01/09/2016 World Business Report

Now for the latest financial news with Sally Bundock

British Airways resumes flights to Iran for the first time

But can it really become a global tourist hotspot?

Plus, looking for new friends in Africa.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg tells us about his plans to sign up

Canada tries to diffuse a trade row with its biggest business partner,

China. Details on that in a moment. We start in Iran because later

this evening the first British Airways flight in almost

a decade leaves Heathrow The UK Foreign Office

relaxed its travel advice to Iran last July, citing decreasing

hostility under President Rouhani's government,

and raising hopes of a boom in both Relations with Iran have thawed,

following the implementation of the nuclear deal

and the lifting of US sanctions The Iranian authorities

are keen to grow the number of foreign visitors to the country

as a much needed source Earlier this year, Iran set a target

of 20 million tourists That would could earn

the country revenues of $30 That could earn the

country revenues of $30 But there are many

obstacles in the way. Travellers are expected to conform

to Islamic Sharia laws, including the wearing

of the hijab for women. And few businesses like tour

operators and hotels can accept We will be speaking

to a top investor who is setting his

sights on Iran soon. With me is Dominic Bokor-Ingram

from Charlemagne Capital, which specialises in emerging

markets and launched an Iran Good morning. Thanks for coming in.

A lot to take in here, we've heard British Airways will take off this

evening from Heathrow to Tehran, the first time in ten years. In terms of

the tourism industry, last year they saw 5 million tourists visiting.

From your point of view, what needs to be done to encourage the sector

for Iran? The first thing is some people need to go and tell everyone

else what a fantastic place it is and how nice it is to visit, how

friendly it is and how good the food is. It is something you do often,

women don't actually have to wear the hitup, foreign visitors? In

terror an you but very few hijabs. People go and say it is a great

thing but in terms of the ease of travel, the Swift system isn't in

place, the international payment system, that can cause problems for

some? There is a jewel exchange rate and you have to pay in cash. It

should be sorted out by the end of March next year which will make

things easier for travellers. They have to invest heavily if they want

to attract 20 million a year by 2025 in their hotels, the tour operating

systems, many areas. Hotels is probably the biggest issue and there

are a number of hotel projects now ongoing. In the past, the lack of

top-quality hotels has been a real issue in Tehran in particular. Who

is coming? When they say they have 5 million foreign visitors coming into

Iran last year, who is most attracted to go to Iran? I think

anyone apart from Americans, and anyone who is impacted by the

American visa waiver system. Currently they are following a new

rule this year, if you have been to Iran in the last ten years you can't

use the USB is a way the system and that is putting some people off --

US Leezer waiver. Outside of that I think it will be a destination for

lots of Asians and Europeans. What is a big thing for travellers is

security and safety with so many attractive destinations off limits

because of terrorism et cetera. It is actually considered quite safe? I

have never had any problems while I have been in terror on and felt

unsafe. I am a frontier markets investor, and it is one of the safer

places I feel I visit -- into an. Very interesting. More on our

website. -- in Tehran. From Iran now to Nigeria

where the founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has been

making his first trip The billionaire defended Facebook's

decision to continue rolling out free internet access

across the continent following an Indian ban

on the controversial app. Critics say the scheme threatens web

neutrality by locking people Martin Patience is in Lagos for us

and began by asking Mr Zuckerberg I wanted to come to Lagos because

there is so much entrepreneurial energy here, there is such a vibrant

developer and entrepreneurial community. There are 1 billion

people in Africa, wanted to listen and learn and figure out what we can

do to empower people to build the types of services that are not only

going to improve the lives of people here but all around the world. How

are you going to improve Internet access in Africa? There was lots of

controversy when you did it in India? We have a 3-step plan for

doing that, the first step is making sure there's network access

everywhere. In some places there is a good cell work for Mike

the second step of the plan is to decrease the costs of data and the

third step is to increase awareness for the Internet. A lot of people

can afford it and live in areas but they have never used the Internet

before. If you go up to and asked them if they want to buy a data plan

they aren't sure whether they want to do that -- and asked. But it

backfired in India? Almost half of countries across the continent. --

and ask. What are you going to take away from this trip? The energy is

amazing, the entrepreneurial energy. When you meet people, as soon as we

got off the plane, I went to this engineering training programme, I

met this woman who told me this story that she had applied to a

programme and the first time she didn't get in, but she showed up

anyway because she wouldn't take no for an answer. They decided to let

her start on the training programme and so she did and she crushed it,

and now she's a professional engineer working at a multinational

company and doing great. So, what I've found when I travel around the

world is if you have that attitude then you're going to do well, right?

And that is just pervasive here. You see that throughout the whole

community and its amazing. You see that and you sense that and you know

that the people here are going to do big things and shaped not only

Nigeria but the whole world. That's Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg

speaking to Martin Patience. Canada has been trying to strengthen trade

ties with China, its biggest partner after the US. Sharanjit Leyl has

been speaking to the trade Minister. It's not been an easy path for the

Canadians because of a certain spat over rape seed oil? That's right,

rapeseed oil or canola, a major export to China and China was

seeking restrictions on Canadian exports of canola to China. But they

have managed to put off that particular hurdle now because they

have essentially lifted the deadline which was meant to be today when

those restrictions were meant to be in place. Essentially what they are

looking to do is boost economic ties. China, as you said, second

largest trading partner for Canada. We know this is an extensive ten day

trip by the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to China. In fact it's his

first official trip there. And while there, the other interesting thing

they did is they announced they would apply to join the China backed

Asian infrastructure investment bank, which essentially makes Canada

the latest ally of the US to join the new international development

bank. The multilateral institution is seen as a big rival to the US

dominated World Bank as well as the Japanese dominated Asian development

bank. It was initially opposed by the US but attracted many US allies,

including Canada, and I spoke to the trade minister from Canada earlier

and she said that they join the group because they wanted to be at

the top table. We think this is an important place for Canada to have a

seat at the table. Our government believes in infrastructure

investment to create jobs and growth, that's what we're doing at

home in Canada. We have tremendous expertise there and we are really

good at financial innovation. We think we can be an important,

effective and useful member. That was Christian Freeman speaking to me

earlier and the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be there until

next Tuesday, he is attending the G20 with his counterparts, President

Xi as well as Obama. All of this while trying to diffused that traits

that. -- diffused. I will be back to review the papers in a few minutes

-- trade spat --