most muslim christians have already skeptical specter of the system. now that it's hoped that the easter sunday bombings look saw as a reason to build stronger bridges between the two communities. and the desire for railway law her aachen berlin up next d.w. business africa upward to. see it tomorrow in time. what secrets why behind these moments. find out the mercy of experience and explore fascinating world cultural heritage sites. the d w world heritage three sixty it. takes it personally it's

wonderful people and stories. are so special. to. g.w. . as china silk road paved with good intentions given its reach spanning is off europe and africa one would hope so but critics to try what they call that trap diplomacy the second belt in road initiative forms is underway in beijing in the world is watching. also on the show hundreds of tons of illegally mind

gold are smuggled out of africa and believe in countries of urgently needed revenue . welcome to business and brylin thanks for joining us a higher level belt and road summit kicked off in beijing today political leaders and business representatives from some forty countries including many from africa as well as russia and germany are on hand to learn more about china's reimagining of the silk road one of the routes all around through central asia and moscow and moscow to rotterdam the roads and railways as well as power stations telecommunications that works and a pipeline the maritime silk road well can actually not with europe africa and southeast asia with china already investing billions into infrastructure projects along the way but critics warn that president she's a pet project plunges foreigners 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 you know. 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 belton's all the initiatives going on in the hands. of a strong impact in. economies and societies of the country that benefits.

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 . now africa actually wasn't part of the original belton road plan proposed in twenty thirteen but since then it's become a pivotal part of the project there too however are concerns about ballooning that let's zoom in on the three examples to ethiopia first it already owes the chinese government well over seven billion dollars to put that into perspective that's over ten percent of its entire economic output kenya was beijing more than four billion dollars almost six percent of its g.d.p.

and in north africa egypt that to china amounts to nearly four point eight billion dollars that figure takes a smaller dent out of the country's total economic output at just one point four percent. now here to provide some context say dolly editor in chief of death foundered magazine she divides her time between addis ababa and frank for where she joined us she joins us good to see you said ali now how would you assess the ability of african debt or countries to repay their loans that's the hard to at the concerns over the belt and broad initiative. i think there are some genuine concerns also china and kids are insisting that it's not pushing african countries in to. do per crisis of debt crisis there are some serious concerns in countries for example i'm bored out of jones i think the highest amount of debt to china at about forty b. you were started by fright the fact correct from what i've read this afternoon. so

there is that concerted and more countries are turning into china that would be even more concerned to their ability to to pay back because if you see the economic structure of most of these african countries it remains the same in the case of my country it remains the same people economic structure that we go if it had for the past few years so that you know paying back the dates is a genuine concern and i think it's something that they should take into serious consideration most african countries. now if it all if you'll be a is an interesting example just yesterday the government announced that beijing has forgiven interest on ballot and road loans the country through the end of twenty eight now what does china want in return. well maybe bill are asking what china wants in return because you know many people are convinced that there is

no going to be such a thing like chinese hit peak. and there are reports in other african countries or so in my countries not confirming that china is insisting in you know getting concessions on natural resources for example. so yes it's not going to come it's not a free lunch obviously and most of the day that ethiopia owes to try and i think more than fifty percent of at this point sure no one so you know there's definitely going to be a payback but one of the most frustrating thing about chinese debts in africa is that the lack of transparency and the lack of clarity we obviously we don't know how much we owe to to china right now what circumstances yours have provided you know soft loans or a commission knows most of the deeds i done under the carpet so it's very difficult

to trace what is exactly the try looking for want in return to it is cancellations of debts or a restructuring of its debts to your brain other african countries thank you don and i'm up there for us he's the editor in chief of ad a standard magazine thanks. billions of dollars worth of gold is being smuggled out of africa every year through the united arab emirates in the middle east a gateway to markets in europe the united states and beyond african governments such as ghana tanzania and zambia complain about gold as they were being illegally produced and smuggled out of their countries on a vast scale sometimes by criminal operations and often at a high human and viral mental cost. a gold trader in garner shows off his wares this gold is headed for market in dubai it was almost certainly mined illegally and will more than likely never feature in official export records around four hundred fifty tons of illegal african gold found its way on to the dubai market in two

thousand and sixteen that means it no taxes are being paid to the states that produce the gold depriving already poor countries of vital revenue from the natural resources of the miners some of them children work in dangerous conditions to feed the world's hunger for the yellow metal i voted for the. political if that is. why i started school when i was young but it got to a point when my parents couldn't handle my jewish and. you know like in school some of my friends they were into small scale mining. and because i didn't have any supports to further my education i decided to join my friends and go into gold mining groups who. are manacled what i mean whereas most came mining. it was that gold mining provides a livelihood to millions of africans and it's helped some make more money than they

could dream of from traditional trades. like the. rust is one of those who's done well out of it and he set himself up in business. i mean . this bar is the product of my hard work you know when we get the gold we take it to the town of talk walk because that's where our buyers are located gold has value even with a small sample you can get a lot of money to take care of your family. but rust is one of the lucky ones accidents are frequent and many illegal minus are killed on the job every year . to more business news from around the world the ethiopian airlines and lion air crashes have seen the boeing seven three seven max grounded around the world that's also had a knock on effect for airlines norwegian air is one of them and says its plan to return to profitability profitability is in doubt due to eighteen of its planes

being grounded the budget airline says that it will cost it up to fifty two million euros the region now has to pay to these other aircraft to fill the gap as the peaks even years. some of the world's largest companies say that plans to grant equal marriage to elegy bt plus couples in taiwan the first place in asia to do so but boost the island's economy taiwan's parliament is expected to vote by late may a deadline set by the constitutional court when it ruled in twenty seventeen that same sex couples could legally wed. economists say the benefits of same sex marriage include increased productivity greater labor mobility and less stress in the workplace over perceived discrimination companies as they first as google air b.n. b. deutsche bank why mastercard and microsoft have joined forces with nine other companies including taiwan based support l.g. bt plus marriage equality and therefore we let you go with the major business news

out of germany merger talks between the country's number one and two banks bank and converts banks have collapsed it would have 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 weren't sure 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 talks about this merger know the government's hopes of the two banks combining to create 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've 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 path of 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. and that's it for me on the business team here in berlin for more business news and features check out the dot com slash business are follow us on facebook and on twitter thank you so much for watching.

the protests. when you're setting. up this particular european parliament because we'll have a new one coming and the result of that election is going to be closely monitored in africa this is a continent after all a chance years of

a complex relationship with europe. why they matter to africa. my enough in itself it's not easy to go to another country you know nothing about i don't do this because we can't stay on its way to. the point that. closely global news that matters. made for mines. this is news africa coming up in the next fifteen minutes on world malaria day the end came our administration beat only licensed vaccine to protect against the misfeatures spread disease we have a report from god women area kills three children every day. we'll also get a report from mozambique fictions.