of the term, asia meaning the east.east of where? presumably london, paris or berlin or rome. if look at what's to unfold and overwhelming positive and to the mutual benefit of all countries in the region. that has been, i think, so much the story over the last 35 years. again to simply sound the alarm to conclude from that that the forces of nationalism and ethno nationalism or religious nationalism in some cases have simply evaporated and died is simply a false analysis. and the battle royale within the region and for its future will again center around how these two conflicting forces are contented with. forces of globalization, intensity drawing this region together and forces of nationalism seeking always to tear the region apart, and sometimes tear nation states apart. so, the report card for the last 35 years has been quite reasonable. then in the last several years we begin to scratch our heads and ask what is happening and it is a complex and variable picture across the region. we often forget the ancient lesso

and we're the fourth largest economy in asia after china, japan and india. this equation is unfolding. so part of the american response is the transpacific partnership and the diplomacy associated with that. and for which there is a chinese counter narrative as well. i won't go into the probabilities and relative merits of both proposals. >> let me open it up for one or two questions. andre? >> thank you. i'm the chief representative from vietnam for the intrastate traveler company. wonderful address. thank you so much. so comprehensive. i just was taking notes from your remarks here. only thing that i have a question on is, in working towards this constructive realism, great term. you defined it well. but it seems like a fly in the ointment, so to speak -- >> seems like a what? >> a main obstacle to working towards constructive engagement with all those variables is that, of all the parties to the equation, only china -- only china -- continues to violate using violence to intrude into the exclusive economic zones of, you know, the philipp

the environment is shifting. southeast asia in particular is becoming more complicated as a region as we to reposition ourselves in the context of washington and beijing's search for an equilibrium. it's complex. it's more than washington and beijing. there are other powers that continue to adjust the relationship with each other and with with rcn. tensions have risen. there are several potential flash points that have to be managed. that makes the architecture a very important for us to look at. neutral has played a crucial part in maintaining regional peace and security. i don't want to overplay this role in rcn's strategic weight. those of you who know rcn and region, you know this is the -- the central role is due to the fact that we are a neutral platform rather than because we carry a strategic heft. in the neutral platform, rcn has offered a space for all major powers to discuss issues of concern, to build trust and to promote cooperation. what rcn has done has been to promote an open and inclusive approach. and welcomes

when you think of the term, "asia," meaning the east. east of where? presumably london, paris or berlin. or rome. but if you look at what is unfolded in asia itself, it's the internal dynamics which have generated so much of the wealth, the prosperity and the success. and the external dynamics with the extra regional partners has also been important, particularly the relationship with this country and its massive market, the united states. but the intraregional dynamics have been extraordinary to unfold and overwhelmingly positive. to the mutual benefit of all countries within the region. and that has been i think so much the story over the last 35 years. again, to simply sound the alarm, to conclude from that that the forces of nationalism and ethno nationalism or religious nationalism in certain cases have simply evaporated and died is simply a false analysis. the battle royale within the region and for its future will again center around how these two conflicting forces are contended with. forces of globalization. intensely drawing thi

the nikkei entering correction territory off 10%. nowmsci asia stocks index down in correction off from its high in september. there is a slight recovery today in those markets are open. don'tia and also taiwan take them out of the equation the nikkei now is storming ahead after significant moves last week and the correction today is rising 2%, a strong gain their. exported.anies up 6%. only one declining out of all 220 five stocks on the nikkei. there it is. a marginal decline in the rest gains showing you the dominant performance today from the nikkei. australia wine 1% having a very strong week five sessions in a row now. gains from the benchmark. and weston area. these are the ones seeing the gains. pointing quickly to this one, the nikkei before the correction today and there it is. this may beows you because it was feeling oversold and now it's time to buy. i will not even remotely make that call. >> today will be a moment of political history in indonesia. aso widodo is being sworn in president winning on a wave of optimism that expectatio

they met on the sidelines of the asia-europe meeting in milan. during their ten minutes together he says he places importance on bilateral political dialogue, even under difficult circumstances. the two leaders agreed to talk again on the sidelines of next month's cooperation forum in beijing. they last met eight months ago. >>> japan's prime minister has sent an offering to yasukuni shrine in tokyo at the start of its autumn festival. the shinto shrine honors japan's war dead. those remembered include leaders convicted of war crimes after world war ii. abe made the offering of a potted plant on friday, using his name and title of prime minister. abe visited the shrine in december last year. he also made an offering of a potted plant during the spring festival in april. and on august 15, the day japan marks the end of world war ii, he made a different type of offering using his private money. japan's top government spokesperson referred to the latest offering. >> translator: i understand he sent an offering. it was done in a private capacity, so i

the asean minsters and the east asia summit. for more than 60 years, the presence has been a stabilizing influence that has underpinned asia's and asean's growth. there are and we will hear this regularly multiple and overlapping structures of the regional architecture that reflect the complex diversity of the asia-pacific region. this overlapping structure makes a regional framework more flexible and resilient. let me go to each one of the structures we have in the security area. the first and the longest running has been the erf which was created in 1994 as a forum for security discussions that will engage not just the major powers and middle and smaller powers to preserve the state in the region's stability in the coast cold war e.r.a. it's the only multilateral framework in the region. yet another structure that we have is the admm plus. they are forcing in 2006. its establishment of the admm first was the commitment of asean countries to have the establishments to work together to address transnational security issues. we th

the u.s. response to asia. i heard most of them that i would agree with and i think the question is not -- is america doing something. clearly they are. the question is what america, what are they doing, is adding up to a set of actions unilaterally multilaterally and fundamentally impacting china's calculus as it presses out in the east china sea and south china sea and etc. there's the other piece that overhangs this which is that it isn't just about asia. something is talking about how much and security issues with asian partners, how much of it comes back to the ukraine and what is happening there and how the u.s. is responding. last year the response to syria, the crossing of the purported red line and many people in asia asking what are the implications of this for us. maybe that is an unfair question and out of bounds, but it is real. it's something that i think that many members of congress are sensitive to. so i would say in conclusion the architectural issues that we are discussing, there's a lot of po

the u.s. strategic balance in asia is not a form of heart containment? t goes on to the question of the missions that can tame it. i mean, the structuring nation has existed as e-mail since the 40s and 50s. it was primarily constructed in those days as the principal reference to firstly a resurgent japan in the case of the australian alliance and not really in terms of the soviet union. so the alliance structures have long existed. there's often a long discourse of more marines going to die when. well, there used to be 1.5000 marines coming each year for three men. numbers 2.5 for each month. i would say holden extradition of the strategic talents put up by the double i double as because that is the strategic equation. it doesn't. it's kind of a normal evolution of alliance arrangements, which have multiple applications. so again, i go back to definitions of containment. it doesn't actually fit the term. there are probably other terms, which are better used in the international discourse to describe to a strategic responses, but containment is not one of

we have the east asia and pacific chief economist at the world bank releasing the report. thank you for joining us. let's talk about your overall downgrade for east asia. why did you revise the forecast year? >> thank you so much for having me on? -- on. it is a gradual decline that we and muchhe -- project of this comes from the slowing of china that we anticipate. this will grow at 7.4% year, compared to 7.7%. the rest of what we call developing east asia and pacific 5.2 24.8% --w from 4.8% and will rebound on the back of economic recovery. we anticipate the growth in developing east asia and the and,ic will be 6.9% leaving aside china, will actually grow to about 5.2% or 5.3%. >> you notice the latest protests here in hong kong and the impact on hong kong, if it extends any longer. outlook and you slowhat the protests will growth. what factored into your assessment? >> let me be clear that the report that we have here is callrily about what we developing east asia and the pacific. kong int highlight hong these estimates. at the same time, we are at the and looking at hon

the mood here at the asia festival here is confident. a third of the population here have asian roots. many immigrants and their children have worked their way up to middle and upper echelons of american society. life on the cosmopolitan pacific coast has changed many asians. but they've also changed america. gym class at the mission san jose high school in silicon valley. here, the growing asian influence is particularly apparent. the school gets better table tennis and badminton results than it does in american football. when principle zach larsen attended this school, nearly all of his classmates were caucasian. today, nearly 90% of the 2200 students are asian. he explains how the academic climate has changed. >> i've heard kids joke about the b is an asian f and that sort of thing. but overall, the kids work hard and they do very, very well. our school's average gpa is quite high, up in the upper 3s and the kids work hard and it shows. >> whether solving equations or learning languages, they are diligent and eager to learn. but the co

from the asia-pacific region. and i was disappointed to see that. the world bank had a test run, a study of the financing across the asia-pacific. a paper that will be published that david wilson is working on. it shows that there -- you know, in this case, the response is overwhelmingly dependent upon government commitments but is very flat and very deficient. so that's something. myanmar, we did a session that chris was very instrumental in helping us organize, a regional session which the deputy minister from myanmar came and presented. this was a bit of a debut. i think the government of myanmar had overcome its sense of embarrassment or discomfort at talking publicly about its programs. it came forward in a very candid, comprehensive, honest and forthright way, and that was so refreshing to see. and the response was great. i mean, you had dozens of myanmar folks come and those from the region and you had the indonesians and thai experts join in that effort as well. so i was really delighted to see that. thank you. >> okay. so let's open it up to

he called it the asia infrastructure investment bank. now china's finance minister is backing the idea. he held a uh news conference after the apec meeting and said there is a massive short fall of money for funding infrastructure in the asia pacific. he said nobody brought up the issue at the meeting though they are aware of it. >> it would compliment the world bank and asian development bank. officials welcome the idea. >> sources say araengsment where is r made for nations supporting the proposal to exchange memorandums of proposal in beijing. japanese government officials have said they will not participate. they have expressed doubts about the transparency of management. let's check on markets now. investors on wall street worried by shootings in ottawa and another fall in oil prices. u.s. stock prices ended the day lower. the blue chip dow jones shed nearly 1%. now an update on how investors in japanese shares are reacting. he's standing by at the tokyo stock exchange. good morning. what can you tell snus. >> good morning. it looks

markets trading here in the asia-pacific. starting the day with gains extending despite losses on friday, one .4% down. seeing a reversal after wall street saw gains, we are seeing the global equities extend the rally here. south korea climbing more than 1%. the asx 200 also seeing gains as a much we take a look at more optimistic start to the trading week. over in india, the prime minister has boosted his ability to introduce intentionally policies with unpopular wins in two states. politically risky decision over the weekend. has freedernment diesel prices from state control for the first time in over a decade. they also raised on natural gas. are steps meant to curb subsidies that were meant to help poor farmers in have contributed to one of asia's biggest budget deficits. natural gas output has been declining since 2010. exxon mobil and others have been discouraged for bidding on oil and gas blocks. these two big decisions on the sarin gas will help bring in a lot of investment and increase energy supplies. theseuld he ge

and good for the world, and especially good for the asia pacific. and showing to a year ago who could not have entered the country, they are not going to look back, but look forward. >> the performance lately hasn't been that rising oproblem prows promising india no, not at all, and there is such excitement that maybe he will change that, a 5.7% growth rate, which for slow growth america sounds terrific, but when you have 1 million or many people seeking to enter the job market, it isn't enough. and so i think the excitement that you saw, when i walk by the white house today, it was terrific. there is an excitement that maybe he will bring change, but the reality is it is sit rhetoric. people will start looking for real action. the details. >> he promised to change it, was did he just saily change it, or was he more program itic did he diagnose the problems? is. >> he ran to alarming extent on his record as chief minister which has been one of the most successful states in india in the last decade and he ran on a program of helping the young people.

with the conversation new head of asia-pacific at blackrock. d interest rates are going up. .ou have just arrived here i met with mark mccone on wednesday, who said the domination factor is about short-term. >> i think it is one of the components of education we are trying to push. that goes with institutional and retail investors. we are seeing a change take hold in the context of getting clients around allocation. of the long-term nature their investment portfolios, to take some of that short-term interest out of the market. from a return perspective markets have been challenging. that is a big head when -- headwind when the portfolio is anxious about the return activity. they are setting a strategy for the long term. we are seeing the markets like taiwan and japan and others where they have seen hard turnover growth. some of that comes out of the market. >> is it very difficult to get a ? >> i don't know if it is challenging to give him a target. if you think about the asset classes we are focused on in the region, certainly a global asset cl

the former british colony here as well. so we're just about 40 points elow that, 22,963. asia edges back in a couple minutes. >> keeping it all in the family in india. enbarney. od to be and yum! brands designs on myanmar. this is the world's biggest oil refine are. it's reliance, reporting later today and we're expecting it to have the slowest growth in a year. analyst says profit would be up about 2% because that would be the last quarter because of asia's weakening demand for fuel. chcht is spending $29 billion to expand the oil business there and starting a new telecom service next year. reports have been on changes on the reliance's board and his two children have joined. a generation next preparing to take over? >> the third generation, clearly the indication we have seen the succession that in the private sector. the youngest children, -year-old twins acache and ikish, for reliance retail. it is really interesting. reliance had been working since the 2015 launch for 4g telecom service. associated with the telecom venture and involved in the development of products and d

. >> but there are also concerns about the increase in foreign people becoming korean. >> this episode "asiansight" focuses on south korea's new citizens. south korea continues to globalize its public and private sectors for the sake of its economic growth. but the country is also struggling with a labor shortage, a growing income gap, and an aging society. as one solution, the government has been increasingly accepting foreign labor. the number of foreign residents in south korea has now reached over 1.5 million. doubling over the past decade. this p.r. video was made by the government. south korea has established various laws to make it easier for foreigners to live in the country. and also to attract them here. one of the laws aims to increase foreign labor. another called the multicultural family law, aims to promote international marriages. in 2011, the government revised part of the nationality law to improve dual citizenship for skilled foreigners with outstanding talents, starting a multiple citizenship system. the home rink of the anyang ice hockey team is located on outskirts of se

he'll be there as chairman of the forum for asia. the group organizes discussions among political, business and academic leaders. analysts say the visit could help bring about a summit between shinzo abe and president xi, that would happen on the sidelines on the economic cooperation meeting next month in beijing. he last met with xi in july and told him abe wanted to talk. a group of japanese lawmakers visiting seoul has met with park geun-hye. they passed on the message that he wants to improve ties and say the south korean leaders expressed willingness but remains cautious about holding summit talks with abe. members of the japan korea parliament air yan union met park on friday in the run-up in of the 50th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic ties. she took up the issue on those referred to as comfort women. she says it's the first issue to be fixed in making a new start in bilateral relations. after the meeting, the head of the group says he conveyed abe's message. >> we told her prime minister abe's message that japan and

whether it is going to confirm the slowdown in asia. the u.s. and europe seem to be enough to compensate for the slowdown in asia. the perfumes, as you mentioned, did really well. plus 8% in the first nine months of the year. the watches and jewelry division also growing. about 5%. the problem is perfumes and watches are not necessarily the biggest margins. they have a lower margins than the fashion. >> face for the roundup on the numbers. ," will speakntdown to the vice chairman of a luxury trade group in italy. >> cures a phrase -- that you might here is a phrase that you might feel is over used. new normal. slower but steady for luxury. now to media. has been used many times before. if you want to talk about these things, the overuse of new normal, join us at twitter. >> after the break, we will talk to the chinese inflation figures. at they mean for the health of asia upon economy. asia's upon economy -- economy. ♪ >> time for today's company news. that is after the u.s. treasury department proposed changes designed to divest companies locat

the asia pacific region starting the week pretty mixed today. investors encouraged by recent u.s. earnings reports. they have been stronger than what many were expecting. and investors were relieved that most european banks have passed financial health tests. the nikkei average rose more than 0.6% to finish at 15,388. that's the highest close that we've seen for the nikkei in two weeks. stocks related to domestic demand like the drugmakers and telecoms were in demand. investors pretty hopeful that these companies will release upbeat earnings reports. markets in shanghai and hong kong were down, though. the officials at the hong kong stock exchange say they plan to set up a trading link with the shanghai exchange. it won't be launched this week as expected. investors thought they'd be able to begin investing in mainland stocks by the end of october. the shanghai composite, there you see it down more than half a percent, 2,290. that makes for the fifth straight day of decline there. shares of brokerage firms faced heavy selling due to uncertainty about the plan to link the two excha

of the term. asiat. east of where? but if you look at what is unfolding in asia itself, it is the internal dynamics that have generated some much of the wealth and prosperity and success. in the external dynamics with the extra regional partners has also been important, particularly with relation to this country. but the into regional dynamics have been extraordinary unfold and overwhelmingly positive. to the mutual benefit of all countries within the region. and that has been so much the story of the last 35 years. but, again, to simply sound the alarm, to conclude from that that the forces of nationalism and ethnic nationalism or religious nationalism in certain cases have simply evaporated and died is simply a false analysis. and the battle royale with in the region and for its future will, again, center around how these two competing forces are contend with, globalization, intentionally trying this region together and forces of nationalism seeking always to tear the region apart. so the report card

they met on the sidelines of the asia-europe summit in milan. david cameron was one of the leaders at the meeting. he said the onus remains on president putin to bring an end to the conflict in eastern ukraine. >> vladimir putin said very clearly that he doesn't want a divided ukraine. but if that's the case, then russia now needs to take the actions to put in place all that's been greed, getting russian troops out of ukraine, getting heavy weapons out of ukraine and respecting all the agreements and only recognizing one legitimate set of ukrainian elections. and if those things don't happen, then clearly the european union, britain included, must keep in place the sanctions and the pressure so that we don't have this sort of contact in our continent. >> british prime minister david cameron. let's speak to damian gramaticas. we're getting mixed messages. a spokesman for the kremlin is saying there were lots of divisions and a lot of confusion. >> reporter: sally, you're absolutely right. this is now the asia-europe meeting venue, where the breakf

the asia-pacific index also down. look at today, a different picture. the u.s. figures are out, very encouraging. jobless claims that a 14 year low, that is very encouraging. you see the nikkei at the lunch break is up the most, by 3.5%. every single one of the stocks are rising, not one single decline. china is the worst performer. vietnam in jakarta has seen gains -- and jakarta habit seen gains. .aiwan you're seeing every major benchmark. japan was delayed by a few minutes, but it is well ahead. i will show you this very quickly, the performers on the nikkei today. you see how it has fallen 100.8%, but now it is above the 15,000 mark. technical traders will like it, because that is how they recouped below. -- recoupe the low. the question is, will it hold that at the closing level? we saw that at the lunch break, it is holding. the weak yen. there is not one decline are on the japanese benchmark. -- decline are on the japanese benchmark. >> political history being written in indonesia . jokowi taking the prime minister shipped today -- presidency today. but t

the rest of europe and also in asia. the latest figures come a month after the company said it had misinformed investors by overstating its expected profits. our reporter is at a tesco store in west london for us. the bad news just keeps oncoming for tesco at the moment. >> reporter: it does, alice. for the past few years, tesco has been a byword for tesco. but its fall from grace has been pretty spectacular. the figures you've just reeled off, 90% fall in profits. big falls in like for like sales. and all against this background of an impossible criminal investigation. now, we spoke to some of the shoppers here today. and although they come here -- many say it's only because it's their local store. they weren't exactly brimming over with enthusiasm. the big issue for tesco has been the battle with the budget retailers. certainly here in britain, there have been other companies such as little and aldi which have got a real foothold in the market, by offering much lower prices. analysts say that tesco certainly has not bee

the u.s. gets to asia. so when you're talking about any kind of force protection or force projection, we are much closer here than almost anywhere else in the world. >> reporter: competition between the u.s. and china is set to heat up as the two powers vie for supremacy in the region. charmaine deogracias, nhk world, guam. >>> time for the latest in business news. more people are turning to smart phones and tablets, but that's not welcome news for the people at hewlett-packard. good morning. tell us what's happening at hp. >> hp isn't known for their smart phones or tablet computers. they make more traditional gadgets like personal computers and printers, but fewer people are buying those things and that's hurting hp's bottom line. executives are trying to turn things around. they've decided to split their company in two. officials say one unit will focus on its old business of computers and printers. the other unit will target corporate clients, providing cloud and other data management services. executive

taking a look now at stock markets the asia pacific region faced heavy declines across the board today with many markets down more than 1%. recent sell-offs on wall street worsened investor sentiment. tokyo's nikkei average fell to 15,300. it dropped for a fourth straight day and sunk to a two-month low. a fall in oil prices dragged down shares of oil developer impecs. and in sydney energy shares taking a bit of beading with santos among them. the index tumbled more than 2% falling to 5,188 and that erased all of thursday's gains falling to a fresh eight-month low. also in hong kong, oil related firms such as petrochina suffering sharp losses. the hang seng index closed down nearly 2%, 23,so 88. investor worried flared up after the government cancelled scheduled talks with pro-democracy protesters. okay that is going to do it for biz this hour. >> thank you very much, ron. now fish exporters in northern japan are eyeing some new technology to help heat up their sales. they're experimenting with a new way to ship their products. and they're now casting their sales net to markets abroad.

hong kong is the biggest declining index across asia today. two of them are following because of all of those in the same area. that's the impact of the uncertainty in the delay. >> japan is coming back from its lunch break and putting in the best are performance. better.alia has seen industries coming out. led higher by the u.s. markets, what you saw on friday, a very good gain. back up, all three showing big performances. tok in asia, figures to look this coming week. sales, verytail important with regards to the april sales tax rise and the big crucial rise affecting retail sales in september. question, will it be lingering still? casting a question on whether we will raise them again next year. green is not the majority there. tuesday we have retail sales tomorrow. friday bank of japan. dan does the fed winds up quantitative easing, what will the bank of japan do? overall, that's the japanese story. back over to you. piling up against the equity markets. they are saying that it is perhaps a signal they are buying and we are moving this to t

societye, the asia senior. southwest airlines has a new logo and a new look. ll meet the ad man behind the love at southwest airlines. ♪ >> this is "taking stock" on bloomberg. i am pimm fox. it is not just about getting the account. it is also about earning the company's trust for real relationships. the austan, texas-based firm was started by a bunch of college grads in 1971. instead, it has built relationships with some of the biggest brands in the world, such as john deere, marshalls, walgreens, and southwest airlines. he stopped by to teach me the art of the tagline. ,> when we think about branding southwest airlines, you think about the traditional idea in marketing, which is ladders. a consumer has in his mind where a brand sits on a b read if you thought about the airline letter, you would have the traditional airlines that we have known for a long time, the legacy carriers. southwest was more about giving people the freedom to fly. they were on their own latter, quick turns, low fares, and the opportunity for people to travel for low prices. originally

there you see the asia pacific region. pretty mixed. shanghai and hong kong posting solid gains following recent market weakness. >>> the nikkei average, one of the markets that did see declines today down just about 0.4%, 15,329, retreating from a two-week high that it hit the previous day. investors locked in profits ahead of the fed's policy meeting. and the shanghai composite with nice gains up more than 2%, 2,337 rebounding from a one-month low that it hit on monday. investors bought back recent decliners like brokerage shares. and the hang seng index also seeing pretty sharp gains. today up 1.6%, and that snapped a three-day losing streak there. chinese official media say a stock connect system between shanghai and hong kong would not be postponed indefinitely and this seemed to ease investor concerns about the delay. >>> well another japanese bank is about to enter the asian markets. officials with sumitomo mitsui trust bank have formed a tie-up with a major taiwanese group. the alliance will help japanese companies do more busine

he is the chairman of the forum for asia. it organizes discussions among political, business and academic leaders. the meeting was held on the sidelines of the forum. only the beginning of the meeting was open to the media. xi said the forum has achieved remarkable results in the past several years. fukuda said china should play a bigger role in asia, but he said with that would come greater responsibility. after the meeting, he told reporters he could not disclose the contents of the talks, but he was positive. >> translator: japan-china relations were not on the agenda. the conversation was more general. >> when fukuda last met xi in july, he passed along a message from prime minister shinzo abe. abe said he's open to the idea of holding a summit with xi on the sidelines of the asia-pacific economic cooperation forum in beijing next month. chinese foreign minister wang yi told reporters he hopes japan's leaders will show sincerity in resolving issues with china. wang was briefing them on the upcoming apec meeting. foreign me

discuss the challenges with energy security in asia. sted by the center for strategic and international studies this is about an hour. >> i know people are still coming in but it looks like they are getting coffee. i work on the program here at csi s.. we are working with scott miller's team to put on today's conference. our next agenda item, the next panel is on energy security in asia. we know the picture in asia has changed very dramatically over the last decade at least in part because of the rapid economic growth. as a, we have to great panelists to join us here today and who will give us brief overviews of the situation from their perspective and then we will have a discussion involving the audience. so, the first speaker is jonathan, who is the acting assistant secretary of international affairs at the u.s. department of energy. previously, jonathan served as the principal deputy assistant secretary for the office of policy and international affairs and are really her before that can work the brookings institution on energy and fo

here across the eastern continental asia things are look chilly. even in and around tokyo we're seeing very nippy conditions. you are seeing already first snow of the season. 15 centimeters is already piling up as of 9:00 a.m. and a lot of locations in the north is looking winter like but it's in the south a very different story. and we're looking at very heavy rainfall in and around thailand. southern areas are seeing severe flooding. 200 households have been affected in these communities, not just these rural areas but the capital is seeing severe floods. bangkok university was closed yesterday. and the vendors are working in flooded streets. unfortunately the rain will be continuing in and around southern area os of thailand and in and around bangkok you have a chance of thunderstorms on your tuesday. across europe, this is an area where we have some red alert for warnings for rainfall. very heavy rainfall of about -- of actually -- the heaviest in 50 years could be expected here in southern norway. this is something to watch out for. this is due

the big challenges are pockets of extreme poverty. especially in sub saharan africa and in south asia. these are the two regions that still have the highest concentrations of extreme poverty. now, there are many problems. these are generally rural families for example, where it's farmers living on very small farm plots, not very high productivity, low income. and maybe lack of access to education. so, the big challenge is cooperation globally to help make the investments to raise the incomes and the productivity of very poor countries and very poor communities. >> he also told us why he believes sustainability is the key to development. >> we say sustainable development means three objectives. economic, social and environmental. the theory is that if you just focus on one, say the economic, but the social objectives lead to greater tension, less trust in the society, then this will lead to instability and eventually also the economic crisis. if you have economic development, but don't take care of the natural environment, then you have crisis of pollution, water scarcity and climate c

. >>> and the upper momentum in tokyo helped push up shares in the asia pacific region. you can see there, gains across the board. >>> all right. i'll be back a little bit later on in the show with more biz. >>> japan's top government spokesperson says north korea's pledge to look more thoroughly into the fate of japanese abductees offers a fresh perspective on the issue. his statement follows a visit to pyongyang by a japanese delegation tasked with getting an update on the investigation. chief japanese delegate junichiro ichihara had two days of talks with the chairman of the special investigation committee. its members are looking into the fate of japanese missing in north korea, including abductees. five abductees returned to japan in 2002. but what happened to 12 japanese citizens whom the government recognizes as abductees is still unknown. pyongyang says its investigations show that eight abductees are dead, and that the other four never entered north korea. japanese government officials say the meetings were meaningful. they say the delegation was able to speak di

you are senior consultant for research at the asia development bank institute in the chinese economy. >> the kmooin economy has been weak this year. you have seen sluggish growth in europe and you have had the weakness in the real estate market with housing prices declining. also there's been the effects of trying to slow down the growth of credit in the shadow banking sector. and chilling effects on investment from the anti-corruption campaign. there were some stimulus measurings but i think overall the government was trying to keep them fairly limited. >> imf economists have raised concerns about real estate. tell us more about that, please. >> there is quite a bit of excess capacity because of previous high rates of housing construction in pretty much most of the major cities with the possible exceptions of shanghai and beijing. this is now being reflected in declining housing prices and of course once the buyers stop buying, then the construction companies have less incentive to build more units. and they're also concerned about not being able to sell the existing units which coul