indeed. thank you so very much indeed thank you you're up to date on d.w. news up next the business with stephen beard playing omarion edelstein and to all our viewers celebrating today we wish you a merry christmas. and colby promise. to. never take me. from my church or your backyard or for a. church or for

a book. or movie all over. it is that if there's. something to. china there's a trade pact with the u.s. and continues its massive infrastructure project to ease access to global markets will have a closer look at the new silk road and talk to our correspondent about china's ambitions. also on the show christmas means well big business for many we'll take a look at how retailers did this holiday season. this is your business report i'm stephen beers in berlin thanks for joining us u.s. and china have signaled that they're ready to submit their phase one trade deal

beijing said wednesday it's preparing for a signing ceremony that follows earlier statements by u.s. president donald trump and his trade negotiator robert light hisor who said the ceremony will take place in the 1st week of january the mere announcement of the deal has already encouraged markets which have rallied in recent weeks but uncertainty remains china has yet to confirm some details in the agreement. ever more on this i'm joined in the studio by d.w. business reporter clifford coonan clifford we mentioned some criticism there a lot of people are saying this is a trade truce and not a trade deal what do you think i think that's right and i think you mentioned in your introduction there were details and i think that's what we're missing here we've got a lot of broad sweep coming from both sides on this but we still don't we know what the what the nuts and both of the deal are going to be some of the bigger issues like technology transfer there haven't been addressed old it's been a dresser

a base of the u.s. farm products and how china has agreed to buy a certain amount of those so so far we're we're looking at very sort of baby steps and i think i think truce is the right description you know it's interesting donald trump when he 1st started this whole thing was talking about the structural changes needed in the chinese economy in terms of opening the market more in terms of some of the ip issue intellectual property you mentioned just a moment ago will try to make those steps will take those steps is that is that a reality well i think it's important to remember that nothing really in the trade deal or indeed in this whole trade conflict is one thing that china wasn't supposed to be doing already i mean it's not suppose it is supposed to respect ip rules and it is supposed to not engage in technology transfer and it is supposed to open up its markets these are all things that it's already agreed to so in some ways it's just trying to push forward an agenda of reform in china and china has kind of pushed back against that and so what we've seen in the trade conflict in terms of negotiations and china kind of holding fast so all we've got in our review these

small advances as far as the as far as the chinese are concerned very briefly once this trade deal signed what are the biggest challenges i think the biggest challenges are going to be reform and opening up china which is kind of slow down the process it's going to be about how they're going to accelerate the process again and that will also help get global markets going right businesses clifford conan's thank you very much. now to further those trade aspirations china continues to make an impressive array of global investments many are part of the belts and road initiative a series of grand infrastructure projects intended to connect the chinese market with the world fact you can see it here on the map once it shows up. it's been dubbed the new silk road and it's been in construction since 2013 a series of harbors railways roads and power infrastructure and more than 60 countries the aim is to secure our export markets and access to raw materials that china has also shown

a keen interest in germany and that's led to the influx of more than $38000000000.00 euros of directions investment in the country since 2005 investors their focus on innovative technologies which could also appealed to the chinese market according to a study by the bettles money foundation the most in demand areas of investment are automotive drive systems energy systems and biomedical technology. these are cooling and heating units for industrial buildings soon to 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 3000 employees hopes to further expand aided by china's belgian road investment scheme. road opens a new space for 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 will open new maritime trading routes according to official figures the total value of projects already signed exceeds $500000000000.00 us dollars. 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. and chinese ambitions are on the table it's now up to the rest of the world to react.

and for more on this let's cross over to our d.w. correspondent in taipei aid so dan han so nice to see you as always so you saw that report what are china's ambitions with the belt road initiative. well to eventually get more influence and control in the world we know this from another name of the project that is the still carolled is the engine network of trade routes that connected china and the roman empire and many societies in between so the modern version in vision by the chinese president xi jinping goes further to partner with more countries in asia europe and africa and beyond so that chinese government is biggest and bishan. so you mentioned the original silk road linking as far as the roman empire what about this version of the silk road what role does europe play in it. well as part of china's plan we know some belkin countries or eventually become e.u.

member state some early as 2025 so china is using its companies to fill in the development gaps in this cash strapped countries to get more influences so let's say with these infrastructures filled by china in the well spell concerns china can ship its goods from greek to the west into e.u. common market of over half a 1000000000 consumers that of course leads to political remicade revocations when it comes to integration of those european nations into the e.u. . how about now this year as china's economy has slowed as a slow these ambitions at all while not really country to that china has left for wart on infrastructure related projects in other countries and sent its workers have brought not only that china has it new project called digital still carolled to promote its biggest telecom company huawei so all

these projects are considered to be a acknowledging boost for the chinese economy. or it goes on han joining us there in taipei thank you very much now it's one of the most important periods on the christian calendar and for the business books christmas season is critical for retailers above all who rely on strong sales to make up for slower parts of the year the good news in countries like the u.s. and germany is that fundamentally strong economies are poised to drive strong sales at the stores and online but not all are happy ols well that ends well now whoa that may apply to shoppers it may not be the case for german retailers this holiday season the highest sales tend to be on the weekend before christmas but shops had fewer visitors this year retailers were hoping for a boost for classic gifts like books per fumes and gains from last minute shoppers . if a service is more important for me i wouldn't know what to buy in front of

a p.c. you know. it's old fashioned and i want to support jobs but i want to touch the products and smell of them or whatever. we have to support retail is a bit and that's why i go shopping here. german holiday season sales for november and december are expected to exceed $100000000000.00 euros and around 20 percent of that is estimated to have been spent on gifts german incomes have been rising faster than inflation but small retailer is having a difficult time. not everyone has been seeing business boom like big chains mid-size and smaller stores especially in city centers have experienced shrinking revenues and that's also where you of course see the competition between traditional retailers and e-commerce them on 100. german his christmas shopping and it at 2 pm on christmas eve when stores shut their doors but business could pick up

after christmas when thousands will be eager to return and wanted gifts were spent gift vouchers. he did business reports of pottage and belew filed that report and he joins me now in studio to ponder welcome this is sort of a mixed bag here it looks like there are some record retail numbers from german retailers from november and december but not everyone is really affected in the same way exactly who record figures but nobody's happy about it because obviously it's the e-commerce guys who saw a lot of big rise there and what you saw in many places like berlin where people lining up to you know pick up packages or the you know the law the lines for the postal service were like really long a strong line of course for online shopping and not for you know the small mom and pop store off the street or might be hoping to you know get some people come in and there are many of here. now identifying what is a christmas retail number is getting harder and harder in the world of in-store shopping versus online isn't it it is i mean a. people start shopping you know for christmas in june and of course people like

hunting for those online offers they're comparing prices the whole time with what's online they go into stores look at products to feel them touch them but then they go online to buy them and that's the real problem so to be honest we don't really know if the figures that we're getting for the christmas shopping really reflect the real figures for e-commerce and you know what is spent on gifts because of course if you've been buying gifts as early as june online then we have to really you know include that there briefly you've looked at how much germans spend on average for christmas what he tells $475.00 euros that's what they are spending on average something or less than it is a lot stephanie way more than i have spent as i don't want to say what i spend because i might appear cheap what is your policy we talk about this you have a policy for no gift policy for adults only children get gifts the for me so i don't spend too much as well you know you want to spoil them too much there you have a. deal of you visit reporter with his philosophy for gift buying and that's it for us and the business team here in berlin you can of course find out more about these

and other business stories online at d w dot com slash business check us out on social media facebook and twitter as well i'm stephen beers in berlin thanks for watching.

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