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Speaker 1: Forgiven.

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Speaker 2: Peter Lewis Asia Business correspondence with US. Now, Hey Peter, Hello, Hanna, Hey,

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Speaker 2: Honorindram Moody. Losing his outright majority, this has got to

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Speaker 2: be a good thing in terms of hampering his ability

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Speaker 2: to go full nationalist, right.

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Speaker 1: I think that's right, man, And you know this is

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Speaker 1: in many ways it's not a bad thing at all.

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Speaker 1: Despite the panic that we saw in the Indian financial

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Speaker 1: markets at the beginning of this week, the government that

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Speaker 1: we're getting now is not going to look that much

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Speaker 1: different from what we saw before the election. It's going

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Speaker 1: to be a coalition of parties in the National Democratic

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Speaker 1: Alliance as there was before the election. Mister Mody will

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Speaker 1: lead that as he did before the election, and he

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Speaker 1: will be Prime Minister now. The only difference is, of course,

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Speaker 1: on his own he didn't get a majority, which wasn't

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Speaker 1: the case in the last two elections, where he had

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Speaker 1: enough votes to rule on his own if he wanted to.

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Speaker 1: So you're right. The fact that he has got now

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Speaker 1: needs these coalition partners could rain in some of the

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Speaker 1: more divisive policies and undemocratic policies that he was trying

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Speaker 1: to impose and had imposed in India, particularly on religious

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Speaker 1: minorities and having a sort of a nationalist type approach,

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Speaker 1: So it's going to be a little bit more conciliatory.

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Speaker 1: I don't think this will derail his economic agenda at all.

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Speaker 1: I think you'll still be able to move forward with

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Speaker 1: the economic reforms that he wanted to do to try

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Speaker 1: and get India up to being a developed market economy

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Speaker 1: by twenty forty seven. So there's going to be a

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Speaker 1: lot of investments in infrastructure. What he is going to

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Speaker 1: have to do is focus a lot more on making

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Speaker 1: sure that the benefits of the economic growth that India

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Speaker 1: has been seeing and it's growing with over eight percent

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Speaker 1: at the moments eight point two percent was the figure

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Speaker 1: for the last physcal year, and make sure the benefits

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Speaker 1: of that are spread more evenly around the country. Because

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Speaker 1: this is the main reason I think white he didn't

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Speaker 1: get his majority. There were a lot of people in

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Speaker 1: some big states that felt that they just weren't included

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Speaker 1: in it, and they go to the gatest him. So

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Speaker 1: he's got to make sure that he comes up with

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Speaker 1: policies to address that. There's a lot of young people

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Speaker 1: unemployed in the country. They need to create a lot

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Speaker 1: of jobs to keep everyone in employment. So he's going

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Speaker 1: to have to focus on that as well. So as

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Speaker 1: you say, there are some positive things that could come.

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Speaker 2: Out with this, Peter, why is he so keen on

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Speaker 2: pursuing closer ties with Taiwan?

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Speaker 1: Well, this is interesting, I mean, he said this week

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Speaker 1: in response to William Lai, who congratulated him on Twitter

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Speaker 1: about his victory. And William Lai said they were looking

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Speaker 1: forward to a fast growing India Taiwan partnership that was

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Speaker 1: going to contribute to peace and prosperity in the India Pacific,

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Speaker 1: and Mistermoni responded saying that he was looking forward to

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Speaker 1: closer to ties with Taiwan. Now, this is going to

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Speaker 1: absolutely rile China, which completely opposes any country having closer

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Speaker 1: relations with Taiwan, and even though these are not formal

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Speaker 1: diplomatic relations, China opposes even trade ties and any form

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Speaker 1: of developing a partnership, whether it be economic or technological

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Speaker 1: with China. I'm not quite sure why he wants to

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Speaker 1: do this right now, but obviously you know he does

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Speaker 1: have a dispute with China over the northern border in

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Speaker 1: the Himalayas and India and China do have their own

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Speaker 1: sort of tensions, so maybe he feels that in his

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Speaker 1: third term, which is almost certainly going to be his

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Speaker 1: last term as Prime minister, he can start doing some

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Speaker 1: of the things that internationally he would like to do,

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Speaker 1: and that could be involved getting closer to the United States.

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Speaker 1: Has been very neutral on things like the war in

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Speaker 1: Ukraine and the US China tension. Maybe this is a

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Speaker 1: signal that is going to get closer to the United

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Speaker 1: States and maybe move more towards them rib than staying

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Speaker 1: in the middle.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, very interesting STUFFE what's going on with your retail sales?

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Speaker 2: I mean, falling fifteen percent in a month, there's a lot.

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Speaker 1: It's huge, absolutely huge, And if you take into account inflation,

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Speaker 1: just measure retail sales by volume, they're down over sixteen percent. Now,

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Speaker 1: this is no longer a cyclical issue. This can't be

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Speaker 1: put down to base effects or seasonal effects. This is

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Speaker 1: a real structural issue. And what's happening is the consumer.

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Speaker 1: The spending patterns of Hong Konger's are changing very fast.

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Speaker 1: One of the things that's changing is that it's now

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Speaker 1: much easier to go over the border to mainland China,

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Speaker 1: and particularly to Shenzen. So every weekend, scores of Hong

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Speaker 1: konger's are crossing the border and spending money in Shenzen,

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Speaker 1: where it's far far cheaper than it is in Hong Kong,

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Speaker 1: and you can get cheap hotels and shens then and

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Speaker 1: very nice hotels as well are about a quarter of

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Speaker 1: the price that it costs in Hong Kong. And the

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Speaker 1: converse of that is that mainland tourists are no longer

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Speaker 1: coming to Hong Kong and the droves that they used to.

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Speaker 1: They're not coming here to buy expensive jewelry and watches

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Speaker 1: and clocks like they used to. When they do come,

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Speaker 1: they're coming on budget trips and they're being very cautious

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Speaker 1: about what they're spending. So Hong Kong and this has

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Speaker 1: been the debates that has really been rating in Hong Kong,

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Speaker 1: particularly this week, needs to change its model. It's economic model,

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Speaker 1: which is really no longer suited for the way that

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Speaker 1: China operates and for Hong Kong the way it's sort

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Speaker 1: of more integrated into China, and it just can't rely

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Speaker 1: anymore on these blunts of tourists coming to Hong Kong

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Speaker 1: and spending a lot of money here. So it really

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Speaker 1: needs to have a think about what is the purpose

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Speaker 1: of Hong Kong, How is it going to grow and

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Speaker 1: develop going forward?

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Speaker 2: Interesting? Peter, thank you as always, enjoy your weekend, look

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Speaker 2: forward to talking to you next week. This Peter lewis

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Speaker 2: our Asia Business correspondent. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,

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Speaker 2: listen live to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,

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