next a good day. every day you can see for us and for our pleasure. believe the mind is on its way to bring you more conservation. how do we make cities screener how can we protect animals and their habitats what should your own taste. we can make a difference by choosing reforestation movement deforestation recycling over

disposable smart new solution superstate said you know. good news truly unique and we know that their uniqueness is one allows us to live and survive gloom ideas be an ornamental soon global 3000 on t w i'm going. to cut. african start up see less investment in 2020 the 1st time that experience of funding pull back in nearly a decade look at what's behind the tighter purse strings. also on the show volkswagen turns to microsoft for help with self driving cars it's the latest partnership between big tech and big auto where the stakes are high to do digital right. globe welcome to the show m c. it's good to have you with us investments in african startups fell for the 1st time in nearly. decade in 2020 that's

according to a new report by venture capital firm part tech partners companies on the continent raise 1400000000 dollars last year some 29 percent less than 2019 big deals were down with only a pair of start ups managing to raise more than $50000000.00 experts claim the pandemic and subsequent lock downs for the disappointing year africa's tech sector is the world's smallest and investment had increased significantly prior to 2020 some analysts expect a turnaround this year. well getting through the pandemic is the priority around the world and it's leading to some very clever ideas in kenya where infection rates have skyrocketed in past weeks front line workers are now getting help from an unlikely source japanese robots. japan has sent 3 of them to kenya to help the east african country battle the coronavirus crisis the robots are named hero brave and hope and they're skilled at protecting frontline workers from

infection as the manufacturer explains. it can carry different vital symptoms detection. body temperature measurements of growth between $100.00 to $200.00 people per minute it's good to do musk wearing a fossil it's good to decide to spray massive areas let's look at ports and all for is to collect. and analyze and record to your time japan and the un joined forces to develop the robots japan leads the world in robotics and has been using robots in its health center for years now kenyans can benefit from that experience. one of the themes that the stuff we talk a lot is a geographical boundaries are not respected by diseases. where. one of the challenges that was

a. disease that has what it does. because you know it would be is this. these and this will be this little bit about the. kenyan front line workers now hope that their shiny new friends from japan can help them stem the tide of the coronavirus pandemic. or from robots when other increasingly high tech sector the car industry folks wagon has announced that microsoft will provide the cloud based software for its autonomous vehicles but deepens an already existing partnership between the 2 companies and it comes as more tech companies are partnering with auto companies where demand for digital software is soaring. cloud services secure data transfer and artificial intelligence on the one hand automotive know how on the other microsoft and folks fog and hope to work together to speed of the w.'s development of automated driving the software situation at the

auto giant in its 12 brands including audi say that skoda rim porsche has before now being chaotic with each unit doing its own thing we do we then consolidated its software development program into one subsidiary car software org now microsoft will lend its cloud computing expertise traditional car makers are feeling the pressure not only must they contend with tesla the undisputed leader in the electric car market but also they're facing ambitious u.s. tech giants who are hoping to carve out a slice of the automotive pie google and apple they're working together on software for autonomous driving meanwhile amazon has bought a firm that produces robotic vehicles software is playing an ever bigger role in our cars for instance in steering or on board entertainment with increasing digitalisation the auto industry is approaching across rates. let's go now to some

of the other business stories making headlines singapore airlines begins flights thursday manned by crews that are fully vaccinated against covert 19 the 1st airline in the world to do so their lines as pilots and cabin crew on 3 international flights from singapore have received their 2 doses of the biotech pfizer vaccine astra zeneca posted a $3200000000.00 profit last year the biggest driver was cancer drugs where sales jumped by almost a quarter the british swedish pharma giant issued an upbeat forecast for the current year although its estimate does not yet include sales of its covert $900.00 vaccine. well might be hard to imagine right now but eventually the pandemic will be behind us what happens then to businesses that started because of corona virus in frets the pens ever produced a new crop of mask manufacturers now they're concerned what the future holds for them. medical grade and made in france these masks are

being churned out of a production line that didn't exist a year ago but the 50 staff at start of live mask from say and now for juicing a 1000000 of them a week. last march with the start of the pandemic president amount more macro promised france will begin to make enough masks to meet its own needs. different delivery end of the year i want us to have achieved this independence in its entirety. since then the number of french mask makers has risen from 4 to 20 but the problem is the vast majority of the masks being worn in france are still made in china something lim asked for say c.e.o. emanuel knees are doesn't see changing. making a mass it costs us $0.10 when it comes to tenders for us to be able to continue our factories activity we need to offer price of $0.11 per mask for example and we lose

the contract and a french company that imports masts from china when because they'll sell it for less than $0.04. that inability to compete now has french mask makers worried about what will happen after the pandemic the drop in demand could mean there's only space in the market for the cheaper foreign imports. you have to ask yourself what will the market be once the pandemic is over. before the crisis hospitals were using masks care homes as well to some extent and i think inevitably the markets will return to normal. well. some french manufacturer has a calling for high import taxes on foreign masks to try and redress the imbalance in pricing but with officials admitting that france will need to produce less than half its current output when the coronavirus crisis is over his hard to see how

will 20 french produces survive the end of the pandemic. and from european manufacturing let's take a look at european markets amsterdam has overtaken london as europe's biggest trading hub of things to brag that which prompted some firms to move from the u.k. capital so that they could continue servicing even markets and amsterdam was the biggest winner share trading there shooting up to 9200000000 euros a day during january knocking london down into 2nd place the u.k. capital seeing only about half the daily trading it average in 2020 a dutch copper also leapfrogging paris and frankfurt to emerge as the biggest winner so far of britain's exit from the e.u. at least in trading turfs now our financial correspondent chelsea delaney is in frankfurt here's her take on the news. well this news is perhaps a bit of a disappointment here in frankfurt which had been hoping to really emerged as the

major financial center in europe in the wake of that but amsterdam has really taken over at that top spot with the bang. saw a huge influx of trading of stocks and derivatives in the wake of the end of that transition period and that's because the u.k. and the e.u. were not able to reach a deal on financial services before the transition period expired that means that many that you financial institutions can no longer trade in london interchangeably like they had been doing before so we've seen a lot of financial institutions shifting that trading from london back to continental europe many analysts and investors say that could change if the u.k. and the e.u. are able to reach a deal on financial services but for now amsterdam is really the winner and terms of financial services in the wake of cracks that. financial correspondent chelsea delaney in frankfurt there well it's been 6 weeks since britain left the e.u. single market and many u.k. companies are still adjusting to the new landscape a much more bureaucratic one it in least when it comes to exporting goods to europe

small firms in particular are feeling the pain. the tasks of screwing cutting and punching down by small and mid-sized companies an important part of the u.k.'s economy in london kind that produces trades in cambridge who rise and makes retail this place the company's export to china you and i have many small exporters they now face problems delivering their products abroad the rise of managing director andrew must try to explain to you customers that they now have to pay the $80.00 sales takes for us to get the deliveries. not one of them was willing to do so because it involved too much paperwork it just wasn't worth it for them anymore a real desperation because we had hundreds of thousands of euros of goods sat here in the warehouse that we just couldn't deliver we had customers desperate to receive these materials we had customers in italy and germany you know demanding

deliveries that we can we simply couldn't do it we were letting customers down. the huge increase in administration is the main problem the kind that just well. managing director mark really is most annoyed by a lack of support from british authorities we did what we could to prepare because we kept being told prepare prepare prepare and then we realise probably it was the government that wasn't prepared because the information isn't there it's not easy for us to figure out how to do what we need to do with spending time. looking searching on why asking other people what do we do. we approached the department for business energy and a desperate strategy for comment but received no response the u.k. government insists that brags it does bring new economic opportunities and also that they're working closely with businesses to guide them through the changes

however it's not clear whether the problems that many small firms are currently facing are merely teething problems or whether they had to stay this game maker and you must doesn't think these problems would simply go away the issues that we're facing now will be the issues that we face in 6 months time and in 6 months time we won't have any customers and if we don't have any customers in europe we don't have a business the new awareness is going to be up and running we've got 7 the horizon solution is to set up a warehouse and legal subsidiary in the netherlands and relocate the company sales separations to it we very quickly locate somewhere how space we signed a 3 year agreement with we're starting the process of incorporating horizon in europe. the relocation means some u.k. workers will lose their jobs while their company begins hiring in the netherlands.

all right that's it for me and the business team here in berlin you can find out more about these and other stories online at t w dot com slash business or on social media far superior let's watch. to the point showing opinions clear positions international perspective such. as covert 19 takes an ever harsher toll many are getting their hopes on vaccines developed in record time yet in many places there rollout has been patchy the race for covert vaccines british against tor our topic wanted to point. the team 60 minutes on w. w's crime fighters are back to africa's most successful radio

drama series continues through the only besos are available online and of course you can share and disco song w. africa's facebook page and other social media platforms to. tune in now. this is news africa on the program today insecurity in the central african republic people are being forced to leave their homes as rebels push on to seize the capital the un say's small peacekeepers on needed to keep the public safe. and on the international day of women and girls in science i'll be told.