and political and social topics considered from different perspectives. we cover the issues that move turkey on a unique platform for information. plus ninety connect to an unbiased agenda subscribed now on you tube. the silk road conjures images of dusty caravans and fragrant spices carried by traders on the central asian plains the original trade route connecting the far east to the west may be history but china wants to create a new one the new silk road looks more like this highway in montenegro built by thousands of chinese workers the seed money is also from china one billion euros

huge sum for a tiny balkan nation. for beijing just one stone in a larger mosaic the new silk road it's our theme today on made in germany. now officially it's the chinese government's belt and road initiative a trillion euro series of infrastructure projects meant to smooth the way for chinese goods across the globe that translates the highways bridges railways ports a network stretching across asia africa and even to europe part of countries are often eager for investment and for improvements to own infrastructure the new silk road isn't a charity project of course china is lending money and spreading debt sri lanka even hand the report to the chinese after nearing the fault and then there's the geo political significance china is aiming for a new influence on world markets. these are cooling and heating units for industrial buildings soon they'll be shipped to the u.s. pakistan bangladesh and mexico the manufacturer broad group

a company headquartered in hunan china specializes in energy efficient air conditioning in the next few years the firm with more than three thousand employees hopes to further expand aided by china's belgian road investment scheme. a few years ago projects in other countries relied on financing by local governments or companies things proceeded slowly but since fun and things become available we're seeing projects develop much faster. china is pouring billions of euros into projects around the world at the end of april thirty eight world leaders gathered in beijing to discuss the initiative widely known as belton road. and road opens a new space the growth in the world economy. it creates a new platform for international trade and investment and provides new ways for global economic governance and contributes to the wellbeing of people in many

countries. sometimes called the new silk road the built in road initiative is a massive infrastructure investment scheme new railways are intended to provide better connectivity across the region continent investment in ports open new maritime trading routes according to official figures the total value of projects already signed exceeds five hundred billion us dollars. the projects are largely carried out by chinese state owned firms they've gained experience with big construction projects during china's own infrastructure push of the past forty years but there was criticism of the international initiative. many western countries including germany are reluctant to sign bilateral belton wrote agreements and one of the critics in the global south is malaysia's premier have been mohamed . just in the sea and reach.

the threads. have fortunately increase oil fields in. all of these. concerns for participating partner countries range from the environmental cost to sustainability of debt levels in some places china friendly governments have been voted out of office malaysia and other countries have cancelled or renegotiated contracts fearing debt in view of china's own mega construction boom critics call many of the chinese investment projects overambitious. the biggest lesson for the chinese government was that you cannot just go ahead and build what you want you have to consider what local governments and people want and how the international community reacts. to the fact if you ask where the backlash is in some of those

countries came as a surprise to the chinese government. i would say it was not just a surprise it was a shock and that. the architecture of broad groups headquarters points to their international ambitions from europe to egypt so far broad has opened offices in eighty countries and while most bells and road projects are carried out by chinese state owned companies private businesses like broad are seeing improved market access in many countries. one such country is pakistan. jason jiang stays in touch with the local staff be a video conference recently islam about in beijing agreed to allow bilateral trade in chinese renminbi bypassing the dollar as an exchange currency. and we are hoping to reduce currency risk by investing renminbi and receiving renminbi in return so we are now looking carefully into these agreements. so far

international trade rules have been shaped by western countries chinese companies like broad hope that through its massive investments china will gain a greater say in these rules to make them better serve chinese businesses. go away the belden road is a great project according to our internal analysis we expect the next fifteen to twenty years later continue providing our company with excellent opportunities abroad. what china's ambitions are on the table it's now up to the rest of the world to react. china's new silk road is a highly centralized plan that leans on loads of cash and diplomacy from beijing the original silk road by comparison was a looser collection of trade routes the stretch from the far east across the plains of central asia and to the west world so what similar apart from the name you might

say that the original silk road was work lobel ization got its start let's take a look. a brief history of the silk road. six thousand four hundred kilometers searing fifty degree celsius heat there cold of forty below across depp's deserts high mountains with the constant threat of armed bandits. the silk road a perilous challenge the bones of pack animals litter the way as if in warning. but the world's oldest and most important trade route was not a single road it was a vast network of many caravan routes. by the second century b.c. the silk road connected china to the roman empire but it was only given its name in eight hundred seventy seven by german geographer.

silk was highly sought after by roman women. but only the chinese knew how to produce the valuable textile the two year long trip with up to one thousand bactrian camels was worth it they didn't just carry silk but also spices lockers furs and porcelain. in return europe's and gold gem stones and glass. inventions too such as paper and black gunpowder were spread and even religions were transmitted buddhism arrived in china and japan across the silk road. cities along the self road flourished in summer kandahar and tashkent there was ruling trained most merchants only travelled short distances then sold their wares to the next buyers this made the goods more expensive. but

diseases were also transmitted along the train route from asia the bubonic plague killed a third of europe's population in the fourteenth century. the demise of the silk road began mainly because it was replaced by new maritime routes customs duties and bandits could be avoided and goods reached their destinations more quickly. and today it's estimated that china's new silk road will devour one trillion euros with its roads railroad tracks and harbors it's not a matter of reviving the glories of days gone by but of shrewd economic calculation . blossoming trade and prosperity or bandits and pestilence the significance of the original silk road was in the eye of the beholder today's version as well take that massive highway project in montenegro that we saw earlier brussels would demand the public planning process

transparency measures and lots of paperwork before any such project began. simply doesn't it just invests the highway in montenegro it runs through an environmentally vulnerable area and it doesn't seem to bother the local authorities . a gigantic construction site part of a highway said to run one hundred seventy kilometers across montenegro financed with the help of a one billion euro loan from china this stretch of construction is along the charles river part of a unesco world heritage site some environmental activists say the decision to build here was a mistake there had been eighteen alternatives peachy keen but the sex meant and why is that we agree a great question none of these is just considering that he says you know the side and some other bit of an official be they can point out in. this tower a river gorge is one of the deepest in europe the river basin is

a biosphere reserve. the water that flows from the higher elevations is crystal clear. environmental activist natasha kovacs of it says it's one of the most ecologically important regions in montenegro. it's host for many what his speech is suspicious like species. similar so. that one study one hundred kilometers because it's really important being interested in. this area. about one hundred kilometers downstream is where the chinese financed highway will run directly across a tributary of the charles river. building on this terrain is complicated and expensive the activist believes that the valley route was chosen because it's the cheapest option biologists studying the issue say that the construction project is

destroying the habitat of various fish and plant species all this river is not recognizable place we have twenty people on the bridge that we can see in the middle of. that stuff it's life it's all put it anything destroyed it's all you can from the button traditionalists and really it doesn't look at itself and on one man and biosphere site it should be. up to four thousand construction workers from china have been working here during peak construction phases chinese companies are raking in the profits but paying precious little in tax plus all the construction materials and equipment imported from china are exempt from customs duties. which is environmental organization employs fifteen people their work is supported by donations as well as some funding from the european union. while we were filming a guard pops up and orders us to leave the area even though we're on

a public road. chinese manager just said that we have to leave the place because we can take it but we cannot take the records of the construction because this is something that should be forbidden so the site. a local resident shows us some of the damage dirt and sand from the construction site is silting up the river. the fisherman believes the habitat of the trout that used to be plentiful in these waters is being destroyed. fish like this. the new highway will connect montenegro's the coast to the north of the country. in the capital put greta the state run agency money to put it's responsible for the construction work the director insists it's all in accordance with e.u. standards it's not that. we're on the right path because we want to develop north

montenegro that helps the country and europe as a whole with the north of the country is under developed compared to the south. but the north has enormous potential in the areas of industry tourism and energy. and. months is an anti corruption watchdog that keeps a close eye on the montenegran government day on melo violence is investigating the financial impact of the billion euro loan. it's a difficult task because the government is keeping the financial details under lock and key. vance's research shows that construction contracts to domestic firms are only going to companies with close ties to the government he's also discovered that under the terms of the loan an arbitration according china would have jurisdiction over any legal disputes and if montenegro can't repay the debt in time china would

be able to make collateral claims. for. the. protection of. montenegro is a small country with a population of just over six hundred thousand the average income is around five hundred euros a month the chinese loan is worth almost one fifth of montenegro's g.d.p. . we asked monte puts director for his assessment. but is there always risks associated with any construction project. the government

investigated these risks in full detail. so we can say that the project won't be a problem for the montenegrin budget. and it's important to know that every cent of highway tolls will go into paying back the loan. we believe we'll be able to pay it back down to the last cent. we had to an area just south of the capital where another section of highway is under construction pitted against a billion euro project environmental activists like natasha which are very much underdogs but she's determined to speak out against the lack of transparency and rampant environmental destruction issues that we are coming from the democratic background and we we will learn to discuss about things especially when they had this big impact with the chinese investor and their culture actually it's more about just straightforward thing and doing things without the two questions and of

course the it also causes some questions and none understand. for the time being this is still a highway to nowhere whether the new superhighway will ever reach neighboring serbia is very much an open question. environmental protection public disclosures even a clean bidding process the new silk road often falls short on transparency one reason why germany has declined to formally partner with china. the western german city of duisburg sees things differently however it's important transforming itself into europe's largest distribution point for chinese goods the city has struggled since the closure of coal mines and steel factories new silk road out brings along hope for thousands of new jobs. will be the end of the line for an eleven thousand kilometer long railway creating a land shipping route from china to germany that takes only fourteen days.

other regions stand a profit from china's ambitions and yet critics urged vigilance they say beijing's checkbook diplomacy shouldn't divide europeans. in my twenty years as a business journalist we've seen the importance of china grow in almost every sector each year everyone wants to share in china's rapid economic growth chinese people today earn on average one hundred times more than their parents did forty years ago. china is an important partner but some reporters do express concerns about china's economic might. the country sells a billion euros worth of consumer goods to europe every day should we be afraid of china i asked she who grew up in beijing and now lives in germany. i want to find out if china's giant silk road investments in europe are a wake up call is china or a partner or

a rival. humanize. and i mean that china is a partner aspiring to be a rival is trying to be a world leader that's already a kind of rivalry. and europe has good reason to be cautious. not because of the initiative but because of the possibilities that might accompany the initiatives. even if nobody in china's ambitions might not be limited to the new silk road. the country could aspire to lead european and domestic markets. where will this leave european industry especially industry in western europe. and last but not least it's also possible that chinese technology will come to europe if a chinese tech takes top spot europe will have given up one of its last remaining resources and that would be very bad because this let the area this is how

realistic is the project itself is this huge investment even in china something critical of the initiative could assist them. in not wanting to get this within china itself there are three different kinds of criticism one is a nationalist one which says why should we throw our money around the world when our own social problems are so enormously significant. the second criticism is that many investments are flowing into insecurity regions. there's also the issue of massive debt she says this could become an economic threat for the whole world. but. we tend to see china's obvious strengths and there's definitely truth to that but at the same time we have to recognise the major problems the country is struggling with. china is itself up to its ears in debt and if this turns into a debt crisis the world won't be able to save china this is normal the country be

able to save itself. that scenario is of course very remote at the moment but it's not impossible. it's a scenario that certainly worries me no one knows how likely or unlikely it is. but right now other problems have a higher priority the new silk road is dividing europe some e.u. members are concerned about becoming too reliant on china others are delighted with the inflow of chinese investment including italy. he says of. europe has to join forces even just to counter the sheer weight of china. no single european country even comes close to being able to match china on its own there's no real alternative for european countries if they want to perform china. after all some one point four billion people live in china

a country with powerful economic potential europe wants to make sure the new silk road isn't a one way street and then there's the question of how a closer connection with china could affect european relations with the rest of the world the new silk road has a large political component those concerns are less prominent however in some african countries where large infrastructure projects often languish due to lack of investment. and that means that railway projects for example are welcomed with open arms like this one in kenya the connects the port city of mombasa with the capital nairobi the new line has drastically lower travel times look at such progress sour into an expensive burden that something kenyans themselves will have to decide. express high profile undertaking that aims to bring prosperity to southern canada and to two cities in particular. time to board the mombasa nairobi standard gauge

railway or s.g.r. kenya's most expensive infrastructure project the distance between kenya's capital nairobi and the port city mumbai just under five hundred kilometers and two years ago in twenty seventeen this journey that we're on would have taken up to ten hours in fact some passengers on the train say that up to twenty four hours have been spent trying to bridge that gap between these two cities. for business. to town. very fast and business goes on rate of fast. phase two is bound to happen which means that the standard gauge will be will be running across the country of kenya and eventually leading up to a regional partners uganda and eventually to south sudan opening up the region to trade and movement of persons on the route it will also be just freight transport for example dealers usually have their new and used cars brought from by truck it's

hoped that the new rail option will help lower prices for car buyers and make it more secure to move because you. are on term would be a lot. of money and through a driver because you are used to that which is before the railway was built by chinese contractors and financed largely by chinese loans that poses a debt burden. putting all this together hasn't come cheap three point eight billion dollars kenya has had to fork out in order to get this done and the tricky thing is ninety percent of that funding came from the china eggs in bank the foreign investors celebrate the results in the promotional videos that the chinese provided both financing can technology. the railway for the first five years do you think it was worth it ok in terms of the finance basically and what other that spend it into the lake in tanzania it's

a quite expensive but. i mean what can we do we don't get included in those additions so yes i'm going to enjoy the right. question is in ten or fifteen years will those people alive think that this was a worthwhile investment. that. is currently running at a loss but the investment is already paying off for chinese importers beijing is now kenya's biggest trading partner. on the ground most kenyans are pleased they welcome the investment in the country's ailing and largely outdated infrastructure . this dealer now gets his new cars by a train from. people who say the s.g.r. was a bad investment or against development this train helps ordinary kenyans rich and poor benefit from it. but it's also hitting motorists in their wallet gas prices have gone up to help pay off the chinese debt. now whatever the world decides about

the new silk road its projects will have long term implications the original silk road is history. will be a major part of our future that's it for this week to take care of fish. good.

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