29/11/2017 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News

with Ben Thompson and Sally Bundock.

A focus on the future.

A major summit between leaders

from the EU and Africa

kicks off in Ivory coast,

but will it really

boost development?

Live from London, that's our top

story on Wednesday, 29th November.

Can EU money give Africa the

economic boost it needs? Britain

makes a significantly higher offer

to settle its Brexit divorce bill so

says the media, so will this clear

the way for trade talks to finally

begin? And on financial markets, you

can see this is how Europe is faring

at the moment. On the minds of

traders, all sorts. A missile launch

out of North Korea, US tax reform,

the Fed and Bitcoin. We'll talk you

through the movers and the shakers.

And we'll be getting the inside

track on testing for diabetes -

without drawing blood.

We will meet the man behind the firm

that says it is using just

lasers to instantly find

out your glucose levels.

He will be here to explain how it

works.

And amid new warnings that robots

will force 700 million workers

into new jobs over the next decade,

we want to know - what job do

you hate and would happily

let a robot do for you?

Let us know, use the

hashtag BBC BizLive.

Hello and welcome to Business Live.

Don't hold back, but keep it clean

so we can share your suggestions

with our viewers on Business Live!

Rarely can the west African

nation of Ivory Coast have

seen anything like it.

Dozens of EU and African leaders

are gathering to discuss how the two

continents can work together

to improve their citizens lives.

Both sides have a lot at stake.

Although it's fallen substantially,

migration has been one

of the defining issues.

1.75 million people made the journey

to Europe over the last four years.

With many coming through Africa

even if they started elsewhere.

Many Africans have been

pushed to leave by poverty

and war the EU and it's member

states are already providing almost

$24 billion a year in long-term

economic development funding.

There are also calls

for more bilateral trade

between the two continents.

Last year they sold each just over

$311 billion worth of goods -

with Africa buying more from the EU

than the EU bought from Africa.

Africa is a young Continent. 60% of

the population is under 25.

Unemployment though is a massive

problem and it is only getting

worse. The number of young people is

expected to double in the next

decade.

TRANSLATION:

Every year we have more

than 5,000 students who graduate

from university and less than 5%

find a job. Because of all the

difficulties, we know more and more

young people who aspire to go abroad

to foreign countries and Europe to

follow their dream.

More than

two-thirds of young people in Africa

work in the informal economy. There

is no insurance. No safety net and

incomes hover around $2 a day.

20-year-old Natalie left school-aged

seven. When she is not selling

vegetables, she is making clothes.

TRANSLATION:

I would like to open a

bigger sewing workshop and open

other workshops too, but I don't

have money to do that. If I had

someone who could invest in me, that

would be great. We're asking the

world to help young people here.

The

future of young people is what

presidents, Prime Ministers and

policy makers are in Abidjan to talk

about. Jobs, education, and the

crucial question, how to keep them

from making the deadly journey to

Europe?

I think it is very

understandable that young people

look to go to places where they have

opportunities to develop. So, I

think, our challenge and our task is

really to create such an environment

here because I mean I think it's

very human that any human would stay

in the place where he or she was

born in there are opportunities on

the ground.

Hundreds of thousands of young

Africans make the treacherous trip

to Europe every day. If their

situations at home don't change,

this is only going to get worse.

It appears there MAY have been

a breakthrough in one of the key

sticking points over Brexit.

Yes, the UK has made

a bigger offer to the EU for

the so-called divorce payment.

That could pave the way

for trade talks to begin.

Leila Nathoo is our

correspondent at Westminster.

It is interesting this, a lot of

people have been hanging on to every

word about whether there is or there

is not a deal, but the big question

is if there is a deal, how much is

it going to cost the UK?

This has

been one of the most politically

sensitive parts of the whole Brexit

procession the cost of leaving, how

much money will we claim from the EU

when Britain leaves and how much

money will we have to pay out in

order do so? Theresa May had made an

offer in her Florence speech, the

major Florence speech that Britain

was going to continue paying into

the EU budget until 2020, so no

country would be left worse off or

no other EU country would have to

pay more. Brussels made it clear

that wasn't enough and they were

expecting a bigger offer, but last

week, Theresa May had managed to get

her Cabinet Ministers on side to

persuade them, even Brexiteers that

actually upping the financial offer

was what was needed to persuade

Brussels to get those talks on to

trade. Now, this is all in the

lead-up to a summit in a couple of

weeks' time when EU leaders will

decide whether sufficient progress

has been made on the so-called

divorce matters of which the Brexit

bill was one of the main sticking

points. So, we understand now that

the Government has made this revised

offer, although the upper limit that

we understand, 55 billion euros is

something that the British

Government is saying it is not

recognising and certainly no

specific figure has been agraoud

yet, neither side are confirming

anything of the sort, but it is

understood that that has been

broadly welcomed in Brussels and so,

it seems one of the major obstacles

so far seems to be receding.

Thank

you very much indeed.

So Downing Street being tight lipped

about the numbers, but just talking

in Berlin, the European chief Brexit

negotiator, that's Michel Barnier,

he actually said to his audience in

Berlin, the security conference

there, that he hopes to report in

the coming days, an agreement with

Britain on the financial terms of

withdrawal. So the impression we are

getting is that a deal has been

done, but as we say, we don't know

the actual figures.

Yes, watch this space.

Let's take a look at some of

the other stories making the news.

The London Stock Exchange says chief

executive Xavier Rolet will step

down with immediate effect

and chairman Donald Brydon will not

stand for re-election in 2019.

It follows speculation that

Mr Rolet, who has been in the top

job for nine years,

is being forced out as boss

of the London exchange.

Apple says it's working to fix

a serious bug in the latest version

of its Mac operating

system, High Sierra.

The error makes it possible

to access the machine

without a password and

change its settings.

It also allows access to important

administrator's rights.

We've had a rare glimpse

into the finances of

the ride-hailing app Uber.

Documents released as part

of its efforts to raise investment

from Japan's Softbank show losses

growing to almost $1.5 billion

in the three months to September.

Bookings for rides

brought in $9.7 billion.

It comes as the company suffered

another setback in the US.

A judge has delayed a trade secrets

trial amid concerns that Uber

withheld evidence from the court.

The United States has launched

another trade investigation

into imports from China.

This time it's if aluminium alloy

sheets which are in the cross hairs

of the Trump administration.

Trump was just here in Asia,

two-and-a-half weeks ago. He had a

wonderful visit in China, but it

seems like Sally the lustre of the

US President's trip to the mainland

has really quickly faded away.

Unimpressed by Beijing's progress in

North Korea and market opening

initiatives, the US is now rolling

out as he mentioned an investigation

into aluminium sheet imports worth

hundreds of millions of dollars each

year and this enquiry will examine

if aluminium sheets is being sold

below cost or with the help of the

Government subsidies. The United

States imported $600 million of

aluminium alloy sheets last year and

Washington is calling this probe

intended to advance President

Trump's tough on trade agenda. The

Commerce Department said it has

evidence that the imports pose a

threat to the US industry and this

case will be investigated by the

international trade commission with

final decisions expected by next

year and if anti-dumping duties are

indeed imposed, it could be as high

as 60%.

We will keep a close eye on that. I

imagine Beijing's reaction won't be

nice.

Asia was reacting to that missile

test coming from North Korea. The

first one for some 75 days. So, that

has kept traders busy in terms of

the geopolitics and what could

happen next, but they are reacting

to the night before on Wall Street.

A 1% climb on Wall Street. Also the

Bitcoin going over $10,000. It has

been a busy period of time.

And Samira Hussain has

the details about what's ahead

on Wall Street Today.

Janet Yelland will TV on Capitol

Hill. This comes two weeks before

the Central Bank's next policy

meeting. Where it is widely expected

to raise interest rates again for

the third time this year. Now, it

will also likely be her last

appearance before lawmakers with a

replacement Fed governor Jerome

Powell set to take over as leader as

early as next year. Also happening

on Capitol Hill a confirmation

hearing for US President Trump's

pick for the next to be the next

health and human services secretary.

Served as an executive a

pharmaceutical company at the time

when the company was accused of

colluding with other pharmaceutical

companies to set prices on insulin

and other diabetes drugs. So

Democrats will likely grill him on

his plans to tackle drug pricing and

whether he planses to uphold

Obamacare.

Tom Stevenson is Investment Director

at Fidelity International.

So we were touching on Brexit

earlier and we heard from our

correspondent that perhaps a deal

has been agreed. We don't know any

details yet. We've heard from Michel

Barnier saying they're still working

on Brexit terms, but already we have

seen a reaction on the currency

markets?

Yeah, that's right. Michel

Barnier's comments were interesting.

He does suggest within days and that

probably means on Monday when there

is a meeting between Prime Minister

Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker,

we could get an announcement. The

pound has been positive. We are

above a dollar 34 and that's

interesting because we have seen a

reaction in the stock market as

well. Despite record highs on the US

markets, the FTSE 100 is down this

morning and that's a reflection of

the pound rising because that's bad

news for UK exporters and overseas.

We have seen the opposite when the

pound has been falling.

A weak pound

has been good for the FTSE 100.

Give

us your interpretation of why the

pound has strengthened today? Is

that because the expectation is yes,

trade talks, negotiations can maybe

start in the near future or is it

some assessment of the divorce

bill's size, what do you think?

Well, I think it is a positive

assessment of the fact that we are

edging closer towards actually

starting the trade talks. I think

what we shouldn't forget though is

that the divorce bill, settling that

bill, even if it is at £55 billion

is just one part of the equation.

We've also got the issue of EU

citizens rights in the UK and more

importantly, what's going on with

the Irish border. That still seems

like a really intrabletable issue if

we come out of the customs union, if

we come out of the single market, it

is hard to see how we can avoid a

hard border in Ireland and that of

course, could be a blockage to the

trade talks.

Watch and wait and see.

, Monday, we will keep a close eye.

Tom, thank you. I know you will talk

through the newspaper stories with

us later. Which includes robots.

Still to come...

The end of the finger prick?

We meet the man behind

the firm that says

it can test your glucose without

you having to give any blood.

And it's all done with lasers.

We'll speak to him shortly.

You're with Business

Live from BBC News.

Let's focus on the big story in the

UK.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling

says new rail projects could unlock

economic growth across the country.

He wants to expand Britain's rail

network, looking at restoring

services that were lost to cuts

in the '60s and '70s and to address

overcrowding faced by

many train operators.

Anyone who travels by train in this

country, I'm sure your ears are

tuning in. Let's get more from our

economic correspondent Andrew

Walker. Ben is shaking his head.

Tommy macro, what is the government

proposing?

This is a wide ranging

rethink of rail strategy. There's

quite a lot in it. Proposals to

change some of the franchises, break

up some of the larger ones. More

integrated working between trade and

rail company is. There is no

question, the eye-catching stop is

the suggestion we could see some

reversal of some of the lines that

were cut back in the 1960s and

1970s, those cuts in the 1960s

notoriously known as the Beeching

cuts, Richard Beeching was the

chairman of the tissue Rail at the

time. The document talks about one

proposal that is already underway,

that is to re-establish the full

length link between Oxford and

Cambridge. Part of that is already

running again but there is the

proposal to get the full length of

that line running again. Beyond

that, they are inviting ideas for

reopening other local lines and in

particular the government wants

proposals that will encourage new

housing developments, that will

encourage new economic development

or perhaps to divert congestion away

from other parts of the transport

network. We don't have a list of

exactly what is going to be, but

clearly the potential for quite

significant restoration of old lines

here.

Andrew, thanks very much. We

will leave it there. There's a lot

more detail on that story on our

website. Our transport correspondent

Richard Wescott has been looking at

all these latest developments and

what they mean and a gauge of some

of the reaction, as well.

For more reaction to the story we

brought you earlier, news that the

London stock exchange's chief

executive is to quit, apparently he

could walk away with a payoff of

nearly £13 million. He's been in the

job about eight years, so he gets a

salary at the moment of about

£800,000, but to mark his departure

he could get £12.8 million. The

details either on BBC Business Live

page.

You're watching Business Live -

our top story - the meeting

of dozens of EU and African leaders,

gathering to discuss how the two

continents can work together

to improve education,

skills and jobs and address worries

over mass migration to Europe.

There are more than 400 leave people

with diabetes over the world who

need to monitor their blood sugar

levels. The global market for

devices that help people do that is

huge. It's worth about $9 billion

per year. That is expected to get

even bigger than that, to grow to

something like $11 billion by 2020.

But to monitor blood sugar,

diabetics need to prick their

finger, draw blood often several

times a day. This, for some, can

result in infections.

So so what if there was another way.

Several firms are working on systems

that could measure blood glucose

without having to bunch of the skin.

One of them is DiaMonTech,

and Thorsten Lubinksi

is its Chief Executive.

He's with us.

Good morning. Just explain how this

works.

DiaMonTech stands were

diabetic monitoring technology. You

put your finger on the sensor, wait

for five to 15 seconds and it shows

the blood sugar level on a display.

We're doing it with a new kind of

laser called a quantum cascade

laser. The light penetrates the

skin, heats the glucose molecules a

little bit and we measure the change

in temperature. The change in

temperature is tiny so you won't

notice it, but we can measure it and

the more glucose you have, the more

the glucose is and we can show that

in the display.

This is a device

that is still in development, you

can't show it today. It is finished

but not quite there yet in terms of

it being here in the studio with us.

Exactly.

Just explain how you got

this show on the road. We met a

professor who's been working on this

for 30 years.

Yes. I'm a computer

scientist by training and I was

thinking about creating some sort of

electronic diary for diabetics using

sensory input from your phone, your

watch, whatever. I was talking to a

lot of different people in the

diabetics field. I met the Professor

and he said, OK, this makes sense,

it's a good idea, but I have this

huge device in my lab that can

measure your glucose noninvasively.

But I'm a professor, I don't know

how to bring something like that to

market. I said, I can help you with

that. We spoke back and forth for a

couple of months and founded the

company.

You got Angel investors

involved. You have the patents

nailed down and you're thinking,

next year, this device will be

available and now it's the size of a

shoe box.

Correct. We are moving in

different steps. First step is a

shoe box sized device where we show

that the technology works and we can

get it cleared as a medical product

and from there we are starting to

make it smaller. We are planning in

the next step... We call it

internally the muffin because it is

Morphine sized, you can put it in

your pocket. -- it is sized.

A lot

of people will be used to the finger

prick test which is not particularly

comfortable, it can be messy, it can

lead to infection, it takes time. A

fundamental change.

Exactly. What I

think will happen is people will get

to measuring more often and this is

very essential to get healthy

glucose levels over the whole day.

So measuring ten times a day is

better than measuring twice. 20

times is better than that.

How much

will it cost the user? Is it

affordable for people who have to go

through this on a daily basis?

As

every technology, in the beginning

it will be more expensive than later

on. We are thinking it will cost

around £100 per month to measure

noninvasively. This is on the same

level like minimal invasive devices

cost right now.

We have to leave it

there. Thank you for coming in. We

shall keep a close eye. Keith us

posted. Keep your tweets coming in

about what job you would like to

replace with robots. A few of you

have said your manager, but that's

not what we're asking!

Australia's flag carrier Qantas has

had its share of ups and downs.

After a drastic cost-cutting drive,

the airline finally

returned to profitability.

But can it maintain the upswing?

Christian Fraser has been talking

to the boss, Alan Joyce -

who thinks expanding capacity

is the key.

We've actually challenged both

Airbus and Boeing to produce a new

aircraft that can do Sydney

and Melbourne to London,

which is a 21-hour aircraft

in the air and we

believe that that is the last

frontier of aviation.

There is a bit of a space race

going on between the

two of them to get us

the aircraft by 2022.

Throw your imagination out.

Where does air travel

go in the future?

Is it suborbital?

Is it further and faster?

Is it a smaller carbon footprint?

What is it?

I think first of all it's distance

first and getting these very long

routes in place.

Speed, unfortunately,

and supersonic, I

don't see us ever

getting back to that.

So, economical, and there's

a trade-off between the fuel you

need to go supersonic means you're

trading of distance.

And there are environmental

issues around

supersonic that we never really

solved since Concorde.

Tom Stevenson is back with us. We've

been asking people this morning

about what jobs they'd like to maybe

give to a robot because there's a

report in the papers that robots

will force 700 million workers into

a new job by 2030. Abby says, a

robot can have my barmaid job over

Christmas if it likes. Good luck

with the Christmas rush. Sarah says,

robots, scary thought, it's bad

enough you have to listen to

automated messages. In the City,

robots are doing a lot of things

that we don't know about, we're not

aware of.

I think the interesting

thing about the studies about

automation is that it started off

with very low level jobs and they

are gradually moving up the skill

level so that people who thought

their jobs were probably pretty

secure from automation are being

automated out of the workforce. This

is how you end up with a figure like

700 million, which is a massive

slice of the global workforce.

This

is an interesting headline,

suggesting those 700 million workers

will have to find new careers. It's

not saying they're made redundant,

just that they have to go elsewhere.

This process has been going on since

the Industrial Revolution. Think of

how money people were involved with

horses, blacksmiths, whatever. How

many horses do you see on the

streets of any city these days? You

don't. Over time and the invention

of the PC, that created all sorts of

new jobs that simply didn't exist

before.

Jerome says, I'd replace my

manager with a robot. I can pack in,

get more money and work a two-day

week.

Someone else once the Bosman to be

automated because the post is

consistently misdelivered.

Mine is never, I like to say. I love

a human at the door with the post.

Some of us have had jobs would love

to replace with robots. I stood by a

conveyor belt as a student and moved

pies from A to B.

I'm old enough

that my first job was working a

lift. I had to do the handle. You'd

have thought that would have been

automated years ago!

Tom, thank you.

Banks for your comments today and we

will see you same time tomorrow.