well inroad initial forum is underway in beijing critics decry what they call china's debt trap diplomacy. and economic powerhouse south korea's feet an unexpected decline its worst part of the drop in a decade. welcome to business i'm john allen lautenberg lent thanks for joining us we begin here in germany where merger talks between the country's number one and two banks thought to bank and comet's bank have collapsed what are created germany's biggest financial institution but it seems the operation would have been too costly and complex. berlin wanted it to happen but that wasn't enough to unite the two german giants but we have storage banks said right from the beginning we would only go into these this merger if it makes economic sense if it is beneficial for shareholders and for the stakeholders this was not given here after very deep conversations and talks with comments but we came to the conclusion

if we put chances and rist against each other that we should stop the talks about this merger know the government's hopes of the two banks combining to raise a powerful national champion for germany's finance sector the proven out of reach bank and comet's bank have concluded the benefits would be outweighed by the risks the restructuring costs and the capital requirements they both struggled since the global financial crisis with the german state still owning more than fifteen percent of comments bank the argument for merging was that it would cut costs for the pair and the taxpayer but opponents argued combining two troubled banks would just create one larger troubled bank after a month and a half of talks those troubles haven't gone away now they'll have to get to work to find separate solutions. let's get some reaction from our financial correspondent

really bartz in frankfurt where both banks are headquartered good to see you ali you know those merger plans of course were divisive at best what do you say about the reaction to the collapse that has not equally been polarising. it's really been polarizing because one of the voices who weighed in was all of germany's finance minister in berlin and it's believed that he fueled believes like that that he was the driving force behind talks getting started in the first place over a merger in an atmosphere where really nobody saw any sense or any logic any added value at that point even before talks even got going and having to troubled banks as we just said in the report with with big issues that they haven't faced themselves. alone yet and getting together and then somehow miraculously being way better off and also better for industries scholtz just said among other things

today that german industry still needs a competitive german banks to accompany german industry abroad that's basically what he'd been saying before but you know from all of the people that you're here you hear almost a collective sigh of relief one advocate for shareholders right saying not surprised but very relieved others saying like a representative of the green party the financial a spokeswoman saying she never saw the sense in creating an even bigger bank with even bigger risks briefly if you can what's next for both banks. well they have to go at it alone and the way everybody sees it they don't have a different plan b. than before the talks started though it sure has to see that it upsets profit with its current business model which has not been that great in creating profit in the past years the same for kamau spunk amounts from could be gobbled up by someone but at the moment or with that with the kind of profit objectives and outlook that it

has many people believe this won't be soon in coming either would have arts there in frankfurt thank you very much to china now a high level belt and road summit is kicking off in beijing today political leaders and business representatives from some forty countries including russia and germany are expected to join to learn more about china's reimagining of the silk road one of the routes will run through central asia and moscow to rotterdam they'll be roads and railways as well as power stations telecommunications that works and pipelines the maritime silk road will connect china with europe africa and southeast asia with china already investing billions into infrastructure projects along the way but critics warn the president chief pet project plunges partners into debt while giving china more power. the new silk road is president he's foreign policy baby to ensure his new economic

superhighway to the world succeeds china is providing international delegates a warm welcome. to smooth over any potential rough spots. around we should strengthen debt and risk management we should object to fully and fully understand debt problems of developing countries but. the belton road initiative presents a gigantic opportunity triggering development in structurally weak regions the economic potential has sparked massive international interest in the project the zs also a very important opportunity of the phone to discuss all the elton's all the initiatives going on in the hands. of a strong impact in. economies and societies of the countries that benefit.

critics on the other hand say it's a double edged sword calling it a chinese death trap with the goal of granting beijing leverage over economically weaker countries these are the doubts the people's republic is seeking to allay while also focusing on the economic benefits of the multi-trillion dollar endeavor . joining me now is my colleague clifford cohen and he covered china for many years thanks for coming on to the show clifford my first question why is it important for china to placate critics in the first place it's not like there's a lack of interest in the project but i think big part of this is the fact that it's a prestige project it's the culmination of years and years of expansion in china and the china is very keen to make sure that everything rolls out exactly as it wants it's about making soft power reaching across the continents of buildings china is building china's image so i think it wants to keep its critics. it wants to build its prestige so the importance of soft power there but how successful do

you think china will be in convincing countries that this isn't going to turn into a global death trap well i think people are thinking very much about the money and they're thinking very much about the funding that's there these are countries that have struggled to get funding sometimes china is there a bankrolling the infrastructure of roads all these kind of projects so i think they're very keen to do it i don't know how much they're thinking down the road about the debt trap issue and about who's going to pay back in twenty or thirty years time but certainly for the moment i think people are focusing mostly on working on the infrastructure projects sounds a bit shortsighted and as we've been hearing economies but structural weaknesses are especially vulnerable to debt traps let's zoom in on three asian examples law already owes the chinese government well over four billion dollars to put that into perspective that's well over a quarter of its entire economic output in neighboring cambodia the figure is pretty high to it owes more than three billion dollars or close to sixteen percent of g.d.p. finally let's take

a look at mongolia it also is beijing some three billion dollars a number that amounts to set twenty seven percent of its economic output. and we're back with my colleague clifford kuhn and now as we've seen with those numbers a lot of the fears center around country's ability to repay them and from where i'm sitting those fears look justified the i think so i think there's a danger of these countries becoming client states in a way that because there is so heavily reliant on china a lot of countries are seen to be distracted by the possibilities of in thailand so tied on building a high speed rail project with chinese money which obviously the government is very keen intolerant to have but their critics say there's no way they could ever pay this back or make it profitable so i think these are these are real dangers. well you know the chinese belt and road initiative gets a lot of attention because of its scope but there are other ways to infrastructure financing why don't other countries look at other routes well this is something

particular in europe that people are talking about now because the european union actually to the commission offers also offers funding in some ways they say it's less expensive for countries down the road and more sustainable so they're looking at other routes overseas the world bank and lenders like that so we're seeing more and more or maybe in future we will see these countries not stepping up and these organizations stepping up and trying to fill some of the of the shortfall my colleague clifford who in there thank you very much. fell for korea has long been the poster child of asian economies powering ahead with strong growth led by global corporations and work intensive culture but the economy took a surprise turn for the worst in the first quarter and many say it could be the start of a trend. south korean firm s.k. hynix is the second biggest supplier of semiconductors in the world on thursday they announced that first quarter profits have plummeted almost seventy percent.

hynix isn't the only firm experiencing travel times south korea's economy shrank point three of a percent in the first quarter of this year that's a worst result than the country's seen since two thousand and nine as global financial crisis and it's mainly because exports are down samsung is also weakening a few weeks ago the electronics corp cut its earnings forecast for the first time in two decades analysts expect the firm's pretax profits to haave in the first quarter. at the same time the jobs market is on a downward slide unemployment is at its highest in the new years critics say president ins economic policy of income led growth featuring increases in the minimum wage is hurting those it's intended to help by raising employment costs many small businesses complain the minimum wage of about six euros sixty an hour is too high but the biggest problem facing the electronics companies is not the labor

costs rather falling prices for computer chips to do over supply according to analysts production will be dialed back in the second half of the year so that companies like samsung and s.k. hynix can again move into profit. and that fit from me and the business team here in berlin for more business news and features check out the w dot com slash business for follow us on facebook and on twitter we'll leave you now with his quick check on global markets thank you so much for watching.

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explain. this one on t w. the commit. place . this is it really was live from berlin the leaders of russia and north koreans meet for the first time face to face a lot of input in and kim jong un toasted their new relationship at a summit in russia's far east in the wake of the field of a u.s. summit but little the meeting be a game changer when it comes to persuading north korea to abandon its nuclear.