tv World Business WHUT October 5, 2010 6:00pm-6:30pm EDT
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goals; the first ladies of africa meet in new york, determined to make a difference. >>i may not be elected but i'm opinion leader, when i talk, they listen to me >>and the real race was to be ready on time. the commonwealth games were not quite the coming out party india had hoped for. a two-week event which is just a gross extravagance >>hello and welcome. i'm raya abirached and this is world business, your weekly insight into the global business trends shaping our lives. in spite of a reputation for economic mismanagement and a history of financial crises turkey has weathered the current global economic
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downturn better than most.the oecd recently doubled its forecast for turkey's growth in 2010 and the country aims to be amongthe world's top 10 economies within a decade. >>reporter: this factory outside istanbul is owned by arcelik. the company is one of the largest suppliers of white goods to the european union. after a contraction in exports last year, the company succeeded in growing its exports by almost 20% in the first half of 2010. that growth is due to a mild recovery in the company's traditional eu markets but also to arcelik's decision to explore new markets to the east. >>cakiroglu: considering the growth opportunities in regions such as middle east, africa, africa, south east, asia and former cis countries, we have identified those countries as priority growth areas.
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>>reporter: turkey's geographical position as a bridge between east and west provides turkish companies with a unique opportunity and the centre of gravity of turkish trade appears to be shifting. while arcelik'sexports to western europe grew by just 3% this year, exports to the middle east and asia grew by 15to 20%. >>hakura: turkey's very close to middle eastern, arab markets, to iran, to russia, to central asia, and to thecaucuses and to the black sea regions. so turkey is blessed with such a geography and for that reason, with the relative political stability compared to its neighbours, turkeys' able to really dominate many of the markets in its neighbourhood. >>reporter: markets like iraq, where turkish companies are dominating reconstruction efforts in the north. iraq's risen from number 10 to number 5 among turkey's export partners. israel is another growth area. despite political
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tensions, turkey has increased its exports by almost 40% this year. overall, turkish exports grew by 18% in the first seven months of 2010 ahead of the governments target. >>mente: our target for 2010 is 111 billion annual export. we are expecting 15% increase in our export this year. we are optimistic we are going to realize 15%. >>reporter: largely as a result of this export driven growth, the oecd, has revised its forecast for turkey's growth this year from 3.7 to 6.8%. turkey's large domestic market has also been regaining strength with consumer confidence rising and demand for consumer credit up 15%. the ceo of turkey's second largest listed bank, akbank, believes the country has weathered the financial crisis better than most dueto lessons learned during turkey's own financial crisis in 2001.
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>>akkurt: so the backbone of the economy is the financial sector. the financial sector was very strong so hassupported the real sector. so there is not any tendency right now in the market for deleveraging. and, secondly, turkish entrepreneurs, their attitude, their mentality is very flexible and very critical so they immediately found out necessary export markets and tried to arrange their business so due to that the effects of the crisis were very limited. >>reporter: but despite turkey's strengths, its growth rate has averaged only around 3.3% over the last decade, far lower than competitors like china and india. holding the country back is a poor level of education especially compared to regional competitors. >>hakura: turkey ranks very, quite low when compared among its peers, for example, even in europe
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among for example when you compare to bulgaria and romania. if you look at statistics and studies by the world bank, by the united nations. >>reporter: another issue is the poor engagement of half of the country's population. turkey comes near the bottom of un world rankings when it comes to empowerment of women, education of women, and women in politics and business. corruption is also a persistent issue. >>hakura: there, turkey has achieved some progress in the last 4-5 years but that progress has pretty much come to a halt and in some cases it has gone backwards. so, unless turkey improves its education system, its quality of its institutions, as well as empower women then turkey's growth rate is likely to be very, very restrained compared, relative to its competitors. >>reporter: these problems coupled with fierce competition from china meant that the turkish economy was in factin decline before the global recession hit in 2008. if the country is to continue on its current growth path, it must introduce
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further political and economic reform and diversify away from labour and capital intensive export industries like textiles and cars where competition from china is too intense. >>mente: we want to shift our export composite to the technology intensive, intensified sectors and as a country we have two tools for this aim. we have a very good r&d law passed two years ago in the parliament and now we are providing very good incentives for all companies, foreign or domestic, which havea good program for r&d projects and also turkey have special incentives for high end technologies in 12 sectors. it will also help us in the future. >>reporter: turkey's transformation from capital and energy intensive industries to high value technological industries won't happen overnight
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but turkey can use its increasing geopolitical power over energy hungry europe to ease the transition. >>windle: it lies between the major energy producers of the middle east, russia and the caucuses and major energy markets in europe and the west. the baku-tbilisi-ceyhan pipeline which opened in 2006 transports oil from baku in azerbaijan to the turkish port of ceyhan, and from there on to western markets. and several gas pipelines are under consideration to move central asian gas to europe via turkey which would avoid dependence on russia. >>reporter: which means turkey's main trading partners in europe will not be looking to upset turkey for the foreseeable future. whether or not turkey reaches its target of growing exports from just over 100 billion usd today to 500 billion by t anniversary of their republic in 2023, turkey's growing importance on the world stage will continue to make
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its economy one to watch in the years ahead. >>the united nations has splurged 40 billion dollars to accelerate progress on women and children health which is crucial for reaching the millennium development goal of reducing poverty by 2015. while some progress has been made, africa still lags behind considerably but anew breed of african firstladies is determined to change that. >>reporter: last week, while their husbands were inside the united nations building...the first ladies took matters into their own hands by holding their own summit in new york. vilified in the past for being more into shopping than caring, this new generation of educated, professional women, married to africanleaders...want the needs of women and children in their countries prioritized. they believe they have a unique access to power >>odinga:
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i can whisper to him because it's something that's going to affect the nation, it is going affect the young people, it's going to affect the children, it's going to affect everybody, that is why. but secondly, i may not be elected but i'm opinion leader, when i talk, they listen to me. they listen to me because i'm in that position of a leadership and i know that when i say it, they take it seriously and i'm the right person to say because i'll say it without any strings attached. >>reporter: one of the primary causes of africa's underachievement is gender inequality. despite the fact that women literally feed the continent...with 80 percent of africa's farmers being female...they are heldback by poor access to credit and land...bringing with it hunger and inadequate quality of food. malnutrition in women and their babies has huge economic consequences: >>shawa: the reason is very simple, if somebody is stunted in the first five years of life, you lose 11 percent of your normal height. your productivity is lost by another 1.1 percent. so for every 1 percent you are
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losing, you are losing productivity by 1.1 percent, so that when you put that in monetary terms, every somebody is stunted, productivity you lose about $29-70 us million dollars per year. >>scott: around a billion people worldwide are affected by malnutrition...two thirds of them women and girls and it kills 3.5 million children every single year. there are calls now for world leaders to put nutrition at the heart of development. >>reporter: it's estimated that malnutrition costs a nation, on average, up to 3 percent of gdp...with some countries in africa losing as much as 6 percent. there are calls to target pregnant women and then theirbabies in the first crucial 1000 days of the child's life. and the solutions are relatively inexpensive >>odinga: change requires that we focus on a combination of interventions: improving exclusive breastfeeding rates, support for infant and young
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child feeding and fortification of basic staples, edible oils andcondiments are part of this improvement. >>reporter: malawi was at crisis point when it decided to address the issue. it is now on the way to meeting theunited nation's millennium development goals on poverty and hunger and its first lady is not just content for the world to sit back and make all the right noises >>mutharika: the developed roadmap on scaling up nutrition with nutrition being at the heart of the mdgs will be achieved by 2015 in malawi. malawi is therefore calling upon the global to walk the talk and not to superficially place nutrition as a weight in documents without action. >>reporter: that view was echoed by lesotho's first lady:
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>>mosisili: the problem on the continent has not been availability of plans and programmes but lack of implementation. when you go through that policy, we see a lot of good and a lot of things that could be done but all this beautiful policies are always locked up in the big offices. so if we want to develop any of these ideas in the policies in nutrition i think our best target should be the grass-roots. >>reporter: timing is critical. africa has enormous untapped potential. it could achieve stunning economic growth but only if its huge young population is healthy. and the mother's of the nations are determined to make that happen. >>kreis: leadership like we're witnessing here today is unprecedented. there has not
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been this kind of momentum for nutrition in the past 25 or 30 years, now is the time, this is a critical window. >>reporter: africa's potential for exploitation has not gone unnoticed: outside parties are keen to obtain land for cash crops for export and the production of biofuels. it could have severe consequences for the women subsistence farmers. the world food programme is worried that by bringing in mechanisation...the boys will take over the toys...and will side-line the millions of women known as the invisible producers. >>sisulu : i think it's important that in seeking the solutions we join the dots. i think we know what the solutions are for various groups of people but we apply these solutions separately. and food production in africa in particular, 80 percent of the food consumed is produced by women so if we don't talk about agricultural development
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and emphasize food production, we are going to marginalize women and limit their access to food for their families. >>reporter: the world food programme sees women as the secret weapon to making a difference in economies hobbledby poor nutrition. as the first lady of kenya puts it, a healthy mother, a healthy child and then ahealthy nation... >>chaka: i really think it is important that we empower women because they're the most important people, theybring lives into this world and there is no need for a woman to die giving birth and to all the first ladies, i think you are the most, most important people because you have a great platform to be nudging your husbands at night. >>reporter: africa's leaders would be well advised to listen to their wives. rural african women farmers are starting to press for a higher profile to match their role as main producers of the continent's
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food...and they are organizing themselves into a formidable political and social movement. in future they could be the key to turning a country from a basket case into a bread basket. >>still to come on world business... >>we speak to damian wader from 3d specialists in-three about the new technology coming soon to yourfront room. >>and they were supposed to be india's showpiece event, but the run up to the commonwealth games hasbeen far from smooth >>we can't pretend that there haven't been issues, there have been >>hardly a podium finish... and the rest in just a moment on world business... >>after years on the fringes as a novelty, 3d film is now firmly in the mainstream,
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and 3d television could soon follow. this has created a boom for companies like 3d film tech firm in-three, which has worked on projects with universal and disney, including the recent alice in wonderland film. i caught up with in-three's vice president of business development, damian wader and began by asking how long he thinks 3dtv will take to take off. >>wader: i think you know we are still 2 to 5 years out from critical mass but it is a trend that is happening faster than i've ever seen any other trend happening you know for me i think i was 8 years down the line but the time i got an hd tv and the minute i did you know i can't even watch regular channelsanymore. but i think that with each technology boost it happens that much more faster exponentiallyso and i think people are really excited about it. not to mention the gaming industry is going to push this a lot too, a lot of gamers will pick up 3d tvs and 3d monitors a lot quicker because they enjoy their activity that way in 3d.
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>>reporter: how is the technology going to advance also in the next 5 years in the sense that we need glasses, (yes) will the image be a little bit darker or will it be the same all of a sudden it will be just a flawless transition? >>wader: i think the technology for viewing it with glasses will increase, i think that glasses will become as cell phones have fashion statement, everyone will have their own pair of glasses they will be ableto you know use them in the theatre you know i already do that i bring my own glasses to the theatre and certainly they will have them at home as well so i think it will be another you know fashion statement another way people can express themselves. >>reporter: i am sure studio bosses see that as another way to make profits right? >>wader: absolutely i am surprised it hasn't been done already with these glasses having you know avatar advertisement or whatever so yeah... absolutely. >>reporter: you are expanding hugely into india, why? >>wader: well, since avatar we knew this was coming we knew there was going to be a capacity issue and it is transpired a lot faster than we thought. the reason we are working
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with reliance media works is because of the infrastructure and the personnel that they offer and the expediency in which they can putthat together. in the next year and a half or so we will be doing up to 10-15 films with over 3000 artists over in mumbai. so it's a huge partner to have, it's great infrastructure to have so just that we are clear the key artistry stays in los angeles with our stereographers and then all the heavylifting is done through mumbai. and then as this relationship grows i am sure we will see them doing some of their own stuff over there as well. >>reporter: there has been a resurgence in tickets sales and the big screen seems to be back in force how is that also a blessing for you? >>wader: well, it's a blessing because it is you know our industry 3d specifically that is driving it. and soeveryone that wants to do their film will consider it shall we do this in 3d? and that's great for our business because every movie that is being followed is being considered to be done in 3d and when that is
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happening you are at 100% capacity as my colleague jim henefen said you know that's all you can ever ask for to be in 100% capacity. >>reporter: do you see this as a fundamental transition in the way we do movies in the way we make films? >>wader: absolutely. i think the difference between 3d now and the 3d we have seen in the past is very comprehensive in that you have all forces going in that direction, you have all the major creators the katzenbergs the camerons behind it you have the technology now where projection before was part of thechallenge of eye fatigue and viewing and you don't have that anymore with digital projection and you have an industry that understands the success that they can have with 3d movies so it is all goingin the right direction and now the home is starting to pick it up which is a market that obviously was not there back in the 60s and the 70s when it resurged. so you know all ships are pointing in the same direction i think it is here to stay absolutely. >>reporter: well it is an industry
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and a public that is very tech savvy and that always want innovation. so whatis the step up from 3d? >>wader: well i am waiting for my holo deck. holographics are obviously the next step you know anybody can conjure and talk, or speculate about what's in the future you know people say out of stereo, i say holographics maybe in the future it's a long way in the future whatever that may be but i think we needto make this 3d thing down first and move in before we go beyond that. >>this week the commonwealth games get underway in new delhi. but the run-up to the games has been shambolic to say the least, with questions raised about the standard of accommodation, the collapse of a bridge at the main stadium and several athletes pulling out. india had hoped to use the games todisplay its growing global economic and political influence. instead, they have become a major embarrassment for the world's largest democracy. >>reporter: this was supposed to be
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india's big coming out party. instead its effort to stage the commonwealth games has turned into a public relations nightmare, with huge delays, accusations of corruption, and mismanagement. >>hooper: we can't pretend that there haven't been issues, there have been. it would have been nice if things had been done sooner, had the organising committee had access to the games venues back in december 2009 when they originally were scheduled to be finished, we would have been a lot better prepared andready. >>reporter: it's the first multi sports event india has hosted since the asian games back in 1982. the government has spent at least 4.6 billion dollars upgrading infrastructure and building new stadiums - over nine times its earlier estimate of 500 million and still, accusations of poor quality work abound. nevertheless, indian officials defend their preparations. >>kalmadi: there is a feeling in commonwealth games countries - because this is
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the first one india is bringingin 60 years of independence - that developing countries can't do it. the same criticism that is happening to us here happened in africa also before the world cup football. but they did a great show and showed the world that they can do it. and so will india, we will do it. delhi is going to emerge as the next sporting hub. >>reporter: the end result is the most expensive commonwealth games ever and delhi's residents will be paying off the debt for decades. despite having had seven years to prepare, very little work has gone in to generating revenue. for instance, so far only 10 percent of tickets have been sold. >>kothari: there's overwhelming evidence now that all those claims that were made that the games would bring inyou know more investment in terms of tourism revenue, in terms of you know ticket sales, in terms of sponsorships, tv sponsorships and so on - all
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of those ring hollow right now, because when you look at the kind of sponsorship they wanted hasn't come. >>reporter: there are social costs too, the games have displaced at least 300,000 of delhi's residents. and withits roads and pavements ripped up, increased traffic congestion is inconveniencing millions of commuters too. >>singh: it's a matter of national prestige. they should have completed all the work in time. there's construction material everywhere, everything is dug up. they've ruined our city. >>reporter: yet despite all this many of the venues have been praised as world-class, including the jawaharlal nehru stadium which will host the opening and closing ceremonies. over 6,500 athletes and officials are in delhi, despite initial reports of unhygienic accommodation in the games village. >>crosswhite: we were quite happy with the village, we're happy to live there. and we are looking forward to the games. >>reporter:
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critics claim that sports would have been better promoted in india, if the funds had been spent on expanding the mass base of sports, rather than hosting a single high-profile sporting event. >>kothari: even in terms of creating a positive sporting legacy, this is not happening. cos it's a mega event in a mega city with very expensive venues being created, they're not going to be available to sports persons across the country. even if you take that 2-3 billion dollars and you had spread it out across the country to create playgrounds in villages, to create local competitions, to provide better training facilities for our athletes across the country, which don't exist, to ensure that they have their daily allowances and you know food and all that - that would have been much better spent than on a two-week event which is just a gross extravagance. >>reporter: the controversy has led some to question the relevance of the commonwealth games itself. a contest that includes britain and its former colonies, seems out of place in the 21st
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century. but the organizers believe it provides a unique sports platform. >>hooper: we are not trying to compete with the olympic games, we are very much for and of the commonwealth, and try to reflect sport in the commonwealth. and that's why in the games programme whilst yesterday are a number of sports that are also in the olympic programme there are many that are not. this doesgive great opportunity to india to expose new sports to the broader population, that there is indeed more to life than cricket. >>reporter: the focus is now expected to shift back to the athletes themselves and their contest for sporting glory. it's hoped the delhi games go off without any further hitches, despite the initial bad press. but one thing is clear: india will not be bidding for the olympics anytime soon. >>that's it for this week's world business. thanks for watching. we'll see you again at the same time next week. >>hello i'm raya abirached
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