well confident. for investments while the chinese have. billions into africa german small and medium sized companies are still sitting on the fence. on business left right and some. industry leave the big profits to foreign. and one to. fifteen is not a forgery it's got three spelling mistakes in it then it's real. business business. with fifty four countries africa is

a continent of opportunity or at least it should be seen as such especially by foreign investors with an appetite for a market so vast and consumers and workers so young like few others china is one of the few countries that have understood that and has put that money where their mouth is investing in roads rail lines and as a result china's access to that market and to import raw materials is getting better by the day meanwhile the rest of the world's companies. are reluctant to do business with in africa with only a few exceptions. this little gadget might look simple but it can transform crop production. and you can see the. company built it with africa in mind along with some drying plants they enable harvested

crops to remain on the fields without perishing the machines are deliberately kept technically simple so that they can be easily repaired on site. solutions like this are urgently needed here every year in sub-saharan africa alone forty percent of all crops end up rotting after they are harvested. grain needs to be treated or dried to prevent it from developing mold or fungus and if we eat foods that are rotten and moldy we get sick people can get a series of illnesses including diarrhea. creator is unusual it's still relatively rare for mid-sized businesses from germany to turn to africa. a recent report says half of midsize german companies have operations in other western european countries eleven percent operate in china and eight percent in russia. but just six percent of these firms are active in africa

a continent with fifty four countries that's the same number of companies as are active in india alone. poor roads lack of electricity and widespread corruption the combination makes africa less than attractive for many german enterprises. but that isn't putting off karl-heinz. he has four factories in europe and now wants to open one in africa he says he'll be taking both the economic and the political situation into account when deciding exactly where it will be. with me in the studio now is a bona fide a expert on why german companies are small enough for coffee and that he is representing germany's powerful small and medium sized companies famous middle she's trying to improve business relations with africa. very welcome to the studio germans have a tendency to err on the side of caution is very famous for its german as its as

its core is that it keeps german estimates from investing in africa so indeed the way we see so far in trade from germany to africa it's very low according to the global trade with other countries it's only about two percent it means that one thousand eight hundred firms german firms are sitting in africa and they're created about two hundred thousand jobs so i think that one of the most important reason why german news doesn't want to invest or don't invest a lot in africa it is because it doesn't really market for them because the german . is based actually on machinery and generally it's not a consumer goods industry but more about in generate and machinery and this market is not that it was done through an existing there and it is also because of the

lack of infrastructure. is that different in other european countries for example have other european countries stronger ties business ties to african nations so actually it's like a paradox because if you see that most of the african countries among the fest's gurren countries in the world but however the furring direct investment is still low if i take it to globally it is about three point four percent globally and if i take no other countries in europe i can munch. for instance the u.k. are friends because they are also to dish an old partners. friends is a bit to crazy for instance in the year two thousand and eighteen but if a sea from two thousand to two thousand and seventeen the experts between france and africa has been pretty applied by ten it's a lot and they're. also created about four hundred seventeen jobs their

direct jobs and what is also very important is that once for of french exporting countries did it i mean. yes you do it we've africa. germans always say you hear a loss invest in africa is dangerous because corruption is a big problem that they do have a point. yes but what i want to emphasize it is something very obvious it's very important to see that as you said africa is a continent and have fifty fifty four countries it means that if you want to do business with those countries just have to see in which countries you want to do business they are not the same in the south africa in the ivory coast for instance just have to to choose it and if i can mention some initiatives from the german

government like compact of africa they are about eleven countries said we want to make our country better of tomorrow to make it more attractive and first answer can start with those countries and part of it a lot of african countries also decided to make these emerging plans like synagogue or every coast v.p.n. indeed it means that they out and proving themselves so just look at the card and see what market is for you you know going on the thank you very much to yell at him . molly's most important export product after gold is roll cotton in the last two seasons the country's harvest of around seven hundred thousand tons of it around four million gallons a quarter of the population depend on cotton for the life. of the country process is just a fraction of the commodity itself and then ends up importing clothing from abroad companion is going to increase local production and the profits that come with

adding value to a product at home. this early morning on the pickers on this cotton plantation have been working in fact this year's harvest has been good again partly thanks to fertilizer subsidies introduced by the former government in fact plantations receive several financial benefits including cheap loans but the investment is only partially rewarded just a fraction of the cotton is actually processed in mali. mali amel two is among those wanting to change that business in the capital bamako makes comments from han span organic mali and cotton jacket it's good to satisfy i'm committed to processing it here not exposing it in its real form it requires technique a certain craftsmanship. it's a social and cultural issue things that sadly are not valued attempt to pass.

not only is it. the money there is only one factory processing native cotton on a large scale it's homed by comma tax but even if process is just one percent of the total harvest it's cheaper to import processed cotton from abroad. and grow much they say mali is a big textile market but it's also a market which is flooded with cheaper imported textiles. and that seriously disrupts all companies business. the state owned mali in textile development company now wants more local cotton to be processed on home soil. analysts however fear that tiny energy costs and a lack of skilled workers could put off potential investors though that's not happened with comment text it's made just stakeholder is the china overseas and generic group sometimes new doesn't necessarily mean better in

australia other central bank has confirmed that its latest batch of fifty dollar notes has a spelling mistake all one word is misspelled sweet times across the millions of notes have been printed the bank says it will only correct it in the next print. it just goes to show sometimes you have to read the fine print australia's high tech polymer banknotes are extremely hard to counterfeit thanks to their highly detailed printing but evidently that technology doesn't include a spell checker the word responsibility is misspelled three times on the new us notes missing the last. but australians seem willing to overlook the error. well i guess with this instinct is that he uses cash anymore answer quite a lot of people don't know it was printed forty six million times and that's one hundred thirty eight million missing eyes but you'd expect somebody to check and

make sure that it's all correct before they suddenly print it has gone out to that many people then and then you expect to be right australia central bank says it will fix the error on the next series of notes later this year meaning that sometimes you just have to take responsibility however you write it. talk about responsibility. and it will take us playing make a boeing longer than expected to get back in the wake of two crashes. boeing says it's working to correct issues with the plane and plans to start a reflying the seven three seven months this fall but in the boxes in the u.s. and in europe just on the hof said they would wait for at least a year before flying in the model possibly foresee allan's to move the planes grounded. it's right and.

that's it for me of the business africa team here. you can always visit our website . business schools and do follow us on facebook twitter if you. need to now with this quick check. with us because africa. is. still.

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