fiercely contested by serbia. airbus is soaring again the airplane manufacturers pinning its hopes on the a three twenty one neo are based on the mid-range a three twenty one family this new craft can fly over seven thousand kilometers thanks to the addition of a third fuel tank the narrow body plane has only a single aisle but can still carry up to two hundred forty passengers. it also costs a third less than regular long haul aircraft. it's already garnered one hundred orders. it's hoped the new plane will compensate for the poorly performing a three eighty super jumbo. week demand had cast doubt on continued production of the world's biggest passenger plane. but it was given a new lifeline when dubai based carrier emirates placed a large order recently. a year they did challenge us.

it is not. particularly in the media. year two thousand and seventeen for us is very. encouraging it ever since we those of you who know us. and we never ever give up last year air bus delivered seven hundred eighteen aircraft a company record this year airbus is on course to sell eight hundred planes due in no small part to the company's new champion the long range a three twenty one. rebuilding a country after decades of war doesn't come cheap the world bank estimates reconstruction costs for iraq at about ninety billion u.s. dollars to date international donors have pledged about twenty five billion more donations are to be made at

a donor conference in kuwait the host nation itself is making substantial financial commitments to its neighbor but. i'm pleased to announce the state of kuwait's commitment to support our brothers in iraq by committing a one billion dollar loan under the mechanisms of the kuwait fund for arab economic development. but it's not all about loans also keen to attract companies iraq is offering business opportunities in almost every area of its economy including the energy sector the c.e.o. of german industrial giant siemens joe kayser told you that his company is rebuilding four power plants in iraq because securing availability of electricity is probably iraq's biggest challenge right now we know that the grid is under tremendous stress. urgently wants to ramp up oil production oil sales which account for more than ninety percent of the country's total revenues generated close to

fifty seven billion dollars and twenty seventeen the donor conference comes just two months after iraq's declared victory over the so-called islamic state. south african president jacob zuma resigned this week during his tenure the country saw its bond rating downgraded to junk status and with its second largest city cape town quickly running out of water trust in the country's ruling elite has plunged growth has declined steadily for more than three percent seven years ago to less than two percent in recent years one of the weakest rates for all of sub-saharan africa. has to be crushing at the moment stability is pretty difficult so you. can just. say the country is now resting its hopes on newly elected president cyril ramaphosa a former union leader since his appointment as head of the ruling a.n.c. party in december the country's currency has surged by ten percent against the

dollar. it's a positive sign that investors are banking on a change in south africa's fortunes. joblessness in france is now declining at a rate not seen since before the start of the financial crisis ten years ago the french economy added more than a quarter of a million new jobs last year mostly in the services sector machinery makers an i.t. companies are also recruiting heavily boosted by low interest rates in the global upswing france is a commie grew by almost two percent last year. he u.s. ports to the u.s. jump to sharply last year while the bloc imported only marginally more from the u.s. the use resulting trade surplus rose seven percent more than one hundred billion euros u.s.

president donald trump highly critical of the trade imbalance has accused the europeans of unfair practices saying e.u. import tariffs in many sectors are higher than those imposed by the us. posted losses of four point five billion dollars last year this as the on demand taxi service has a real from scandal and legal troubles including shareholders ousting c.e.o. travis colonic last june optimistic after improved fourth quarter results new management says the company is still on track for an i.p.o. next year. this conspicuous structure is actually a mini market located in a commercial district outside beijing it's fully automatic there's no staff stores like this are being touted as markets of the future the idea is simple customers use an app to access the store locate products and pay for them.

security cameras watching the store. for customer shop lives. without pants the customer service center contacts them to remind them that they have to pay. the store contains typical many market items snacks drinks and hygiene products most of the customers here come from nearby offices during their lunch break. each item is priced electronically and purchases are completed with the payment app. yes . i like shopping this way and no one watching you find what you need and then you pay. bingo box in beijing is just one of several start ups developing unstaffed markets it operates some two hundred stores like this one they're all running smoothly so far. are theft rates are even lower than traditional

supermarkets the loss rate is less than one point one percent. j.d. one of china's largest online retailers also run supermarkets without employees they have a store in the company's offices that uses bio metrics once you've registered on the app it's all automatic customers do their shopping and as they leave the facial recognition technology identifies them at the docks the payment from their account . we're still in the test phase so we can't provide exact figures yet but we're fairly certain that a market like this is cheaper to operate than normal supermarkets. it seems that nowhere are people as enthusiastic about digital shopping as here in china payment apps and online delivery services are an established and interval part of their lives consumers in china except that these businesses store all their purchased

data. i'm sure this is the wave of the future. if you will to have convenience we have to share our personal data i think it's acceptable. digitalisation does have its limitations however people are still needed to keep the products on the shelves well displayed. at the syrian flower farm in central kenya all these stemmed beauties are processed by hand from harvesting to bundling to packing for transport tonnes of flowers are prepared for market on these work tables. the company's director hamish kerr runs a well organized and highly efficient operation each flower arrives in stores no later than two days after their cut. we're going to be off now isn't people we are

neither when it comes to ethical trade so we're paying ostroff the highest in the industry for providing housing medical student so in terms of the flowers that we produce they are putting money into people's pockets the flower industry is the country's second most important sector after tourism five percent of its economic output comes from cut flowers here at lake ny bhatia growing conditions are perfect twelve hours of sunshine per day cool nights fertile soil and enough lake water to keep the more than fifty flower producers here in business. the head of the kenya flower council in the capital nairobi however is concerned about cheaper competition in neighboring ethiopia she says the government there is attracting investors with price dumping. they get access to land they get heavy subsidies on even freight let me give you one example we planned our flowers in the u.s.

at three point five to four dollars a kilogram. on this subsidized plates on their every plane and. to bring it. up. as a result farmers are leaving. this flower grower abandon operations here to move to ethiopia lower cost operations in the north are endangering the industry in kenya along with jobs and economic growth a continued exodus of companies would be bad news for the flourishing flower sector and kenya. the tatts market and hanoi as old city is awash in red and gold the colors of the tents or new year's festival red is for luck and gold for wealth in the new year. for retailers it's the most important shopping season as people buy gifts for their loved ones and decorations for their

homes to welcome in the year of the dog. it's also high season for the city's florists. we have a peach flower branches and cumquat trees to bring a warm and joyful atmosphere to our homes during tet. more of my tent is when the trees but and the flowers bloom and you know it's the time for families to come together to celebrate and to welcome a new year now. the law. in china two people have been on the move for days millions of migrant workers in shanghai scramble to find a train seat. those who haven't already bought a ticket aren't going anywhere. the annual festival runs about one week in china vietnam singapore taiwan and many other countries. and those where this week's top business stories.

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protect the climate boost clean energy solutions and reforestation. using interactive content to inspire people to take catch him of global ideas the multimedia environment series on to w. dangerous and why here's a. venture of. a trip by airplane. seventeen thousand kilometers in six weeks. breathtaking landscapes. forgettable experience a. touching story. this is our home this is god's country a person can listen to other better place seventy thousand dollars. her stroke counted starting february twenty seventh.