News, lots more Business News coming up news, lots more Business News coming up live from singapore with rico did you follow russian propaganda pages . Facebook is about it you. And confectionery giant mars wrigley says sales in asia will offset slowing growth in the us and europe. It is thursday, everyone good morning, asia, hello, world. Loud you canjoin morning, asia, hello, world. Loud you can join us morning, asia, hello, world. Loud you canjoin us for morning, asia, hello, world. Loud you can join us for another exciting addition of Asia Business report. Glad. Im rico hizon. Technology giants are coming up with more measures in response to claims russia meddled with the us election. Yesterday we told you google was going to show stories from two kremlin owned newspaper is lower in search results. News providers. Several hours ago facebook said it will show its users which russian propaganda pages or accounts they have followed in the like. Im joined by my colleague and Business Reporter monica miller. Monica, how big a problem was it . They believe roughly 150 million facebook and instagram users may have seen some of these fake accounts or organic posts that were created by this russian propaganda group. Now, a couple of weeks ago, lawmakers on capitol hill grilled lawyers from these giant social media companies. In response, Facebook Says they are now creating an online tool that will basically let people see if they have been impacted by this propaganda. The company which did this is based in saint petersburg. It is called the internets research agency, which sounds pretty legitimate. Apparently they have paid hundreds of people to create these false accounts to push pro kremlin propaganda onto facebook and instagram. Lots of revelations about their presence in social media. So what has been the reaction of dollars in makers in the United States . Dollars in makers in the United States . Policymakers. Dollars in makers in the United States . Policymakers. They say it isa states . Policymakers. They say it is a good step but doesnt go far enough. They initially asked facebook to reach out individually to each person who had been impacted by this. Instead they are kind of putting it on their help site and some tech blogs are saying that they are some tech blogs are saying that they a re really some tech blogs are saying that they are really hiding this. They wanted this to be more in the open and more transparent. Thank you. Business reporter monica miller. In news justin, uber has been sued for over 7 billion us dollars for the massive data breach we told you about yesterday. The breach exposed the names, email addresses and phone numbers of it in million customers and drivers around the world. This occurred over one year ago but is only now being made public. Well, candy giant mars needs little introduction. Its stable of treats including m ms, slippers and maltesers can be found in many households. Snickers. Mars is the worlds biggest chocolate maker, making about 35 billion a year. That has been slowing as Health Conscious consumers in the developed world, which makes up two thirds of the market, begin shunning sugar and other processed foods. But the number of those with a sweet tooth in asia is expanding. Nearly half of chocolate sales in china from the mild selection. As the regional boss of Mars Wrigley Confectionery told me earlier. Our opportunity in asia is phenomenal. We have a rising middle class. Berrer going to be more middle class consumers in asia than already exist in europe and north america. There are going to be. Right now it is about one tenth the consumption per capita that exists in europe and north america. You talk about the middle class, but the middle class in asia also becoming more Health Conscious. Shunning sugar and processed foods. Isnt that the competition for you . Processed foods. Isnt that the competition for you . We believe the quality of our products are great . Are great. We believe in portion control and responsible consumption. We think people vote with their wallets. When i travel around the region i notice that there is lots of local competition as well. More craft chocolate makers. Is this eating up your asian market share. 0ur objection objective is to grow the market category. We think there is room for us and others, if we do it right, to bring this category to where it is supposed to be in category to where it is supposed to beina category to where it is supposed to be in a size potential. The colour isa be in a size potential. The colour is a raw material and commodity that is a raw material and commodity that is used in most of your products. Cocoais is used in most of your products. Cocoa is a raw material. Suppliers have been depressed recently. How is that affecting your bottom line . Cocoa prices go up and down. We believe in a long term Pricing Strategy to provide the best value for consumers. Lots of competition in this space. You expecting, Going Forward , in this space. You expecting, Going Forward, a consolidation . This is possible. Are you looking for opportunities to buy . |j possible. Are you looking for opportunities to buy . I can never project the future. But this is possible. We are mostly focused on growing our business. We believe organic growth has tremendous potential, especially in this part of the world. Where is the biggest market here in asia . China, of course. But there are many other markets which are growing fast. India, indonesia, the philippines. We are excited by the number of opportunities that are ahead of us here. Leaving out to singapore, and a report on the state of the economy showed it expanded by 5. 2 in the three months to september, compare to last yea rs three months to september, compare to last years levels. That is the strongest growth since 2013. The government is concerned about maintaining growth. Recently it said it may raise taxes. The goods and services tax, or gst, is one of the governments the sources of revenues. It brought in 8. 2 billion last year. Singapore last raised the gst to 7 one decade ago, and that is still lower than many other countries. In japan is still lower than many other countries. Injapan the gst rate is 8 . In india, it almost doubles, 15. 5 . In the United States, 7. 5 . In the uk, a whopping 20 . This economist said the hike would be to tackle longer term issues for the economy like the asian population. There is certainly no hurry for them to do that. And finances here are into mentis shape. In most european countries, we just have the european the countries, we just have the european the uk countries, we just have the european the uk budget yesterday, the debt to gdp ratio is 80,90, the uk budget yesterday, the debt to gdp ratio is 80, 90,100 . Singapore has a surplus. The assets they have, the income every year, contributes to the budget. They seem to be pressing ahead with this particular goods and services tax. They are clearly keen to raise taxes. I think you can understand why, ina taxes. I think you can understand why, in a long term view, because demographics is completely forecast of all. You can understand that your Income Tax Base is going to shrink, your costs like healthcare will increase steadily over the next ten or 20 years. They want to plan ahead for that. China recently relaxed Foreign Investment rules for its massive financial sector, but the mainlands high levels of debt could deter international investors. We spoke to chinas leading online lending platform and asked how those concerns are impacting the company. What we do is to help traditionally the underserved population. Small businesses, rural people, really build access to credit. These people, these segments, traditionally they are not well served, or not served at all by banking systems. You talk about inclusive growth and adding more of these entrepreneurs and Small Business owners, giving them access to credit. What happens when something goes wrong. Who takes responsibility . Is it the company, the government . We utilise big data in what we do. We utilise Small Businesses, micro entrepreneurs and consumers, operational data, transactional data, these are intangible but invaluable assets. 0therwise intangible but invaluable assets. Otherwise they could not use them in traditional banking. For this business, risk does exist. Default does happen. And the Business Model is that a lender actually lends to many, is that a lender actually lends to any is that a lender actually lends to many, many people. So with a very small goes wrong, hes still has a good return. If a very small percentage goes wrong. He may not be racing in f1 any more, but former champion nico rosberg has told the bbc he has great affinity with the singapore grand prix. Nico rosberg said his qualifying lap in 2016, when he claimed pole position, was his favourite poll performance in any of his 206 formula 1 starts. Now retired, he has been looking back at his career. My favourite ever qualifying lap or singapore, india last year, actually. It is one of those moments where it happens very, very rarely, actually. But you go into this tunnel vision and sort of start to feel completely invincible. You feel nobody could possibly do this corner now, or this lap, better than i am doing it at the moment. It isa than i am doing it at the moment. It is a very strange feeling. I read about it, somebody else speaking about it, somebody else speaking about this as well, and you go into such an extreme moment and the buildup to it and all the tension and adrenaline and everything, it really begins to close, narrow down, and you find this perfection. I found that in singapore, and i was on the poll by five or six tenths, around this huge track. But was a very special moment. For more from nico rosberg, we have a special programme called my life after f1 on bbc world news. That is on thursday at10 30pm bbc world news. That is on thursday at 10 30pm gmt. That is at 6 30pm in singapore and hong kong. Thank you for investing your time with us. Im rico hizon. Goodbye for now. You are watching bbc news. Lets bring you up to date with the main stories the sour. A man set to take over as in barbies president is as zimba bwes new over as in barbies president is as zimbabwes new president says his priority is rebuilding the economy. An operation is under way by police at the Manus Island Detention Centre to evict hundreds of refugees and asylu m to evict hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers. Lets get more details about the chancellors budget. As expected, he responded to concerns about the implementation of the governments major welfare reform, universal credit, by promising a number of measures. Mr hammond said the £1. 5 billion package over five years would help to cut waiting times and make it easierfor claimants to to cut waiting times and make it easier for claimants to receive an advance. Recent budgets have tended to menial wins for benefit claimants. Mean ill winds. Today there was less of a chilled in the air as the chancellor of the reverse direction. In peterborough, universal credit was ruled out last year. I think it is a goodidea ruled out last year. I think it is a good idea that they have listened to people and they are prepared to make changes so people dont have to worry about not having anything to live on. Yeah, it is great they are putting things in place, but it should have been done a long time ago. The changes to universal credit will cost the treasury £1. 5 billion over the next five years. The value of advance payments will be doubled. That crucial first payment will be made quicker, typically after five weeks rather than six. And in future, housing benefit will continue to be paid. This announcement is a major climbdown by the government, who for months have insisted that universal credit was working. But in the face of mounting evidence that claimants were building up rent arrears and were forced to go to food banks, and widespread opposition from everybody from the labour party to charities, they have been forced to act. While they have been forced to act. While the new rules should alleviate a fear of the problems with universal credit, some say that the chancellor should go further. Universal credit is rolling out a system where people are essentially be made worse off. There was nothing today to improve that situation. We wanted to see structural changes to universal credit so that people kept more of the rewards from work. Todays changes will not come into effect until next year. Over the coming weeks, thousands of people will be moved on to a benefit that ministers now explicitly acknowledge is creating hardship. Thats it from me. Mike embley will be here at two oclock. Dont forget, you can get in touch with me and some of the tea m in touch with me and some of the team of social media. Now it is time for all the sports news. This is sport that they live from the bbc sports centre. Coming up. Englands Alistair Cooke is dismissed early as australia get the breakthrough in the first ashes test in brisbane. And robert kbits is a step closer to a formula 1 return. Welcome to the programme where we start with the opening day of the first ashes test. England