>>abirached: this week on world business a look back at some of the best stories of the last year including... >>: rising to the challenge of becoming a global currency. the rmb aims high >>: i think, symbolically, it's an interesting step - it's an important step. but, i think in the grand scheme of things, especially how little border trade as a share of china's total trade, i don't think it's that serious. >>: and human trafficking - the insidious international crime that could be going on in your street. >>: we see the tip of the iceberg, but what is submerged i think is beyond our imagination espe3cially with forced labour in particular. >>: and algae in the tank, one of the more unusual biofuels

being developed in the us >>: the beauty of our technology is as a consumer, things won't change, you'll go to the gas station you'll fill up your car but you'll be doing it with a renewable fuel. >>abirached: >>abirached: hello and welcome. i'm raya abirached and this is world business, your weekly insight into the global business trends shaping our lives. this week we are looking back at some of the best stories of the past year. as the recession rolls on it is becoming clear that china has not been as badly hit as many predicted. and as china becomes and increasingly important global power there is a growing feeling that her currency, the rmb could also challenge the dollar

as the world's reserve currency. >>reporter: the cranes at fangchenggang hoist the lion's share of global trade in and out of south west china's guangxi zhuang region. >>: loads like these sacks of aluminium oxide are usually settled in us dollars - the world's leading reserve currency. but volatile exchange rates are adding to the pain of the global slowdown. so, to counter this, china is promoting its rmb - albeit quietly - as this region's trade currency of choice. >>tao: the design is meant to stabilize cross border trade. when the exchange rate vis-a-vis the dollar of some of the regional currencies are very volatile, it's hard to anchor traders' expectations. i think, to that extent, it's a good move. >>reporter: many chinese exporters agree - adding that they'd see their money sooner with rmb settlements.

better cash flow would mean reduced interest payments - and, in a global slowdown, every cent counts. >>chaotang: to use the rmb, the payment cycle is short - the company benefits from using the rmb and trade flowsfaster. >>mackie: china wants to help its struggling manufacturers. but with some two trillion us dollars in reserves, it must tread cautiously. so, for the meantime, only companies from guangxi zhuang and neighbouring yunnan province can opt to conduct cross border business in rmb. while their rmb trading partners are limited to those based in asean countries. in a nutshell, this voluntary initiative shouldn't make waves. >>tao: i think, symbolically, it's an interesting step - it's an important step. but, i think in the grand scheme of things, especially how little border trade as a share of china's total trade, i don't think it's that serious. (13)

>>reporter: and small it is - even if everyone agreed to use rmb. in 2008, trade between asean and the two selected chinese regions amounted to just 3 percent of china's total 230 billion dollar trade with the bloc - or to put it another way, a mere quarter of a percent of china's 2.6 trillion dollar global total. >>: but, according to a government think tank, there's a lot more to this limited cross-border rmb plan than meets the eye. for it's actually just step one in a long term strategy to internationalise china's currency. >>xiaosong: in addition to asean, the rmb can then be used as a trading currency with india, pakistan, russia, japan and korea. and the third step is to use the rmb globally. that's the general plan. >>reporter: actually, this is a huge plan - that's aimed at reducing

the us dollar's dominance as an international currency. but first, beijing has got its work cut out. the country needs a social safety net to help through any financial shocks. and it should also liberalize its capital account and the convertibility of thecurrency. only then could the rmb hope to join the reserve currency club. >>song: and right now, we're not there yet. still we need a lot of time to build up china's capital market, banking system and also the social security and the insurance system. >>reporter: as for a time frame, the jury is divided - optimists cite 15 years, the pessimists 40 ! >>: for now, china will pay for brazilian sulphur in dollars. nonetheless, neighboring governments, eventhe us, welcome measures, albeit modest, that allow greater international use of the rmb. but some asean traders still

need convincing. >>: a slow transition of the rmb to a regional currency actually suits beijing - given both its huge exposure to dollar denominated assets and the recent g20 agreement to support a dollar-centred currency system. but the die is cast. china's timely goal is to free itself from today's hegemony of a foreign currency. >>abirached: it's a trade as old as time itself, and it doesn't just happen in someone else's country. human trafficking is all around us. the majority of victims work in the sex trade... but even some of the buildings we work in, the food we eat and many of the clothes we wear bear the fingerprints of criminals who use and abuse people for profit. >>reporter: it's slavery by another name. human trafficking is now the third biggest earning criminal activity after drugs

and weapons. 36 billion dollars a year are made out of treating up to 2 million victims, mainly women... and many children, as a commodity that can be bought and sold. egypt's first lady, suzanne mubarak, is the driving force behind an effort to eradicate the trade: >>mubarak: we only see the tip of the iceberg, but what is submerged i think is beyond our imagination. especially the forced labour, particularly. ( as you say) the problem of trafficking differs from one country to the other, differs in the type of human trafficking, differs in scope and magnitude. this isa global problem, global issue and we should have global solution and international co-operation >>scott: the end human trafficking now campaign was launched in 2006. a lot of work has been done since then, but this conference is about putting words into action and trying to rectify some of the shortcomings of current anti- human trafficking initiatives.

>>ezeilo: there are good practices, best practices that we could share and disseminate. i would really like to facilitate, to ensure that just don't expose country's deficiencies >>costa: i believe that greater dynamism should be injected in some of governments. a more negative news is the fact that about half of the member states have not

convicted yet a single person for this crime...a crime which we know is everywhere in the world >>reporter: the sex trade makes up the biggest part of human trafficking which has a crossover into the drugs trade. young girls and women, mainly from asia and eastern europe are recruited... sometimes even bymembers of their own family. they are treated like pieces of meat and the younger and more tender they are the higher the price. >>costa: it's a culture of exploitation in the part of the perpetrator, a culture of greed and making fast money...the demand-side which consists of young men who want to have exotic sex and therefore take advantage of whatever is available in the market, even if these are sex slaves. >>reporter: there's a fine line between trafficking and forced labour. the international labour organisation estimates that nearly 12 and a half million people are forced to work and of those nearly 2 and a halfmillion have been trafficked the majority

of which are in asia and the pacific region. >>plant: there is this feeling that it's only undocumented migrant workers across frontiers who can get into forced labour situations. there's increasing evidence, there's increasing realisation that you can be in a perfectly legal situations in a destination country, but if you've been seriously exploited by a series of intermediaries in the employment relationship, you could also end up in forced labour situations. >>reporter: poverty is a common denominator for the victims many of whom are drawn to the cash-rich, fast-growing economies of the gulf region. some of the workers on construction sites and domestic workers in the region end up being abused. in europe, agricultural workers are recruited, transported and paid poorly. while in the third world and asia children are often used in the textile industries: >>costa: people who want cheap commodities, cheap goods which are stitched by the little fingers of the little boys and little girls paid half a dollar a

day and working 12 hours a day. there are so many complexities in this situation which makes our work more interesting but also extremely difficult. >>reporter: the participants at this year conference in bahrain acknowledge that there is a huge task ahead. but their message is that it involves all of us and they want to make people aware that what they may be consuming could be tainted by the hand and the sweat and suffering of a trafficked human being. as abraham lincoln once said: if slavery is not a crime, what else is a crime? >>abirached: still to come on world business... vital signs, how giving customers a clear route map can be good for business >>: too many signs, too much information is more confusing in some cases than not enough information >>: and a truly green fuel. could algae be the best bio fuel of all? >>: the task in hand frankly is not so much scaling it up,

we've done that, it's reducing the cost of manufacturing. >>: and looking for the next generation of french rugby stars in the country's run down housing estates. >>: a rough game for rough neighborhoods ... and the rest in just a moment on world business >>abirached: with the current fuel versus food debate, interest in some bio-fuels is cooling. the focus is now turning to another plant - algae. scientists have managed to turn algae into a substance almost identical to crude oil. and it's getting investors excited. >>reporter: algae are one of the simplest and oldest organisms on earth.... and they're full of oil. >>dillon: all of the oil production biochemistry that's

in a canola plant or a palm tree or a soy bean first arose in algae a very long time ago so oil production pathways in algae are among the most robust of any organism on earth. >>reporter: harrison dillon holds a phd in genetics and is also a patent attorney. his company solazyme was one of first to try to optimise algae's oil production. his idea is to feed them. though in the wild algae live off just sunlight and co2, they can also eat biomass, such as wood chips, which they convertto oil. >>dillon: so what we do at solazyme is take strains of algae from the wild and identify the ones that have very efficient pathways for converting that biomass directly into oil and then once we find the right strains that do that we work on optimizing the process to reduce the cycle time and reduce the cost of making that oil. >>reporter: and what's most impressive about oil created from algae is that it's practically

the same as oil extracted from the ground. vehicles can run on algae fuel without any modification. >>harrison: well you say algae and i say algae, but we're far from calling the whole thing off, and judging by the amount of capital that's been pouring into this industry lately the race is really on to get fuelfrom this out of the science lab and into large scale production. >>reporter: solazyme uses fermentation tanks to grow the algae and says it's already made thousands of gallons of oil. >>dillon: the task in hand frankly is not so much scaling it up, we've done that, it's reducing the cost of manufacturing a gallon to the point where it's at economic parity with fossil based transportation fuels. we expect to be at those costs of production within 24 to 36 months. >>reporter: and that's what's attracting investors >>lese: you have to find those companies that are really going into the commercial world as opposed to beingin the laboratory for the next three to five or six years which certainly would not fit our financial model in the case of solazyme, they are there. >>reporter: competition within

the algae-to-oil space is fierce. sapphire energy in san diego has the same end goal but a different technique. rather than feeding the algae with biomass, they're developing strains that grow with just sunlight and co2. >>pyle: what we are proposing is that we use non arable land and non potable water. so we are not in competition with either existing agriculture or existing sources of municipal or agricultural water. >>reporter: they're confident they've figured out how to scale up using agricultural models. >>pyle: when we think about commercial production we think about 10 thousand barrels a day and we'd like to hit those kind of numbers within the next three to five years. and from there we would look to expand our production base into many 10 thousand barrels a day facilities >>reporter: and even in an economic slowdown, those projections have attracted a wave of investment - 100 million dollars in its last round. >>pyle: it's given the company the ability to make decisions about its development and make decisions about partnering, independent of the need for financing and

the pressures that you would feel if you were in the arena right now. >>burow: as a venture capitalist this is a project that has enormous rewards, we have any number of business models open to us, we could drop directly into an existing refinery, we could buy our own, we could partner, we could build our own, it's a long list the bottom line is that because it's a direct dropin all those things are open to us. >>reporter: for both sapphire and solazyme, the search continues for the perfect strain of algae - with the winning combination of a rapid growth rate and high oil content. and if they can sufficiently bring down costs, it would be a smooth transition from fossil fuels. >>dillon: the beauty about this technology is that as a consumer, things won't change, you'll go to the gas station you'll fill up your car but you'll be doing it with a renewable fuel. >>reporter: and so one of the world's oldest organisms could one day power the transport of the future. >>abirached: wayfinding is a mixture of art and science, which analyzes how people move through

buildings, department stores and cities. then, by using graphics, icons, and signs, a good wayfinding system acts as an instruction manual, making journeys through those environments easier, more logical, and more comfortable. but when it's done badly, not only can it cause unnecessary stress and aggravation, it can also be financially damaging. >>reporter: no-one likes getting lost....and in london, thanks to the way the city is laid out, as a pedestrian,it's notoriously easy to do... >>tyrrell: the city was built 4, 500 years ago so the roads are very narrow...lots of little side streets. >>reporter: landmarks are hard to see, roads often aren't straight....and making matters worse, in central london alone, there are over 32 different signage systems, each using different colours, designs and fonts... >>erickson:

too many signs. too much information is more confusing in some cases than not enough information. >>reporter: so what if people are getting a bit lost? a bit confused? who cares? well, shopkeepers for one, because 200m people visit the westend each year...spending almost $8b...and... >>tyrrell: if they've spending time worrying about their map, trying to get around, they're not going to spend money and open their purses in our stores... >>reporter: which is where way finding comes in.... >>erickson: it's the science of getting somebody who has presumably no knowledge of a building or a space getting them from a to b with a minimum of inconvenience. >>reporter: and that's why the city is spending millions on this wayfinding project...setting up simple, consistent signage, in a pilot scheme that will hopefully spread across the entire city... >>tyrrell: its gone extraordinarily well, really positive feedback... not just from those using it but also theshops have benefited from seeing more

customers come through their door.... >>reporter: in fact way finding exists in many forms...these 3d signs in a melbourne retail centre car park are designed to ensure customers final impression of their visit isn't one of annoyance and anxiety as they try to find their way out... >>: meanwhile, if you walk around any big store, there's a very good chance you'll be exposed to more subtle types of way finding...where colours, design, and layout are used to gently guide consumers.... >>smith: all the areas have different colours, so people know where to go to shop those areas. >>erickson: you get into the psychology of colors which colors welcome people, which colors repel people. good legible fonts. >>smith: what we're trying to do is enhance the areas to the customers but not shout about it >>reporter: and while certain forms of way finding are designed to get people from a to b quickly, others most certainly aren't.

>>smith: what we're trying to do with the customer is actually dwell... make them dwell longer in a hmv store. >>erickson: understandably the manager of the shop says well actually, we don't want people to get round too quick and we don't want them to know exactly... there has to be a sense of discovery about the wayfinding. >>jong: before we had lots of straight lines so they could get to where they wanted to go quicker.... whereas now they have to wind around more? >>smith: that's right. it's all about dwell time so people actually shop the store... >>reporter: back out on the street meanwhile, it's hoped a good way finding system will break a rather bad habitto london's pedestrians have picked up over the years...using one particular map to navigate above ground... >>man 1: tube map >>man/woman: for me tube map. for him google map. >>man 1: the tube lines. occasionally but i know they're not representative. >>reporter: in fact a recent survey showed nearly half of pedestrians use the tube map above ground...

>>graaf: its very good for travelling in the tube... its absolutely no good for travelling above ground. doesn't tell you how far it is. doesn't tell you what direction it is. >>tyrrell: a good example is bond street. bond st tube station isn't even on bond st, you end up on oxford st. >>reporter: and people also end up on the tube for no reason... >>graaf: what happens is that actually people do go underground to make journeys when there's no point going underground for. >>reporter: getting people off the underground won't only mean shops will see more customers, but it will also help fight obesity, is environmentally friendly, and will take pressure off the transport system...all that will save the city money...because whether out on the street, or inside the store, when way finding is done well...it most certainly works.... >>smith: certain areas of the store have certainly seen massive increases. and what we're finding is people dwelling in the store and actually buying more. >>jong: dwelling a lot longer, a few minutes longer? >>smith: a lot longer. >>tyrrell: we've had nothing but positive feedback to date with this scheme. >>reporter: and in a city where people make 15 million trips every

day by foot, that's got to be... a good sign.... >>abirached: ever since france hosted the rugby world cup in 2007, the sport has become increasingly popular, butit still remains a non-starter on france's gritty housing estates. but a new initiative is underwayto get kids from some of france's most impoverished neighborhoods interested in the sport. >>reporter: this housing estate on the outskirts of the southern french city of toulouse suffers from high double digit youth unemployment .the population is made up of mainly first and second generation north african immigrants. these housing projects are more or less cut off from the rest of french society. >>: and yet in this local classroom a strange sort of experiment is taking place. >>: these kids are being taught about the game of rugby. in these rough

neighborhoods football is king. but for rugby professionals there is a lot of new potential players on these estates. >>: and for regional and city governments who finance the initiatives - rugby is seen as having a more positive role model image than football. >>zerourou: with rugby you have the right to physically handle your opponent to try and stop them from scoring which you can't in football. so that physical struggle encourages you to show respect for your rival even as you try and take him or her out. >>reporter: on these estates there are no rugby pitches so teaching the game is an uphill battle. on top of thatfootball is identified with glamour and money. these kids can rattle off the names of any number offootball stars but can barely think of one rugby player. >>voxpop: we know more footballers than rugby men like christiano ronaldo, zidane or kaka. >>: i prefer tennis

or football but not rugby. >>reporter: but the people behind thosperous city centers or out in the countryside. in other words they definitely don't come from neighborhoods like this one. >>reporter: france hosted the last rugby world cup in 2007. and even though thousands of loyal fans followed thenational team's progress towards the semi finals - the event did not make a breakthrough into france's immigrant population. french rugby authorities say that will only happen when the zidane of french rugby emerges from one of their france hosted the last rugby world cup in 2007. and even though thousands of loyal fans followed thenational team's

progress towards the semi finals - the event did not make a breakthrough into france's immigrant population. french rugby authorities say that will only happen when the zidane of french rugby emerges from one of their neighborhoods. >>batut: the day when we have succeeded in finding a few star individuals emerging from a troubled estate then we will have finally made the breakthrough in that environment. >>reporter: in the city of bordeaux rugby officials are trying to get a head start. armed with a budget of 800,000 dollars a year they are literally bringing rugby to the muddy grass at the edge of the tower block stairwells. not for nothing this initiative is called drop kick in the concrete jungle. most of these kids aren't even teens yet. but the thinking is - if they can learn about team spirit early on maybe they will take up rugby before football. >>iboulan: rugby is a collective sport unlike football which is focused on individual success and cash. rugby teaches these

kids values like mutual respect and openness. >>reporter: after this rugby session the post game analysis is all about team effort. the kids from this estate are facing a tough future. this could be a winning message. >>abirached: that's it for this week's world business. thanks for watching. we'll see you again at the same time next week.