>>hello i'm raya abirached >> "bbc world news" is presented by kcet, los angeles. funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundaon

>>hello i'm raya abirached

i'm raya abirached and this is world business, your weekly insight into the global business trends shaping our lives. in the nine years since china entered the world trade organisation, its insurance industry has developed fast: from only 30 licensed companies in 2001 to 115 today. over a third these are either wholly owned or strongly backed by foreign insurance brands. but with no level playing field and limitations on what they can sell, these investors arebeing left behind in the race for market share. >>reporter: in august alone, another 1.2 million cars jostled for space on china's roads... a 55 percent year-on-year increase. the same month, new property sales were up 9.3 percent on 2009; while in shanghai, cargo throughput hit new records with the port handling 2.6 million containers. >>mackie: premium income in the first half of 2010 topped 18 billion us dollars... up over 33 percent on 2009.and there's plenty of room for growth as market penetration is still under 3 percent of gdp. >>reporter: of the country's 115 insurance players, over 40 are foreign owned or foreign funded. mos

i'm raya abirached and this is world business, your weekly insight into the global business trends shaping our lives. this year opec turned 50 and for its member countries the last few years have been a turbulent time, with massive swings in prices and demand. now as the world emerges from recession, thirst for oil is once again on the rise, providing great opportunities for countries with huge untapped reserves. countries like the central asian nation of kazakhstan. >>reporter: you're looking at the world's largest industrial project. this is the kashagan oil field in the caspian sea in kazakhstan... considered the world's largest discovery in the last 30 years. >>challenges abound: shallow water, extreme weather, toxic sulfur levels and complicated logistics... as there is no access to the open sea. >>to tap into the precious black gold here - estimated reserves top 9 billion barrels - kazakhstan teamed up with partners including shell, total, exxonmobil, conocophillips and eni. >>massimov: the total investment is above $160 billion. the most developped technology is used to develop this

i'm raya abirached and this is world business, your weekly insight into the global business trends shaping our lives. since it emerged in september that germany grew three times faster than expected in the second quarter, the prospect of a real recovery from recession in europe came a little closer. but while recovery in a select few other cotries looks robust, others in the eu still sit uneasily on large piles of debt. >>reporter: just outside munich lies the campus of semi-conductor maker infineon. it's one of several german exporters currently staging strong recoveries. like many german firms, infineon was hit hard by the recession. >>bauer: i'm in semi-conductors for the last 25 years and all these years i haven't experienced such a steep downturn as this one. we were down in some businesses on a quarterly basis 50% as compared to the previous year. all in all the year 2009, was 22% down. >>reporter: infineon's share price tumbled from well over 4 euros to just 40 euro cents. to regain the confidence of the capital markets, the company took drastic action ... cutting costs by 600 milli

i'm raya abirached and this is world business, your weekly insight into the global business trends shaping our lives. since it emerged in september that germany grew three times faster than expected in the second quarter, the prospect of a real recovery from recession in europe came a little closer. but while recovery in a select few other countries looks robust, others in the eu still sit uneasily on large piles of debt. >>reporter: just outside munich lies the campus of semi-conductor maker infineon. it's one of several german exporters currently staging strong recoveries. like many german firms, infineon was hit hard by the recession. >>bauer: i'm in semi-conductors for the last 25 years and all these years i haven't experienced such a steep downturn as this one. we were down in some businesses on a quarterly basis 50% as compared to the previous year. all in all the year 2009, was 22% down. >>reporter: infineon's share price tumbled from well over 4 euros to just 40 euro cents. to regain the confidence of the capital markets, the company took drastic action ... cutting costs by 600 mil