Transcripts For BBCNEWS BBC Business Live 20240714 : vimarsa

Technology is proving problematic. Well explain why. We took it with the main issues gcioss we took it with the main issues across the Financial Markets in europe. Style and substance. We meet the man who designs everything from jewellery to furniture, from bikes to video games. But what exactly makes good design . Complaints about british betting firms have soared 5000 in 5 years and last year gamblers lost a record £14. 5bn. So is gambling too easy . Should more be done to keep players safe . Let us know just use the hashtag bbcbizlive. Hello and welcome to business live. Welcome to the programme. Thank you for your comments on gambling. One asked if it is so easy why have they lost 1a billion plans . Good point. We start in hong kong, where its the tenth week in a row for demonstrations and increasingly businesses are having to choose between staffs right to protest and not upsetting beijing. Over the weekend, hong kongs flagship carrier Cathay Pacific fired two airport employees and suspended a pilot for conduct linked to Anti Government protests. Its shares have fallen almost 4 percent this morning. Hong kongs chief executive carrie lam says the unrest is causing more damage than the 2008 financial crisis. In fact the economy which has been hit by chinas trade war with the us saw growth come in at an anaemic 0. 6 in the Second Quarter, compared to the same period last year. Thats much less than the 1. 6 previously forecast and the weakest growth in a decade. Carrie lam warned thatjobs will be hit because of the disruption to business and has called on landlords to reduce rent to help companies. Tourism is especially important it accounts for 5 of the entire economy with the majority of visitors coming from mainland china. The hong kong tourist board says it saw a double digit decline in overall visitor numbers in the last month and a significant drop in bookings for august and september. Joining us now is economist dr linda yueh. She is also the author of the great economists. Lets focus on the business and Economic Impact because that political impact is still being debated elsewhere in the news. But the number is astonishing for the Economic Impact, what is your assessment of how damaging it could be . You have seen this in second figures and the protests continue as seems likely it will impact the hong kong economy in the coming months. You can look at it in different ways, one is that domestic hong kong people are not willing to go out and spend as they have been because many of these protests are going to be disruptive in terms of transport and of course you also see a fall in tourism, around 22 countries have issued travel advisories against travelling to hong kong. And there is around 7 drop in terms of Hotel Bookings in the coming couple of months according to some leading hotel groups. That is directly affected by choice thinking hang on, ifi affected by choice thinking hang on, if i could choose a place to go maybe i will go elsewhere until things calm down. So there is a weak Second Quarter figures that weve seen Second Quarter figures that weve seen may Second Quarter figures that weve seen may well extend through to the Third Quarter depending on whether this is resolved quickly or not. Third quarter depending on whether this is resolved quickly or notlj thought this is resolved quickly or not. |j thought that may also translate through to financial services, hong kong clearly an important Financial Hub but also a trading hub and i wonder about the impact of trade passing through hong kong and the perception that Business Leaders may have about hong kong is a place to do business . That is key in terms of the longer term impact of these protests. Hong kong has seen widespread protests, the umbrella protest as you will recall from a few years ago had no Lasting Impact because Business Confidence remained. So far business travel, businesses operating in hong kong and treating it as a hub has not really yet been seen in terms of impact. Of course there are short term warnings but longer term it depends on whether there is confidence that hong kong will maintain its institutions and find a resolution with mainland china. Of course the one country, two systems are supposed to lose, to last for 50 yea rs. As are supposed to lose, to last for 50 years. As long as the longer term expectation is that hong kong retains its system then businesses will continue to operate as they are coming in and out of hong kong. But the trade was of course with the us and china is also having an effect because hong kong, no longer the dominant help in terms of shipping into china but still very important one China Mainland china has also expanded its ports. That is being hit also by a Global Economic slowdown, major world economies are slowing down in terms of growth and thatis slowing down in terms of growth and that is worsened by the trade wars. Hong kong will also always be affected by global conditions. But the longer term impact in terms of Business Confidence in hong kong will depend on those institutions being as robust as they have been. Good to talk to you. Lets take a look at some of the other stories making the news. Saudi aramco, the worlds top oil producer, says revenues came in at nearly 161; billion in the first half of the year, thats down from 168 billion in the same period last year. The company has blamed Lower Oil Prices and a cut in production. Profits were down i2 . Rumours this weekend suggest the long anticipated stock market floation of the company could be back on the cards, after plans to list the firm were pulled last year. South korea has said that as of september it plans to drop japan from its list of countries with fast track trade status. The ministry of trade and energy said in a statement that tighter trade regulations will apply to south korean exports to japan. The move is seen as a retaliation afterjapan removed south koreas fast track trade privileges earlier this month. And the somewhat complicated political situation in asia is proving a headache for one fashion house. Luxury brand versace has apologised after an image on one of its t shirts appeared to imply hong kong and macau were independent territories. Lets go to our Asia Business hub where sarah toms is following the story. Tell us more about this faux pas on the part of versace. There has been a lot of fierce criticism of versace over the weekend and social media in china and also today and it is all over this image and a t shirt featuring a list of cities and country pairings for instance when london was listed it was london uk oi london was listed it was london uk ormilan, london was listed it was london uk or milan, italy but when hong kong and macau were listed there was no mention of China Hong Kong and macau are both part of china but have special status and that gives people who live there more autonomy than People Living on the mainland. China is increasingly strict in policing help Foreign Companies describe hong kong and versace is not the only company to face the ire of china but the timing is particularly sensitive coming as we have been reporting as hong kong has seen ten weeks of pro democracy protests and they are becoming increasingly violent. Thank you very much indeed. Markets in asia, that was last week in japan, it isa asia, that was last week in japan, it is a Public Holiday now injapan but as you can see hong kong com pletely but as you can see hong kong completely flat at the end of the day and a stranger and other markets just a little bit lower on the day. Many markets in asia are closed today, singapore, the philippines and others and notablyjapan today, singapore, the philippines and others and notably japan for a Public Holiday. Lets look at european trading and as we can see all markets higher but a big loser for london as thomas cook shares which are down some 25 already this morning, it increased its Capital Raising plan and had to admit this would dilute the existing shareholder status so that has hit thomas cook shares and it will be an interesting week. The price of oil is edging lower today as well and lots of earnings coming out of china, ali barber, walmart also in the us so a lot to keep an eye on even when we are in the so called summer silly season from Financial Markets. And Samira Hussain has the details of whats ahead on wall street today. Tencent music, the music streaming arm of the chinese tech giant tencent holdings, is often referred to as chinas spotify. They will be reporting earnings on monday. The Company Continues to grow the number of subscribers it has and the number of subscribers it is able to retain. Both of those factors will likely have a positive impact on their earnings. Take a look at their last report. Revenues from Online Music Services were up by almost 30 , beating expectations. Now, the company is also reportedly in talks to buy a 10 stake in universal music group, the record label behind artists like Ariana Grande and drake. If that deal goes through, it would allow universal artists to be promoted on tencent. It is bens birthday today so he is not really on it as much as usual i did forget that we are overcoming that on air joining us is simon french, chief economist, panmure gordon. We were talking about tencent and given the us china trade spat it is interesting how these massive Chinese Companies are doing. You mentioned the Chinese Companies and also walmart and all three, the results will be looked at for the us china trade war that we hear a lot about how that will impact in terms of Investor Sentiment Going Forward because tariffs will hit margins for a company like walmart but for chinese technology, could there be limitations on some diversification outside of china . We heard about tencent trying to buy a stake in universal music and those could potentially be limited as part of this trade war. And looking aside from that decidedly quiet, as sally said is its august silly season but still has geopolitical issues keeping everyone on edge. One of the problems with thin volume with people away from their desks is the small amount of news that can affect shareholding prices. We are focusing on this bilateralfeud between shareholding prices. We are focusing on this bilateral feud between the us and china but this could go broader and as the Us Administration moves towards electioneering for 2020 uc europe, japan targeted and you need to price that into the kind of friction is that we are seeing bilaterally and multilaterally. Thank you. Still to come. Made in britain we meet the man who aims to prove you dont have to substitute substance for style when designing new products. A fascinating story and we will give you all the background behind that. Youre with business live from bbc news. Despite some very heavy discounting as much as 90 at m s it wasnt enough to attract shoppers into stores injuly. Total retail sales are still going up, but very slowly, byjust 0. 3 this july compared to last year. But the number of empty shops in town centres is at its highest in four years. Diane wehrle is insights director at springboard. How bad is it, we seem to get bad news after bad news. Put that in context for us . In context it is not that bad at all. We have been tracking football, football for the past decade or more and publishing data for a decade and we are seeing a long term trend for decline because of our changing Shopping Habits due to the internet. So a fall of one, 2 we see all the time. What we are seeing at the moment is also a decline in the uplift in online spend which is still increasing but increasing much less. So theres definitely some caution around with consumers and their confidence is low because of uncertainty about what is happening economically and politically in the uk. Sojust economically and politically in the uk. So just reining economically and politically in the uk. Sojust reining back on their spending and that is clearly impacting on footfall and online spend and also the rental vacancy rate is increasing as time goes by. That trend has been something that has continued for quite some time, but downward trend in occupancy in high streets and no Shopping Centres as well. What reverses that . What we re as well. What reverses that . What were looking to do is experience, we are buying less product as consumers, we have been buying product for decades and now many young people live in rented accommodation, not big places, so they do not want to keep buying and buying and there are much more about experiences days so it is about creating retail that has that experience element to it and offering more than just opportunities to buy a product but to experience may be a workshop or those sorts of things. Good to talk to you. More details on the bbc website. Youre watching business live our top story protests continue in hong kong this morning the National Carrier Cathay Pacific has sacked Staff Members who took part in demonstrations causing the share price to fall. An huge number of protesters are gathering in the airport in hong kong showing solidarity to those sacked at cathy pacific. Now design is all around us. And when its done right, we probably dont even notice. Things that are well designed, just seem to work. And the uk is helping drive future design. A recent poll from kpmg ranked the country as the third most dynamic Global Centre of innovation and Technological Development behind only the us and china. In 2018, alone there were around 5. 6 million Small Businesses in the uk creating new ideas and designs. And our next guest is one of them. He and his team create everything from jewellery to furniture and for individuals and global brands. Patrick laing is the director of Design Studio Patrick Laing design. Hes with us now. Good morning. How did this all begin because you are extremely established with clients all over the world. But right at the beginning how did you get seriously established . When i graduated all the businesses i wanted to work for required two years experience. Which idid not required two years experience. Which i did not have. So i began resolving clothing rails for businesses that we re clothing rails for businesses that were selling their garments to buyers for International Stores and then from that i began to get a reputation as someone who could resolve with a bit of style does problems for people and it gradually moved into a shop window display and then stores. So by the age of 203 had designed my first store. How would you define design, you describe it as solving a problem and you do not necessarily notice the design as we said earlier because it just works. I think you have a nswered just works. I think you have answered your own question, absolutely. To some extent there that joy to it absolutely. To some extent there thatjoy to it invisible almost and thatjoy to it invisible almost and that balance of it having lasting permanence that something that you hold and look after, he spoke about people consuming less objects which isa people consuming less objects which is a good thing, less Carbon Footprint for the transport of the item and less manufacturing, not that you want less manufacturing to be going on, necessarily but it is about choice and prudence and care for so you are making things that have substantial value in the long term. As a designer do you want people to notice your design, to sit and think that is beautiful, that is very well designed and solves the problem or you just want it to work . Theres the balance of both but it is about the long term. You want to tell a joke that will tell well in ten yea rs tell a joke that will tell well in ten years orjust to be funny in that moment . You brought in some stuff that you have designed so show us stuff that you have designed so show us this funky mudguard. Crazy rainfall in the uk every cyclists need one of these. Why do you need a mudguard that rolls up like that . Basically people do not like mudguards, they are noisy, they clatter, and many of them are removable which seems strange because you put something wet and 599y because you put something wet and soggy in a bag. This is all the time, it cannot be stolen and you can then pull it out whilst youre writing. And all sorts of different types of product but another example is jewellery. These wedding types of product but another example isjewellery. These wedding rings are isjewellery. These wedding rings a re really isjewellery. These wedding rings are really unusual. What do you like to do most, thejewellery or things like the mudguards . Theyre both about material manipulation and understanding the properties of material and making the most out of them. Both have a substantive long term pleasure in them, i have opened these things tens of hundreds of times yet opened these things tens of hundreds of times yet i come at the pleasure in doing it are still there. Tell us about the rings. The wedding rings are cast so youre always holding hands, we have a kit now that we can send you the materials to make the rings at home or wherever you are, singapore, hong kong. Just