Transcripts For DW Business 20240713

Estate market in the world sees value slide a bit well go to hong kong for the latest. This is your Business Report im stephen bears in the lead thanks for joining us. Credit to embed on the american donald trump all are scheduled to attend the annual World Economic Forum Meetings in davos switzerland which are getting underway monday sustainability and Climate Change are the main topics of the meeting activists like twin bed are putting more pressure on governments and Business Leaders to do more in stopping Climate Change the forum is introducing a scorecard this year to Rate Companies on how sustainably they act. Now ahead of davos American Money Management firm blackrock has grabbed a great deal of the attention of the finance world its c. E. O. Larry fisk announcing that the company would quote exit investments presenting a high sustainability related risk in quote for a start to festing hundreds of millions of dollars from coaling to businesses that could be a big deal black rock is the Worlds Largest fund manager it holds close to 7 trillion dollars in assets to put that in perspective germanys entire g. D. P. For 2800. 00 was closer to 4 trillion dollars now managing that amount of money means a correspondingly high level of influence in the corporate world in germany germany alone black rock counts as the biggest single shareholder in the following facts Companies Siemens buyer among them the question now what could its decision mean for the broader world of finance and for more on this im joined by sasha stephan of the Frankfurt School school of finance and management sush its good to have you with us this would seem like quite a momentous decision from blackrock can you shed some perspective on this how big a deal is it. I think 1st of all its an important i think its a big deal that. Joins all of the other Companies Banks Insurance Companies and trying to take specific actions the question is on the one hand how they can do it and are they actually going to follow up on that so i think the the question how they can do it on the one hand they could as i said divest investments but the amount of. Out of these 7b2b actually actively manage where they can actually do that the rest is socalled passive investors and and this is very difficult to divest so another important potentially important activity would be to vote even with these tests of the state and say so paul these climate new truck climate front the actions which they actually have opposed during the last couple of years has blocked out suggested with its new strategy that it might actually vote on some of these companies. I think theres a question is are they going to to do that right because the on the one hand this new approach what you call it being there not only for the shareholders but for the general for the stakeholders at large meaning also the enlightenment and other stakeholders need to complete shift from this shareholder focused model and the shareholders usually also focus on more short term gain rather than the long term perspective of the question is is black rock as youre going for or through and and then more broadly what is actually the best and most efficient way to address these Climate Change problems so is there any sign that other major Fund Managers such as vanguard could be taking a similar position. All i assume that once one manager start of the others with were definitely chime in and we see also that not only the Asset Managers but all its an insurer bangs i think you more catherine evolve how they employ their capital but i think more largely and the bottom line is this is going to be enough is the private sector we equipped to dealing with these large on time partner issues or should it be and this is actually my my major part of should actually be governments dealing with the problem which affects society can all be all right such as stephan professor at the Frankfurt School thank you very much. To munich now where europes digital independence is on the agenda more specifically can the e. U. Carve out its own standards for data regulation or Artificial Intelligence in a world thats dominated by Big Tech Companies in the u. S. And china now the e. U. Says it has a strategy. How can europe better position itself in the age of digitalisation and digital life design in munich business in media representatives and politicians are looking for answers we are not changing ourselves we have directly to become digital colony of the us of china if google decides tomorrow to switch off its services for europe then what mike you see still on the screen he clearly fears theyll be nothing thats why e. U. Commission. Has announced a single e. U. Digital strategy its true that man vision is that your brand. Will be used for your print company priority. For us to create value in europe. And not just that the e. U. Commissions Digital Strategy should lead to common standards for 5 g. Technology companies that promote europes internet sovereignty will benefit the most stricter security measures will also be introduced for the collection and processing of data and more funds will be invested in Artificial Intelligence internet experts are skeptical about how the e. U. Can finance the measures. Biddles oftens evil training offensives and economic offensives all cost a lot of money but there isnt any budget for them and European Countries will really have to combine forces according to the atmosphere at the meeting those goals all can be achieved by working together. Over to asia now where china has introduced a range of new laws aimed at tackling Plastic Solution aging says controls on the production of environmentally unfriendly products and the promotion of greener alternatives will be phased in over the next 5 years will include and into the production of Single Use Plastics such as tableware and swabs by the end of this year china aims to have its plastic pollution under control by chinese 25. 00. Meanwhile malaysia says its returned 150. 00 containers of Plastic Waste to 13 countries since late last year the government says the country refuses to become the worlds dumping ground after china and waste imports. Another container is he ved back to the port more than 3700. 00 metric tons of Plastic Waste have been dispatched from malaysia back to the countries that originally dumped them since the 3rd quarter of last year. The illegal shipments have come from developed nations such as france the u. K. In the u. S. Southeast Asian Countries such as malaysia have been flooded with western rubbish since china refused to accept any more plastic shipments in 2018 but time and again there is a legal consignments of being rejected so we have sent 150 yeah 110 more that we will send across the 3 different. Ports in malaysia and its the dumping countries that will foot the bill malaysia says it wont be paying a penny to send the stuff back. Lets look now at some of the other business stories making news. Reuters reports that carmaker volkswagen is in talks to purchase a 20 percent stake in chinese battery maker when the move would come as the Company Looks to sell 1500000. 00 electric cars in china but 2025. Beijing is calling on candidates release the detained while way executive joe long was arrested over a year ago and is charged with bank fraud for misleading the bank h. S. B. C. About activities in iran extradition hearing which will fight american efforts to have her brought there for trial is scheduled to begin monday. Lawn must Space Tourism Company Space x. Has deliberately destroyed one of its falcon 9 rocket as part of a test of the rockets abort function must describe the launch as picture perfect now space x. Needs nasa service to certify the rocket for flights with the human crew. Well its the worlds most expensive Real Estate Market prices in hong kong are now under pressure after months of protests there while some losses are surprisingly large experts warn against too much optimism for buyers through hong kongs Real Estate Market is the least affordable in the world after months of democracy protests pressure is growing in the Hong Kong Market this tiny shop of less than 2 square metres in a cramped corner of the commercial district launch i is a powerful symbol of change investment banker turned Property Fund manager edwin lee explains. This is this shop that very much to pay so based on my best lot of shared memory the shop lost the most money in hong kong the store was once a Currency Exchange kiosk but the tourism downturn means its now a Real Estate Office bought for just over a 1000000 euros it sold for less than half the us now because that because it 2nd home always the repo market and people simply not willing to buy shops anymore so that land that was in a hurry to sell the shop then was when we started a big loss apartments and. Prime sites such as those near hong kongs high speed rail terminus are unlikely to lose value since 2003 the value of hong kong homes has surged 544 percent but the economic downturn ended the longest bull market in the hong kong property sectors history. The luxury Residential Market is especially vulnerable because property was bought by mainland chinese who are staying away. Property consultant Vincent Chung says the protests are hurting sentiment but demand still outstrip supply hong kong home prices rose 3. 4 percent in 2019. In hall call i guess more than 60 percent of the properties which without the mortgage that mr moore most of. All all are they dont need to be paid the mortgage and thats why i say they can wait as the even though the market is a lot worse at this retro white now that they dont have to say sell the pop they seem to wash and thats why i say thats a lot must say at just an all caution all the home price at this moment. Property owners are watching the protests to see what happens the threat of a downturn looms over the Real Estate Markets and Analysts Expect hong kong property prices to fall in 2020. The continuing wave of strikes in france is perhaps not surprisingly hurting Economic Growth thats according to the French Economy minister Bruno Lemaire frances economy is projected to grow a 10th of a percent less than expected this quarter for the past 46 days french demonstrators have been protesting president manuel mcallens planned Pension Reforms the protests have just dropped in Public Transportation for weeks although theyve slowed down recently according to lemaire the demonstrations will have little effect on annual projections for the French Economy. And thats it for me in the Business Team can always find more out online dot com slash business im Stephen Beardsley thats watching. The 5. Come out. What secrets lie behind. Discover new adventures in 360 degree. And explore fascinating World Heritage sites. P. W. World heritage 368 get the map now. Calling the most with our superheroes. My mission is clear kushti get to me closely explore germany. They died and that everything out theres a lot going on and. Surely tried and tested. To w. M d. This week gun world stories. Families fight for their liars in venezuela. A Police Officer criticizes his own ranks in hong kong. But we begin in germany 30 years ago citizens stormed the headquarters of the hated. Does the secret police in east berlin a contemporary witness reports. He was there both gang templi mean a former east german civil rights campaigner 30 years ago he and other demonstrators pushed their way into east germany stars the headquarters its still the resting place of thousands of files on citizens who were spied on itself is all yes i said so you know what we want this peaceful disarmament our actual takeover of the whole thing will happen a lot faster no personal. Was opened the gate the storming of norman and street was a key moment after stasi buildings and other cities had already been occupied in the preceding months several 1000 people now poured into the berlin headquarters