set back in the fight against extreme poverty. here from the age of development banks, chief economist on the impact the pandemic has been having on the poorest nations and with the world's biggest gathering of the gaming industry kicking off in germany. we'll take a look at what the sector is making of its most recent i'm just over welcome to the program. china has warned that its fall, harvest is under threat as the country struggles through the hardest summer since records began. 60 years ago, state agencies across china warning residents to save every unit of water as a severe drought continues, especially in the nation south power rationing across multiple provinces has resulted in thousands of factory closures and is being felt in major cities like shanghai. let's get more of this from d w's so song hand in tai paid. so all of this sounds pretty alarming. give us an

idea of what's at stake here. well, many people in china that they have never seen severe par rationing and draw like this in their life time. if we look at the economic sectors that being influence, the 1st one is probably industry the agricultural industry. and there are a lot of loss crops, china's agriculture ministry was a warrant that and on president it heat wave and draw a pos, a threat to the autumn harvest. and we have also seen $16.00 to $17000.00 companies including boss wagon, toyota, fast con, which produce i phones have temporary closures and impacting global factory supplies. now you mentioned this heat wave and brush fires for that matter have led to power rationing in the southwest of the country. what are the downstream effects of that? well, we've already seen large parts of china including still trying to downtown to an way our experiences, power shortages and big cities like sun high,

also switch off some iconic lights. if they power more than 900000000 people have been affected. and we just talk about that population has already been rec, and industry production. and this is new below to the chinese economy, which is already facing problems such as we consumer spending and a troubled real estate market. so power rationing authorities calling on people to save water. what else has china done to deal with this problem? well, the government has done everything from shipping water using cloud feeding to generate rand to offer indirect government support to people who are affected. although it is also trying to make sure there's enough water supply for crops like rise and soy beans, which are at a critical growth stage, the really the authorities trying everything they can to solve this problem. you w correspondence, old song, an anti paid. so thank you. a 2 year setback against the in the

fight against extreme poverty. that's what the pandemic has meant for the asia pacific region. according to a new report from the asian development bank, new growth forecast suggested this year, the regional will only be able to cut extreme poverty levels to what they would have been in 2020. now the b recently cut its growth forecast for 2022 to 4.6 percent because of the fall out from the war and ukraine and a slow down in china. the manila based lender said next year, growth is expected. at 5.2 percent, just slightly less than previously thought. now, one bright spot in driving the regions recovery is to production $26.00. economies from the region contributed nearly 84 percent of total world integrated circuit exports. now, short while ago i asked the asian development bank, steve, economist, our park, what a setback in the fight against extreme poverty meant in real life. if you think

about the plight of very poor families, especially in rural regions of the developing countries in the region, one issue was of course their kids were out of school, lack of internet access, inability to work remotely made it very challenging, both to have employment because a lot of activity shut down, but even if they were asked to go, keep working, they would have to of course bear health ris, bear the costs of trend, transportation, etc. and meanwhile, their kids are struggling. they're out of school. and one thing that we've been focusing quite a lot in our research department is also this issue of learning loss. and the difficulty that children will have catching up after being out of school for extended periods of time with limited access to direct face to face teaching. right . and to get out of this economic growth is necessary, asia still is to take the rest of the world in economic growth this year. how

reliable is this projection of 4 and a half percent of growth was huge. question marks hanging over china's economic strength by china is a big concern in the region. our forecasts for growth in china have been consistently downgraded over the course of the year and may be downgraded even further in the future. china, of course, has suffered from a slump in a consumer confidence associated with a tight lockdown policy related to the 0 koby policy. at the same time, we see stumping external demand because of slowing gloat growth in the u. s. and in europe, which is likely to continue into the coming into next year. and so they've also had issues with their property market and real estate market, which is often been a source of growth in china. so this, the, the slow down is really creating challenges because the chinese economy is linked

to many of the other economies in the region. there are for many countries, the largest export destination. and so that is certainly creating some challenges albert, the to production could help the economic recovery $26.00 economies from the region are contributing more than 80 percent of total world integrated circuit exports. that sounds like a grand figure. is it really it is. we have a number of countries involved in a lot of different parts of the value chain related to integrated circuits and chip production globally, from the research and design stage down to the manufacturing, to the testing all stages of production. and of course, some of the countries like vietnam then take the chips and put them into electronic products and export them out. so it's creating opportunity for

a number of countries that different parts of the value chain for chip reduction. and chips now are really an important part of many products that are exported. there was one estimate that said, integrated circuits, you know, are involved in almost 2, almost 2 thirds of exported items globally, right? our park chief economist at the development bank. thank you for insights. thank you very much and that to some of the other global business stories, making news, germany and canada, having a deal for the production and delivered re of hydrogen. germany intends to use large amounts of the fall of gas to power. it's transition away from fossil fuel. canada agreed to reduce the majority of the liquid hydrogen from renewable energy sources. first deliveries are slated for 2025. also in canada, the government has announced tentative electric vehicle battery deals with volkswagen at mercedes benz. the german car makers are looking to tap into the north american supply chain as they look to challenge tesla on the electric vehicle

market games come one of the video game industry's most important gatherings opened it stores today in cologne. the annual event sees industry heavy weights and smaller developers playing the latest from their lab for hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world. now the industry has been turbo charged in recent years, worldwide locked down flooded the gaming industry with cas sending global revenues above 195000000000 dollars last year. that's larger than the hold on global film and music industry combined at the growth of online mobile gaming is also diversifying the market and the player base. your average gamer is now between the ages of 35 and 44. and despite all cliches survey suggest that as much as 41 percent of gamers are now female,

but inflation is causing many to tighten their belts. and that's taking a bite out of profits of streaming services like netflix, like netflix, for example. and the video game industry could well be the next victim of the global downturn. so let's see what's happening in cologne. with d. w correspondent christy plaza and chris. the good to see you're there. what sticking out to you at games. com? oh yeah, chris, we're really seeing this gender split that you just mentioned played out here in the crowds here in cologne. today we got a lot of men, a lot of women here. excited to be gathered together. i in person, which is pretty funny, considering the fact that gaming was one of the few industries to really boom. during the pandemic, people are happy to be here live on the ground. again, in the hall to my right here, we saw a big line of people wrapped around to, to task, to some of the new games coming out this year. for example, we have a sonic frontiers from saga. that line was too long for me to go through. i have to

be here talking to you right now, but what did jump out to me is a, a large amount of simulation games with a hyper local focus. i tested out a game where i was a bus driver on the streets of hamburg. you could also be a cop on the streets of munich. these are games done in partnership with cities here in germany. so there is really a wide spectrum of games a lot to test out. all right, so you, are there a lot of visitors, are there some big players of the industry or not? why yeah, that's absolutely correct. if you are a looking foreign and nintendo to be here, if you are interested in hearing about playstation updates, sony is also not here, neither these companies are here a few other big names as well. there are few different reasons why these large players didn't attend this year. nintendo, for example, they're just taking a new sort of marketing strategy focusing on smaller, more local and gaming conferences. as for other companies, it could come down to their bottom line. they spent the last 2 years doing

a games come on line. now, wow, they may have think it's not worth the hassle, not worth the price to meet in person, especially considering that gaming companies are still dealing with supply chain disruptions which are weighing on their bottom line. they're struggling to produce the hardware that's been ordered by their customers and that's hitting their profits. so perhaps games conquests for them. one less hassle this year. 2 christy, the industry has been booming throughout the pandemic. we know that is there some sort of let down now that the time of locked downs is over in many parts of the world, and instead inflation is really taking a bite out of people's purchasing power. ah, i would say in some ways it's quite the contrary. i think that a lot of new people came and started gaping for the 1st time during the panoramic people who were gaming started gaming more and now that are locked down, have led aba were sort of and entering a post pandemic pe phase people are quite excited to get together with fellow

gamers with their friends that they may be game with online, we have to remember, gaming is ultimately a social as a social game. so our people do seem excited about the new games and they seem to be able to find some cash to put out for their favorite hobby. all right, let's return to the bus driver's game. christy. black and ours will correspond during cologne. christine, thank you. and that's all thanks to watch. ah ah, with

ah. the watch on for prize. italy in 30 minutes on w lan. red alert for a just route. this is a red if occasion we're going to have some epic. moreover, water over the world or is becoming a scarce commodity,

isn't worth dying of thirst. but global struggle for water is 75 minutes on d w a mm hm. mm hm.

ah, this is the w news life from berlin. ukraine is locked in a fight for freedom this independence day. on the front lines in the south and east, the military stands its ground against the russian. i bad president lansky bound to fight to the end. the countries already paid a high price off.