lam in i am in sri lanka with a special report on the legacy of china's belt and road initiative in this country as it completes ten years. hello, and welcome to asia business report. i'm arunoday mukharji. let's start in china. china's president xi jinping takes centrestage in beijing today. he will addressing leaders who have gathered to mark the tenth anniversary of the belt and road initiative, an ambitious plan to enhance china's soft power by building a series of infrastructure and energy networks. it's a high—profile event, with russia's president vladimir putin, along with leaders of developing nations from around the world in attendance. president's xi's big moment comes at a time when his leadership is tested domestically in getting china's economy back on track and internationally, in navigating a tense geopolitical environment. eswar prasad is an economist

cornell university, and a former head of the imf�*s china division. speaking to me earlier, he said the belt and road initiative had achieved mixed results for china. the belt and road initiative was china's gamble to again achieve political and democrat influence, as well as extend dock expand its reach, and build transport and other infrastructure that would link china with many of these other countries. now some of these investments have not paid off very well, in terms of geo— political terms because china is getting pushback from some countries that feel they have been indebted to china. so this is an attempt by the xi jinping administration to put the belt

and road initiative back on track... ., . ., , and road initiative back on track... ., ., ., , ., , track... to have any tangible expectations _ track... to have any tangible expectations from _ track... to have any tangible expectations from this - track... to have any tangible i expectations from this forum? i think we might see some new investment opportunities as beijing starts to turn out —— to announce, but the bigger part will be its reassuring partnership that china has their interests in mind, rather than just its own interests, and that any further is not done on terms sock and will so so essentially xi jinping will be rebooting the belt and road initiative that makes it more appealing to all the other partners with china who engage in this effort. now, to give you a sense of what belt and road investments look like on the ground here in asia, we'll be rolling out some special coverage today and tomorrow. we start with sri lanka, which has been one country where bri projects have

had mixed success. the bbc�*s india business correspondent nikihl inamdar is there giving us a status check. this is the port on sri lanka's southern tip. it's very often held up as an example of everything that's gone wrong with china's belt and road initiative. it was started in 2010, but very quickly sri lanka had to lease it out to china for 99 years because it wasn't generating enough revenue for them to repay the debt. and this led to allegations that columbo was actually having to seize control over strategic national assets. then there's this, the model law airportjust assets. then there's this, the model law airport just a assets. then there's this, the model law airportjust a few kilometres away. it's yet another example of a bra project that's gone wrong. it's often called the world and has the capacity to handle i the capacity to handle 1 million passengers, but in reality it gets only about 10% of that every year. this has

led to many commentators saying that china's practising some sort of debt trap diplomacy with these projects. sadly recipient —— saddling recipient countries with loans they can't repay and often taking control of some of those aspects. it's a theory that's been debunked in several years by several experts. here's why — for all the failures, the pri has delivered successes in sri lanka, as well. this is one example. also half the country's expressways are built or funded country's expressways are built orfunded by china, and these came in at a crucial time. these expressways were crucial to complementing sri lanka's development after the world. however sri lanka didn't do the necessary— however sri lanka didn't do the necessary planning to have these — necessary planning to have these projects deliver proper rates — these projects deliver proper rates of— these projects deliver proper rates of return. second, china's_ rates of return. second, china's policy bank probably pushed _ china's policy bank probably pushed the money on the sri lankan— pushed the money on the sri lankan bureaucracy than didn't have _ lankan bureaucracy than didn't have the — lankan bureaucracy than didn't have the capacity to evaluate properly. have the capacity to evaluate

--roerl . , �* have the capacity to evaluate ro erl . , �* ., , properly. evidently the bri has had a complex _ properly. evidently the bri has had a complex legacy - properly. evidently the bri has had a complex legacy here - properly. evidently the bri has had a complex legacy here in l had a complex legacy here in sri lanka, and say as beijing faces tough challenges, fresh investments under the initiative won't come by at least for the next few years. closer to home, china's slowing economy is of top concern. in a few hours' time, china will release third quarter gdp, industrial production and retail sales data, illustrating different facets of exports and domestic demand in the economy. will be giving a very close watch on those numbers will coming in soon. a big drag on the economy has been, of course, china's troubled real estate companies. debt—laden property developers are struggling to finish projects and pay back interest on loans taken out in yuan and dollars. policymakers in beijing have attempted to boost housing

demand by lowering lending rates and loan terms. that's the case with country garden. the clock is ticking for china's largest private property developer, which could see its entire offshore debt deemed in default if it fails to make a $15 million coupon payment. earlier, i discussed the implications of this with standard chartered's north asia chief investment 0fficer, raymond cheng. this will reignite concerns about the housing market in china. 0verthe about the housing market in china. over the last few months, we have already seen quite a bit of support for boosting housing demand, including relaxing down payment ratios as well as mortgage rates. but when we track the property sales numbers for the month of september, it did go up month of september, it did go up 28% a month, but on a year on year basis, it still came down 29%. so i think two major points of note — first, recovery has been very uneven across our cities. we saw a better attraction in tier i better attraction in tier 1 cities than the lower tiers. second, we think that divergence in terms of sales

performance would be very evident in terms of the s 0ee, stay—at—home developers, versus the ones where state owned developers have been able to garner much better returns. fire garner much better returns. are ou garner much better returns. are you satisfied — garner much better returns. are you satisfied with the measures and returns taken by the government?— and returns taken by the covernment? , ., ., government? given throughout the month _ government? given throughout the month of— government? given throughout the month of september, - government? given throughout the month of september, the l the month of september, the contracts, we may remain sluggish as we talked about. i think the market will likely see a more coordinated policy approach in order to restore confidence in the market. so as we go into the npc committee meeting towards the end of the month, we are hoping there will be much more supportive measures to come through, especially on the supply front. so specifically, we think it is

important for these developers to have better funding access, as well as some more support in order to make sure that they are guaranteed home delivery. 0therwise confidence will be remain very low at this level. it's notjust state leaders heading to china these days. apple chief executive tim cook has also made a surprise visit at a time when, according to analysts, his company is facing flagging iphone demand in the country. mr cook's visit included a trip to apple's taikoo li store, in chengdu, to meet young players of tencent�*s honour of kings online battle game. apple's operations in china have been complicated by covid and us china tensions. other us tech companies are also being impacted by deteriorating us china relations. chip—maker nvidia is usually a star performer on the s&p 500 — but on tuesday, it was one of the worst performers on the index. its shares and those of other companies in the chip sector fell, after the biden administration announced plans

to cut off more exports of advanced chips to china. the bbc�*s erin delmore has more from new york. if this sounds slightly familiar, it's because the us congress department announced export controls on ships last october. this new set of measures aims to close loopholes that have become apparent since —— chips. at the aim hasn't changed. the goal is to keep china from receiving advanced technology from the us to strengthen its military, and it's to strengthen its military, and its broader than we seen in the past, targeting only advanced chips designed by nvidia, but also others as well as to making tools. it targets only china but iran and russia. it also blacklists two chinese chip designers. it speaks to two major issues. one is the value generative ai and the importance of chips that power that tech, and two, long simmering tensions with china and the buying administration's on commitment to retaining

china militarily without hurting the country economically. a spokesperson for the chinese embassy said it firmly opposes the new restrictions, and a semiconductor industry association criticised it as overly broad, unilateral controls that risk harming the us semiconductor ecosystem without advancing national security, and that it would encourage overseas customers to look elsewhere. the rules go into effect in 30 days. and that's it for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching. in an upcycling shop in headingley, a transformation is under way. josefine is using her skill and creativity to help solve a shameful problem. along with her partner, james, the couple are trying to make fashion more sustainable — starting on their own doorstep.

who could forget these shocking images of the tents and camping equipment left behind after leeds festival? hundreds of items treated as disposable and destined for landfill. it was a bit grim, to be honest. a lot of people have a throwaway mindset. but tents aren't single—use — they're very durable fabric that can be used again and again. and when i sawjust how much stuff had been left behind, it was really shocking. along with other charities and upcyclers, james retrieved tents and sleeping bags to make into something new. so we've got a laptop case, bum bag. we've got what we call a festival bag — it's supposed to be worn over your shoulder like that. it's an interesting, exciting opportunity for us because we've not worked without kind of material before. i've worked a lot with cotton and silk in the past, because that's usually the second—hand material we find and reuse.

so i find the whole experimentation process of it very interesting. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i'm stephen with the catch up. we're starting with news from the war in the middle east. palestinian health officials say hundreds people have been killed in an israeli air strike that hit a hospital in central gaza. we've heard from a british—palestinian surgeon working at the hospital who says parts of it were on fire. the israeli military says it's investigating what happened. and you can follow all the latest on the story at our page on the bbc news website and app. elsewhere, a british teenager who went missing after attacks by hamas gunmen in israel is now known to have died. yahel, who was 13, lived in southern israel near the border with gaza. her mother was also killed, and her sister and dad are still missing. yahel�*s family have

called her beautiful, full of adventure and mischief, and said they'll forever miss her. next — a blow for lgbtq couples in india. the country's top court has decided not to legalise same—sex marriage. the five judges ruled that it's up to the government to decide whether couples should be able to do things like open a joint bank account. and back here, the snp leader has been making his big speech at the party conference in aberdeen. humza yousaf announced a new scheme to help women to escape abusive relationships. they'll get up to £1,000 for essentials like rent and clothing. and time to leave you with ten seconds of a dream job — well, maybe if you're a fan of league 1 club cambridge united. they are looking for someone to become their mascot, marvin the moose. they say you have to be fun and energetic. imagine being paid to do that — sounds pretty ideal to me. you're all caught up, have a great night.

hello, and welcome to sportsday. i'm paul scott, here's what's coming up. england reach euro 2024 — they beat the defending

champions italy to book their place in germany. a shock at the cricket world cup — the netherlands beat south africa for their first win at this year's tournament. perhaps south africa's rugby players can have more success. they prepare for their world cup semifinal showdown with england. hello, and welcome to the programme. england have qualified for next year's european football championship with two games to spare, after a 3—1 win over italy at wembley. the defending champions' hopes of qualifying automatically are hanging by a thread. joe wilson was watching.

there was a reflective mood before kick—off