29/05/2017 World Business Report

Now it's time for World Business Report.

France's newly elected President Emmanuel Macron faces

a diplomatic challenge as he meets with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

But the countries do have deep economic ties.

It used to call itself "the World's Favourite Airline",

but with flight disruptions entering a third day,

few of BA's passengers are likely to agree.

Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Jamie Robertson.

In a minute we'll have special report from Sri Lanka on why

the country is selling chunks of its infrastructure back

to the country that built them, China.

today the new French President Emmanuel Macron will meet

with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The Kremlin was hoping that the meeting would take place

under rather different circumstances - in the recent French election

campaign, Mr Putin had voiced his support for the eurosceptic

candidate Marine Le Pen, who lost to Mr Macron.

Nonetheless, the relationship between France and Russia remains

France is Russia's biggest foreign investor -

in the first quarter of this year, French businesses injected 797

million dollars into the Russian economy.

This compares to Germany with $350 million and the United States

Significant tension still exists between Russia and the West

following the country's ongoing dispute with Ukraine.

With me is Lilit GEVORGYAN, Senior Economist at IHS

Global Insight British Airways is facing questions over

the catastrophic failure of its computer system and how it's

Vladimir Putin wants to meet the man who managed to secure victory,

despite the odds but secondly I think the Russian President has a

number of messages to deliver to the new French leader and the first

message would be to decouple politics from economic and work on

our political disagreements, rebuild our political relationship but I

think President Putin will use the word pragmatism which in Russian

interpretation means let's work on commercial relations. We are very

much interested in around 6000 French companies working in

Russia... Self interest, you are talking about. Is Mr Macron going to

say I am part of the European Union all let's talk about our

relationship? Diplomatically he will comment on long-standing Russian-

French relationship, the history and its ties to Peter the Great, however

I think, lucky for the Russian President, he is dealing with a

French leader who probably has trust issues with the Russian leader at

the moment and he is also a staunch supporter of the European Union so

the sort of Rees said that the Russian leader would be looking for

is unlikely to happen. Do we know what Mr Macron feels about the

sanctions? He has made clear that a tough stand is required against

Russia for its involvement in Ukraine and Syria full dog what the

Russian President will try to do is suggest that the world political

scene is changing. -- Syria. . Lets be more pragmatic and accept that

Russia is a global player and it has its terms of engagement. He is going

to be in France, the reason he is there because of an exhibition to do

with Peter the Great. A lot of symbolism. Can you explain what that

is? Peter the Great was the one who brought European modernisation to

Russia, the glory to Russia. It was about engagement and opening up to

the West and Europe. The Russian leader also hopes his legacy will be

one of bringing that glory, to be one of the chosen global powers in

the world and expanding Russia's borders by annex in Crimea... With

Peter the Great and Mr Macron... We must leave it there. Thank you so

much. We are now entering the third day

of disruption, even if the airline says it's making "good progress"

in returning flights to normal. In a few hours we will see how

investors are reacting when the Madrid Stock Exchange

opens, BA's owner IAG has a dual listing in London and Madrid,

but the London market And our reporter at Heathrow,

Joe Lynam, says BA faces a huge They are obliged under European

passengers left stranded. They are obliged under European

rules to apply compensation for even a two-hour delay and some people

have been waiting for a day and a half. That could stretch to $700 and

that is only one leg. It can see what I mean, you can see thousands

of dollars per person multiplied by who knows how many thousands of

customers. Financially, this is going to cost them. A report from

Sri Lanka. This port in southern Sri Lanka opened in 2010 and cost more

than $1 billion and was paid for with loans from China. There was

only one ship here this morning and it left a little while ago. The next

one does not arrive until tomorrow. Compare that with these companies

are the port in Colombia, seeing hundreds of ships going in and out

each day for top all of these has been built but barely anyone is

using it. For Sri Lanka, the sport has become a large investment that

is bringing few returns. That means the country is unable to pay back

the money it borrowed to build it and so instead the Sri Lankan

government is now planning to give a major stake in the port to a Chinese

firm - it could be as high as 80%. It is activity that does not bring

economic return. You can keep it there with nothing but the next step

is to look if you can sell it. A brand-new city is being created off

the coast of Colombia, with swanky corporate offices, apartment blocks,

parks, and even a marina. It is being built by Chinese company but

in return for the money, two thirds of this city it will be handed over.

China will effectively control another part of Sri Lanka. Some

China backed projects led to protests from locals and willing to

sell their land, homes and farms for development but not all Chinese

investment has been without benefit. Many highways and roads construct

that have helped boost tourism but Sri Lanka is trapped in a debt

crisis and owes $1 billion to China alone. So whether good or bad, the

government here does not have much room to negotiate on the kind of

deals it tries to do to help its economy and its people. In Monaco,

the yachts stole the show but what will you do if you do not have all

the space for all your toys. If you are a member of the super-rich, the

chances are you will have a super yacht but that comes with it

headaches like we do you put the all your private submarine? This is what

this is all about. It is really rather special. This is the game

changer. The idea is that it is as port vessel for super yachts so when

you are cruising around the Caribbean and you do not want your

little toys cluttering your decks, and you have somewhere to put them.

It is 60 a beach is long. Spaceball speedboats and irreplaceable is. In

this market, size does matter. You need somewhere to park your

helicopter. This is the all-important helipad. And a hangar

to keep it safe and dry. This is a limited market, there are only so

many people in the world with super yachts that might need something

like this. If you have to ask how much it costs, you really cannot

afford it. You can get in touch with me on Twitter. I will be back with

more when we look at the newspapers later.

More than 200 drivers a day have been caught using their mobile

phones in the month since the law was tightened.