taking responsibility for destroying the world's forests, environmentalists say major businesses are doing little to nothing to tackle deforestation is the state of your business on robots in berlin. welcome to the program. the world's investors are increasingly turning to china. beijing says foreign direct investment into its economy jumped by almost 15 percent last year, topping $180000000000.00, but 2020 to another. rise is also expected, not least because china took another small step on january, the 1st loosening foreign investment restrictions in the auto sector. however, curves do remain in many sectors. let's discuss this further with jacob gunter, who's china, economic policy analyst at the ma cater institute for china studies or merrick. thanks a lot for joining us on the to be your business. can you just explain to us why we are seeing more overseas companies investing in china?

yeah, thanks for having me on. i think there are 3 main reasons why we're seeing this. the 1st is just from a basic portfolio perspective. companies are going to put money where they're seeing good recently and return this on their investment and trying to handling the pandemic. and how that allows trying to sort of, you know, remain economically quite strong overall compared to the rest of the world. meant from portfolio perspective, investment, mid cents. the 2nd is, as you alluded to, we've seen some steady increases and market access over the last few years. and companies are now able to take advantage of some of these areas like motor than chemicals and a few others. we've seen some steady increase in investment, but i think the 3rd and probably the most important reason is that companies are really looking to onshore their supply chains and their technology changed as much as possible. and what we've seen from the european chamber of commerce is annual

survey, is that about 5 times many companies are unsure in their supply chains as aren't looking to offshore their supply chains. and the reasons for that is that you, you see the frictions between the u. s. and china in terms of the trade war in the technology war. but you also see a big push from aging to localize. and securitized. ready as much as they can, their supply and technology change and foreign companies are basically responding to that. in many ways, they're sort of looking to create self sufficient operations in china. so while this window of opportunity is available, i think you can see more for the investments to, to build those secure supply chains, but to foreign companies, look at what's been happening in china and aging crackdowns on, for example, the domestic tech sector property sector did not see that and, and worry about it. yeah, i think i think that worries me a certain degree about it. the important question is whether or not you bring some sort of value to, to china. that is suitable with national strategic interests. if you have

a certain kind of technology this, you know, a chinese somebody can't produce been oftentimes beijing will roll out the red carpet for you. so i think there's a lot less fear that these crackdowns will ultimately come to foreign businesses. of course there are certain sectors where that's not so true. basically anyone in telecoms and network equipment and services and software and things like this. ringback i think they're a lot more afraid to cracked on what kind of come their way, but otherwise i think they do things like the real estate crackdown is general growth concerns, but not necessarily something specific to that rise. that remains very different doing business as a chinese company in china than a foreign company. the jacob going to forever thank you very much for bringing is your insights me on. now people in many parts of asia are gearing up for the lunar new year on february the 1st, but many businesses for him, the holidays, usually a massive money making opportunity. the current of virus restrictions in place mean

that some of them who struggle to earn as much this time round. it's a busy time for the workers at the incense village on the outskirts of hanoi. they're busy dying, drying, and whittling bamboo bark to make the fragrant sticks that are sold throughout vietnam as well as china and many other asian countries as they welcome the lunar new year. but as hard as they work, business is down 30 percent and it's not due to a lack of demand. now, the corona virus restrictions are making it difficult for our trucks to get around . we're having trouble shipping our products. normally there would be lots of trucks carrying our products to central and border regions. and even beyond me, i got my own i. last year vietnam's businesses were seriously hit as almost the entire country went into a lockdown for more than 3 months. this year things have improved somewhat,

but supply problems remain among them. this traffic jam of thousands of trucks at the border with china. beijing has tightened. import rules as covey. 19 case numbers rise. ah, but he's not going to let you all of us here in the village or just hoping that things will return to normal and soon who knows? but it's unlikely to be soon enough for the festive season. then the fragrant sticks are used to temples or burned on ancestral altars at home, in hopes of good fortune ahead. now they are essential to life on earth, but environmentalists say the world's forests under threat from the inaction of corporations for its cover almost one 3rd of the land area of the planet ecosystems are critical components of the world's bio diversity. all those animals and plants, and of course their trees produce oxygen while sucking in carbon dioxide emissions

. however, it's estimated that since 199420 1000000 hectares of forest have been lost through conversion to other land uses. that is an area, the size of the e. u. agricultural expansion is the main cause of that large scale commercial farming accounted for. 40 percent of tropical deforestation between $22010.00 vast amounts of land have being cleared for grazing cows or cultivating soybeans. and also palm oil. well, at b climate 26 summit in glasgow, the cop 26 summit will lead is agreed to end deforestation by 2030 but a report published today. so the majority of companies who could be doing something about it and not. but we can now speak to nicky models from the environmental organization, global canopy, which actually published this report at 1st up. thanks for joining us. can you explain to us what your conclusion was from your research?

well, thanks very much for having me on road. so the 1st 500 report published today shows the business and finance of failing on deforestation. i mean, that's the quick take home methods and that contributing to climate change, the se by diversity. lawson impacts on communities worldwide. so our report looked at the $350.00 companies most linked to the commodities that you mentioned, the dr deforestation. $150.00 biggest financial institutions and we're seeing that still after many years of pressure and claims of action, we've got one 3rd of those companies, the world biggest in this regard, who have no policies or total ignoring issue major food companies, like black towel is the world's biggest, she's made her fashion has is well known fashioned houses from t k max will be the best that she and then we look at financial institutions and we see and even even less engagement for 2 thirds this report shows of financial

institutions including 3 of the world biggest, the biggest investors have no policies on deforestation, and collectively they're putting 5.5 trillion into these high risk sectors. that's twice the g d. p of i can just interject. why do you think the owner should be so much on the corporations rather than the government that control these jurisdictions? this is a, we have collective responsibility for, for all of this. were saying that these products end up in 50 percent of the products in our supermarket. so we're all part of a global deforestation economy, and you mentioned up $26.00. what was encouraging that is that we saw an agreement between a $140.00 plus companies representing 90 percent of the world's forests, but also consumer markets. china, the world's biggest market for the, for a station products made a commitment, b, e, u,

and others. and we'll be giving the law is coming into place that will put pressure on companies and make it mandatory for them to understand these issues and report on them. so it doesn't all fall on the companies. but the reality is that the company of playing a critical role and what we see from today's report, they're not stepping up and doing enough. and what company is telling you that briefly, if you can about why they're not acting as much as you would like them to be? well, i think it's been, you know, this is, this is complicated. so we hear that there are issues around transparency, the complexity of supply chain. so if you're a retailer in europe, for instance, you've got to get visibility down your supply chain. so we're not asking for magical solutions, but we are saying that companies need to engage with their suppliers. awesome to ensure that they're not. they don't have deforestation their products and then be transparent about what they're finding out so that we can see who's taking action.

so really recording for transparency, accountability, and stepwise approach to taking action. okay, came out us from global kind of a thanks for joining us on to business. thanks so much. not some of the other global business stories that are making the news. the number of piracy attacks dropped by a 132 in 2021 to the lowest in 30 years. the international trade organization, the i c. c says that due to more military vessels in the gulf of guinea, but $57.00 crew members were still abducted in the piracy hotspot last year. u. s. inflation searched 7 percent in december compared to the previous year. the highest rating almost 40 years was driven by food housing. i've used cars, surveys show inflation is starting to displace the corona virus as a key key concern for the public. volkswagen says it's had to shut down to

factories in china due to coven 19 outbreaks. this comes after the german comic as a global deliveries fell 8 percent due to production constraints caused by the ongoing semiconductor shortage during 2021. now at the beginning of december, brazil, as president job also narrow said he would make sure that fuel prices went down. just the opposite has ended up happening. and now unrest in the south american country is growing. filling up the gas tank is getting more and more expensive. the state owned energy company, petro boss, has raised gasoline prices by 5 percent and diesel by 8 percent. that's fueling the already high inflation in the country. another i've actually gasoline has gone up to where everything's going up. when will it end market? if petrol increases, everything else increases to what can we do? nothing because business is tough every day it's getting worse about a jacket political feel. this is due to the rising oil prices on world markets,

but there are also regional factors. for example, the worst drought in decades put brazil's hydro power plants out of action. electricity prices exploded as did food prices. then came devastation from heavy rains by the end of the year, inflation sort over 10 percent. for many families, it's becoming even harder to make ends meet. it's an alarm signal for the president with elections in the fall ball soon arrows poll, ratings are falling. after all, his predecessor lost her post due to the desolate economic situation. not so from us. good bye. ah ah ah ah ah ah

ah, ah ah ah, ah, the battle against cove it the only crew variant is putting healthcare systems around the world to the test. vaccination campaigns are accelerating while restrictions are intensifying once again. but or is these measures enough to stop the spread of omicron fax data and reports coven? 19 special? in 30 minutes on d. w. yes, her is a kid who the hellish name. he couldn't. he couldn't make it. i think i don't need the car. yeah, i turned in my li hick auto

t as in making a most beautiful stories in the wow, ah 130 people from fancy countries talk about love around the world in 75 minutes on d w. i'm agreeing with you feel worried about the planet? we to i'm neil, host of the on the grievance of cost and to me it's clear remains to change the solutions or alpha, join me for a deep dive into the green trans for me to do for the family. imagine how many portion of lunch are now in the world right now, the climate change. if any story, this is my place, the way from just one week. how much was can really get

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