Latest / Best of Business / Peter Lewis: Asia Business Correspondent on Xi Jinping's meeting with prominent entrepreneurs, India cutting import taxes in response to Trump's tariffs, and Singapore's tax breaks

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Peter Lewis: Asia Business Correspondent on Xi Jinping's meeting with prominent entrepreneurs, India cutting import taxes in response to Trump's tariffs, and Singapore's tax breaks · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks. It'd be
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  Speaker 1: follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: Peter Lewis is Asia Business correspondent. He's with us tonight, Hypeter.
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  Speaker 3: Good Evening.
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  Speaker 2: Ryan Hijinpang has had a meeting with some pretty prominent
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  Speaker 2: entrepreneurs this week. What is the message that he's sending
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  Speaker 2: to the business community there.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think he's sending a message that technology and
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  Speaker 3: private the private sector is absolutely essential to growth in
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  Speaker 3: China going forward, and that if they want to counter
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  Speaker 3: Donald Trump and all his various tariffs, the best way
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  Speaker 3: is to be able to rely on the large domestic
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  Speaker 3: economy that China has and to grow that and to
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  Speaker 3: boost consumption. Now, this meeting was very unusual because President
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  Speaker 3: she doesn't normally meet with private sector executives, and in fact,
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  Speaker 3: the last time he did so about four years ago.
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  Speaker 3: That started a clampdown on a lot of private companies
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  Speaker 3: like Ali Barba, like ten Cents, which really hit the
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  Speaker 3: share prices of all these companies. They were subjected to
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  Speaker 3: investigations that went on for years for fines, and he
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  Speaker 3: basically took the view that these companies were only allowed
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  Speaker 3: to exist with the permission of the state, and therefore
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  Speaker 3: they were subservient to the states, and that's what really
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  Speaker 3: led to this big crackdown and the demise of the
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  Speaker 3: Chinese stock market. Well, that seems to have all changed.
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  Speaker 3: President she seems to be delivering a different message now
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  Speaker 3: and it was probably highlighted most of all by the
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  Speaker 3: reappearance of Jack Marr, the founder of Ali Barba. He's
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  Speaker 3: really been in exile since about twenty twenty when Ali
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  Speaker 3: Barba got clamped on by Beijing after he criticized the
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  Speaker 3: regulators for a lack of innovation, and that you may
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  Speaker 3: remember that the ants group IPO was suddenly canceled at
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  Speaker 3: the very last minute. It was going to be the
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  Speaker 3: biggest Chinese ido ever. So he went into exile in Japan. Well,
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  Speaker 3: he reappeared at this meeting shook hands with President Shei.
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  Speaker 3: So it really was very symbolic that Jack Marr was back,
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  Speaker 3: that Ali Barba was back, and these companies were going
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  Speaker 3: to be allowed to prosper once again. Excuse me. It's
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  Speaker 3: really boosted the share price of these companies. Ali Barber's
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  Speaker 3: up about eleven percent a day following its results last night,
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  Speaker 3: it's risen about fifty percent in just the last month,
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  Speaker 3: I did about one hundred billion dollars in market cap.
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  Speaker 3: But that's being reflected by a lot of other tech
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  Speaker 3: companies that are listed here in Hong Kong at the
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  Speaker 3: moment as well, that are really surging right now.
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  Speaker 2: How much of that is to do with the Chinese government,
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  Speaker 2: How much does it do with with Beijing needing growth?
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  Speaker 1: Oh?
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, they really do need to grow their economy. It
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  Speaker 3: is very much in the doldrums. People aren't spending and
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  Speaker 3: consumption international compared with international levels is very low. In China,
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  Speaker 3: it's about forty percent of GDP. Well in the US
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  Speaker 3: it's more than three quarters of GDP. So they really
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  Speaker 3: need to boost their domestic economy, get consumers spending, and
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  Speaker 3: technology is going to be one of the ways in
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  Speaker 3: which that's going to be done, the adoption of AI
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  Speaker 3: and more advanced technology, of green technology. Really these companies
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  Speaker 3: need to boost those areas and that will feed through
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  Speaker 3: to consumption and economic growth. So these companies are absolutely
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  Speaker 3: essential to China meeting its growth targets and being able
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  Speaker 3: to fight back against the Donald Trump's tariffs which have
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  Speaker 3: been put on the country.
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  Speaker 2: Speaking of which Peter, We've got Trump Beshing has chased
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  Speaker 2: over in the US from the White House about reciprocal terrorists,
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  Speaker 2: and then Mode in India is looking at all of
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  Speaker 2: this and he's actually starting to movie starting to cut
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  Speaker 2: some import Texas.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so well, India's in an interesting position. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: it really wants to develop ties, cultivate ties with both
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  Speaker 3: the US and with China. It doesn't want to take sides,
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  Speaker 3: and it's been walking this incredible tight rope for about
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  Speaker 3: the last two years now where it's sort of almost
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  Speaker 3: trying to play the two off against each other and
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  Speaker 3: benefit from both sides. But it can't really afford at
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  Speaker 3: this stage in its growth to have sweeping tariffs from
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  Speaker 3: the US, and it does have very high tariffs itself
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  Speaker 3: on international goods going into China, for example, into India
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  Speaker 3: on motorcycles for example, there's one hundred percent tariffs on imports.
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  Speaker 3: So Trump's tariff threats aren't having an impact. Mode has
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  Speaker 3: been over to see him at the White House. They're
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  Speaker 3: talking about a wide ranging trade agreement and cutting India's
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  Speaker 3: taris to make it more competitive not just for the
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  Speaker 3: US but for other countries to be able to export
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  Speaker 3: there and do business there. Now, that's going to be
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  Speaker 3: good for India. I mean, India is one of the
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  Speaker 3: fastest growing economies in Asia, but it needs to keep
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  Speaker 3: that going because it's got a very large population, a
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  Speaker 3: lot of young people who need jobs. So it's absolutely
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  Speaker 3: essential that growth is maintained that around at least six percent.
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  Speaker 3: We have been seeing eight percent over the last couple
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  Speaker 3: of years, but it has slowed off a bit in
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  Speaker 3: the last few months. So it's probably a sensible response
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  Speaker 3: to actually try and reduce its own tarists to mitigate
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  Speaker 3: the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs.
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  Speaker 2: Peter Singapore's announced vouchers and tax breaks to help people
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  Speaker 2: with the rising cost of living.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's going to be six hundred dollars worth of
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  Speaker 3: Singapore dollars worth of vouchers. Old people also going to
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  Speaker 3: get an extra I think two hundred dollars each to
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  Speaker 3: try and boost the economy there. There's an election coming
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  Speaker 3: up later this year, so obviously that's part of it,
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  Speaker 3: and these handouts will hopefully help alleviate some of the
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  Speaker 3: cost of living pressures. Singapore is one of the most
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  Speaker 3: expensive cities in the world to live. Housing costs are
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  Speaker 3: extremely expensive, so there is a real cost of living
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  Speaker 3: problem in Singapore that the government needs to address, and
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  Speaker 3: the way it's doing that is through these consumption vouchers.
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  Speaker 2: Fascinating stuff, Peter, thank you very much for that. Peddle
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  Speaker 2: Lewis Asia Business Correspondent.
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