. but the old boys have either passed away or theyjust haven't got it in them any more. they just want to retire,

whatever else, and there's no—one in the family to take it forward. there we go. classic birmingham—style chicken balti. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i'm stephen, with the catch—up. tonight: an andrew tate update, rising rents, and dozing off. let's start with the missing submarine deep underwater and the race to find it. there are five people on board and they were trying to get here, the wreck of the titanic. it's around 4,000 metres below sea level, off the coast of canada, and it takes around eight hours to get there and back. well, two hours into the dive, contact was lost. this is what it looks like. there's no seats, and an xbox controller is used to steer it.

a massive search is under way because there's no escape pod, and less than a0 hours of oxygen left. some other stories now, and we've got an update on andrew tate and his brother, tristan. they've been charged in romania with rape, human trafficking and forming a crime gang. they're accused of controlling women and forcing them to make porn videos. they deny doing anything wrong. has your rent gone up recently? well, new stats show, on average, it's eating up 28% of renters�* pay before tax. that�*s a bigger chunk than at any time in the past ten years. and if you�*re a fan of a nap, we�*ve got some good news for you. researchers say having a snooze for 30 minutes or less can keep us youngerfor longer, by stopping our brain shrinking as we get older. and we�*ll leave you with ten seconds of downing it. this is france�*s president macron drinking a beer in 17 seconds. he was celebrating with the la rochelle rugby team

for a win over the weekend. let�*s be honest, probably not a record—breaker, but the lads were still loving it, anyway. you�*re all caught up. have a great night. sport centre.

hello, from the bbc