November 28, 2025 • 16 mins
Your morning briefing, the business news you need in just 15 minutes.
On today's podcast:
(1) Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in decades, which killed at least 94 people and injured 76, has intensified scrutiny of the city’s safety-inspection system and whether officials responded forcefully enough to warning signs.
(2) The UK government dropped a key measure from its flagship workers’ rights package in a bid to quell concerns of businesses who had warned the legislation would damage growth and employment.
(3) US President Donald Trump’s proposals for ending the war in Ukraine could be the basis for future agreements, but no final version exists yet, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, while signaling an openness to talks.
(4) Top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi used a call with his French counterpart to say the two sides needed to support each other, underscoring Beijing’s push to win diplomatic backing during a spat with Japan.
(5) Coffee lovers hoping for quick relief from historically high prices may have to wait longer as the expected pullback from a reduction in US tariffs has yet to materialize, according to Italian roaster Illycaffe.
Podcast Conversation: Sorry Mom. The Shopping Bots Suggested a Bathrobe for Christmas
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is the Bloomberg Day Baker Up podcast. Good morning,
it's finding the twenty eighth of November. I'm Caroline Hepga
in London. Coming up today. Hong Kong's deadliest fire in
decades intensifies scrutiny on building safety standards in the city.
President Trump announces that he is permanently pausing all migration
from what he calls third World countries. Plus Tunnel Vision one,
(00:33):
European capital's one hundred year wait for a subway is
almost over with help from China and France. Let's start
with a roundup of our top stories. At least ninety
four people are now known to have died in a
devastating fire in Hong Kong. It's still unclear how many
residents remain unaccounted for after the blaze tore through a
(00:55):
cluster of eight residential towers. Although it's still too early
to tell what call the fire, there is now intense
scrutiny on the Financial Center's enforcement of safety standards and
the use of construction materials. Here is the view of
veteran Hong Kong lawmaker Regina ip.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
More questions are being raised whether we should continue to
allow bamboo scaffoldings to be used for such massive operations.
You know, it has been pointed out before that memboo
scaffolding should only be used for smaller scale renovation, not
for renovation of such a large scale project encompassing eight
(01:34):
blocks of housing estates. Labor Department already fund some of
the materials were not compliant with government standards.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Regina ip speaking there as police arrested three senior figures
from an engineering company on suspicion of manslaughter. US President
Donald Trump has announced plans to permanently pause migration from
what he is calling third world countries. In post to
his truth social platform late on Thursday night in Washington,
(02:07):
champ said that he would terminate millions of Biden era
admissions and remove anyone who is not a quote net
asset to the US. The news follows an attack on
two National Guard members in the Capitol yesterday by an
Afghan national, resulting in the death of one guardsman. Yesterday,
the head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services said his
(02:28):
agency is conducting a full scale re examination of the
green card status of quote every alien from every country
of concern. This under White House Orders without detailing the
names of any of those countries. Now, the UK government
has dropped a key part of its flagship workers' rights
(02:50):
bill in a bid to win over businesses after its
second tax raising budget. The Employment Rights Bill will no
longer award so called Day one protection against unfair dismissal
for employees. The move also comes after a Bloomberg Radio
interview has raised questions about the political thinking going into
(03:10):
the budget. Chelstall of Rachel Reeves had been on course
to raise income tax in Wednesday's announcement, but officials told
the press a couple of weeks ago that an improved
forecast from the budget watchdog, the OBR had prompted a
u turn. But the head of Economic Analysis at the
Office for Budget Responsibility, David Myles, told Bloomberg Radio their
(03:32):
forecast had not changed during that time.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
The pre measure's estimate, which is, you know what the
government would look at and see, well, how much have
we got to play with? What do we need to
do If they decided to try and build up headroom
that was just about the right side of hitting the
target that buy a wafer thin margin. It was clear
that the government wanted to build headroom in excess of
what had been there before, and there had many ways
(03:59):
of doing that, and they've gone with the package that
we saw released yesterday.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
That was David Miles from the OBR. Since Myles spoke
to Bloomberg Radio yesterday, the Treasury Select Committee has written
to the OBR to ask for more detail on how
their forecast changed over time. Meanwhile, although the markets have
reacted positively to the government's improved fiscal headroom, polls show
that the public are overwhelmingly unhappy with the budget. Half
(04:28):
of those surveyed by YUGUV said that Rachel Reeves's budget
would leave them and their family worse off, compared to
three percent who said they would be better off now.
Russi's Lasmik Putin says he is open to talks about
a peace plan with Ukraine, though no final version exists
as of yet. That's after the Kremlin confirmed US Presidential
(04:50):
ENVOYE Steve Whitkoff is expected to visit Moscow next week
and to meet with Putin. Speaking yesterday via live translation
during a news conference in here gets Dan, the President
said that he couldn't discuss concrete plans at this stage.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
It was transferred to US, and we acknowledged that it
could have been as a base for the future agreement.
I can't really talk about some final versions because we
don't have any.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Vladimir putin there, speaking through a translator. He went on
to say that the twenty eight point plan was split
into four parts by Ukraine and the US during talks
in Geneva, and that that can be grounds for talks.
The US and Ukraine have said that the plan was
redrafted to contain nineteen points. High coffee prices are here
(05:41):
to stay. That's according to one of the largest producers
in the world, Bloombergs Tea were at Baio has that story.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Caffeine enthusiasts around the world may soon have to compete
with record prices for their morning beverage. That's as results
of a reduction in US tariffs this year yet to materialize.
Famed Italian roaster Illi Cafe says they plan to raise
prices again in January, following two increases this year. The
(06:08):
firm's moves will likely be matched by other brands contending
with record coffee bean prices and lackluster harvests. Despite steep costs,
coffee prices have remained resilient. Illy Cafe still expects single
digit market growth in London. Teawa added Bayo Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And those are our top stories for you this morning.
There's something else that has caught my eye, though. Have
you noticed that there are new AI shopping tools that
are being introduced by companies like Amazon and Google Now?
Apparently they are going to bring faster and more useful
state of the art shopping companions. Are they any good?
While Bloomberg, Spencer Soper and Matt Day have been trying
(06:49):
to find out, with the results that if my kids
are listening, were perhaps a little underwhelming. Bloombergers are several
AI bots, Amazon's Ruthless Open Eyes, Chat GPT, Chat GPT,
and Walmart Sparky What to buy Mum for Christmas? The
top suggestion, wait for it, a cozy bathrobe. Sparky recommended
(07:10):
a pink hooded number with the words Mumma bear in
blazoned on it. Yikes Chat GPT suggested buying the robe
from Victoria's Secrets, but perplexities ai bot profered another option,
though it found this twenty dollars wooden photograph frame from Etsy,
so Bloomberg's gift for mum experiment as we've been writing about,
(07:32):
apparently only Amazon's Rufus actually tried to learn a little
bit more by asking about hobbies and interests. Great story
how these chatbots are being deployed. They haven't yet really
meaningfully improved shopping, but the companies are certainly working on it.
So I'm going to put a link to that story. Sorry, Mum.
The shopping bot suggested a bathrobe for Christmas. A link
(07:55):
to that in our show notes for you today. In
terms of the markets, stocks losing momentum today, on the
last trading day of November, the all country world indexes
in the REDMSCI Asia Pacific Index down two tenths of
one percent, and European stock future is just about in
the green, but obviously very light trading given we've still
got the sort of Thanksgiving day break in the US
(08:18):
shortened trading there. Brent crewed futures currently Brent is trading
at sixty three dollars sixty five, up by half of
one percent. We've had a run of monthly losses though.
OPEC plus Nations preparing to meet on Sunday, there was
a CME trading halt for commodity futures and options to
think about two gold could hear fourth month of gains.
(08:38):
We're up six tenths of one percent. Those are the
markets this morning. Now, let's get into our top stories
this morning and discuss the death toll from Hong Kong's
deadliest fire in at least fifty years. It has now
risen to at least ninety four people, with hundreds more
still unaccounted for. The disclosures have raised concerns over the
(09:02):
enforcement of safety standards, and it comes at a delicate
moment for Hong Kong because the financial hub has been
working to try to rebuild its international image after mass
protests and a national security crackdown. Jenny Marsh leads our
Greater China Economy and Government coverage and joins us now
from Hong Kong with more journey. Hello, what do we
actually know about the cause of this really devastating fire.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
So there's a lot of speculation out there at the
moment about what caused the fire, and the focus of
course right now is on the bamboo poles and the
nets that once incased this building. You know, officials said
that are briefing yesterday that the nets and the plastic
sheeting all burned far, far faster than they would expect.
They called that very unusual. And there's a lot of
(09:49):
focus too on the contractor who was He was hired
to do the renovation that the building was undergoing, which
is the reason they had all this bamboo structure around
the tower. So israel murky as to how it originated.
But there are also some details that you know, this contractor,
the residents have been complaining about from the beginning, and
(10:11):
the government had visited the site sixteen times since the
renovation began, as recently as just a few weeks ago,
and they had also signed off and approved this netting,
saying that it met their fire safety standards, So you know,
the contractor, there are questions about, but there are also
questions here about whether the government really acted forcefully enough
(10:31):
to prevent this disaster from happening.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Hong Kong police have arrested three senior figures as an
engineering firm. What do we know about the businesses involved?
Speaker 7 (10:41):
They have and they've just also breaking now in local media.
Two more consultant directors have been arrested too. So the
focus does seem to be widening around this company. We
know that it has eleven other residential building projects in
Hong Kong right now. Previously, this company had breach safety
requirements and other construction projects, according to labor documents that
(11:05):
local media have seen, and it was convicted of two
offenses in twenty twenty three. So this is a company
which had a history of sort of not performing to
the standard that the government were setting.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
The devastation has also highlighted Hong Kong's deeper housing issues, surely,
as it's also trying in some senses to regain its
global financial hub status, that the housing issues are very significant.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Absolutely. You know, these tower blocks were very very close
together and in just sort of quite a small square footage,
they housed nearly five thousand people, you know, And there's
a lot of conversation now too about is how safe
is it to live at the top of these blocks.
These are thirty one story tower blocks, and you know,
when the rescue mission was going on yesterday, you could
(11:53):
really see that the water cannons that the firefighters had
they just were not powerful enough to reach the top
floors of those buildings. Whether the fire is left to
rage without really being controlled, and I think there's a
lot of questions now about you know, if buildings are
so tall that we cannot rescue people from them, that
we cannot extinguish fires, should people be allowed to live
(12:13):
in them? And you know, thirty one stories isn't actually
that big for Hong Kong. You know, there are people
that we know here who will live in sort of
sixty story towers. So I think there's a lot of
questions more broadly going forward. But Hong Kong is has
the most high risers in the whole world, So you
know this isn't something We're not going to move away
from this model of living, but there are safety questions
(12:35):
I think going forward.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, the terrible high rise blaze I mean for London
is of course, you know, awfully reminiscent of Grenfelle, huge disaster.
Will continue to follow this story and thank you for
your reporting today. That is Bloomberg's Jenny marsh Our Greater
China and Economy government editors speaking to us to stay
(12:57):
with us. More from Bloomberg Daybaku coming up to this, Well,
let's focus in on something here in Europe now the
ways may finally be over for Belgrade. This is Europe's
largest city that doesn't have a subway an underground the
four point four billion euro subway line, though apparently it's
unstoppable now according to local officials. Bloomberg. A reporter in Belgrade,
(13:22):
Misha Savage, joins us now to discuss Misha, good morning,
what is the plan find this subway in Belgrade? Where's
the money coming from, Who's building it? What's the timeframe?
Speaker 8 (13:35):
Yes, for most residents, it's almost unbelievable that after so
many decades of preparations and promises and failed projects, the
thing can the project may finally be coming to fruition.
Typically for Serbia's geopolitical balancing, because it wants to be
on good terms with everyone, even in this time of divisions.
(13:57):
The main contractors are French and the Chinese companies. For
France it's Alstrom, with a few more subcontractors also French
and China's Power China, the huge company credited with some
of the biggest protests in Asia, and for the Chinese
(14:18):
it's their first huge venture in Europe. For municipal transport,
the money is probably coming from the national combined national
and city budget, which is huge. It counts from more
than a third of the whole nation. Because typically for
Eastern Europe. The economic focus is so much on the
(14:40):
capital city and the province is typically drained.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
How long is it going to take him? It's quite
It's going to be difficult, isn't it to deliver such
a huge construction project.
Speaker 8 (14:56):
Now they say it should be the first line should
open in twenty thirty. Obviously it is measured in years,
but the key moment to finally see progress is when
those huge TBMs it stands for tunnel boring machines will
be imported from China in pieces and then assembled all site.
(15:20):
Once they start digging, it will take just a couple
of years and then to be fully completed with French equipment,
trains command center like a big hub from which they
will operate what they say will be driverless trains and
sliding doors that prevent people falling off onto the tracks.
(15:44):
So it will take them at least six months up
to a year for testing, and then I expect there
will be huge pomp for the opening ceremonies.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
stories making news from London to Wall Streets.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
And look for us on your podcast feed every morning
on Apple Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
You can also listen live each morning on London Dab Radio,
the Bloomberg Business app, and Bloomberg dot Com.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Our flagship New York station, is also available on your
Amazon Alexa devices. Just say Alexa Play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
I'm Caroline Hepka and.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I'm Stephen Carol. Join us again tomorrow morning for all
the news you need to start your day right here
on Bloomberg day Break Europe
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is the Bloomberg Day Baker Up podcast. Good morning,
it's finding the twenty eighth of November. I'm Caroline Hepga
in London. Coming up today. Hong Kong's deadliest fire in
decades intensifies scrutiny on building safety standards in the city.
President Trump announces that he is permanently pausing all migration
from what he calls third World countries. Plus Tunnel Vision one,
(00:33):
European capital's one hundred year wait for a subway is
almost over with help from China and France. Let's start
with a roundup of our top stories. At least ninety
four people are now known to have died in a
devastating fire in Hong Kong. It's still unclear how many
residents remain unaccounted for after the blaze tore through a
(00:55):
cluster of eight residential towers. Although it's still too early
to tell what call the fire, there is now intense
scrutiny on the Financial Center's enforcement of safety standards and
the use of construction materials. Here is the view of
veteran Hong Kong lawmaker Regina ip.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
More questions are being raised whether we should continue to
allow bamboo scaffoldings to be used for such massive operations.
You know, it has been pointed out before that memboo
scaffolding should only be used for smaller scale renovation, not
for renovation of such a large scale project encompassing eight
(01:34):
blocks of housing estates. Labor Department already fund some of
the materials were not compliant with government standards.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Regina ip speaking there as police arrested three senior figures
from an engineering company on suspicion of manslaughter. US President
Donald Trump has announced plans to permanently pause migration from
what he is calling third world countries. In post to
his truth social platform late on Thursday night in Washington,
(02:07):
champ said that he would terminate millions of Biden era
admissions and remove anyone who is not a quote net
asset to the US. The news follows an attack on
two National Guard members in the Capitol yesterday by an
Afghan national, resulting in the death of one guardsman. Yesterday,
the head of US Citizenship and Immigration Services said his
(02:28):
agency is conducting a full scale re examination of the
green card status of quote every alien from every country
of concern. This under White House Orders without detailing the
names of any of those countries. Now, the UK government
has dropped a key part of its flagship workers' rights
(02:50):
bill in a bid to win over businesses after its
second tax raising budget. The Employment Rights Bill will no
longer award so called Day one protection against unfair dismissal
for employees. The move also comes after a Bloomberg Radio
interview has raised questions about the political thinking going into
(03:10):
the budget. Chelstall of Rachel Reeves had been on course
to raise income tax in Wednesday's announcement, but officials told
the press a couple of weeks ago that an improved
forecast from the budget watchdog, the OBR had prompted a
u turn. But the head of Economic Analysis at the
Office for Budget Responsibility, David Myles, told Bloomberg Radio their
(03:32):
forecast had not changed during that time.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
The pre measure's estimate, which is, you know what the
government would look at and see, well, how much have
we got to play with? What do we need to
do If they decided to try and build up headroom
that was just about the right side of hitting the
target that buy a wafer thin margin. It was clear
that the government wanted to build headroom in excess of
what had been there before, and there had many ways
(03:59):
of doing that, and they've gone with the package that
we saw released yesterday.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
That was David Miles from the OBR. Since Myles spoke
to Bloomberg Radio yesterday, the Treasury Select Committee has written
to the OBR to ask for more detail on how
their forecast changed over time. Meanwhile, although the markets have
reacted positively to the government's improved fiscal headroom, polls show
that the public are overwhelmingly unhappy with the budget. Half
(04:28):
of those surveyed by YUGUV said that Rachel Reeves's budget
would leave them and their family worse off, compared to
three percent who said they would be better off now.
Russi's Lasmik Putin says he is open to talks about
a peace plan with Ukraine, though no final version exists
as of yet. That's after the Kremlin confirmed US Presidential
(04:50):
ENVOYE Steve Whitkoff is expected to visit Moscow next week
and to meet with Putin. Speaking yesterday via live translation
during a news conference in here gets Dan, the President
said that he couldn't discuss concrete plans at this stage.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
It was transferred to US, and we acknowledged that it
could have been as a base for the future agreement.
I can't really talk about some final versions because we
don't have any.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Vladimir putin there, speaking through a translator. He went on
to say that the twenty eight point plan was split
into four parts by Ukraine and the US during talks
in Geneva, and that that can be grounds for talks.
The US and Ukraine have said that the plan was
redrafted to contain nineteen points. High coffee prices are here
(05:41):
to stay. That's according to one of the largest producers
in the world, Bloombergs Tea were at Baio has that story.
Speaker 6 (05:48):
Caffeine enthusiasts around the world may soon have to compete
with record prices for their morning beverage. That's as results
of a reduction in US tariffs this year yet to materialize.
Famed Italian roaster Illi Cafe says they plan to raise
prices again in January, following two increases this year. The
(06:08):
firm's moves will likely be matched by other brands contending
with record coffee bean prices and lackluster harvests. Despite steep costs,
coffee prices have remained resilient. Illy Cafe still expects single
digit market growth in London. Teawa added Bayo Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
And those are our top stories for you this morning.
There's something else that has caught my eye, though. Have
you noticed that there are new AI shopping tools that
are being introduced by companies like Amazon and Google Now?
Apparently they are going to bring faster and more useful
state of the art shopping companions. Are they any good?
While Bloomberg, Spencer Soper and Matt Day have been trying
(06:49):
to find out, with the results that if my kids
are listening, were perhaps a little underwhelming. Bloombergers are several
AI bots, Amazon's Ruthless Open Eyes, Chat GPT, Chat GPT,
and Walmart Sparky What to buy Mum for Christmas? The
top suggestion, wait for it, a cozy bathrobe. Sparky recommended
(07:10):
a pink hooded number with the words Mumma bear in
blazoned on it. Yikes Chat GPT suggested buying the robe
from Victoria's Secrets, but perplexities ai bot profered another option,
though it found this twenty dollars wooden photograph frame from Etsy,
so Bloomberg's gift for mum experiment as we've been writing about,
(07:32):
apparently only Amazon's Rufus actually tried to learn a little
bit more by asking about hobbies and interests. Great story
how these chatbots are being deployed. They haven't yet really
meaningfully improved shopping, but the companies are certainly working on it.
So I'm going to put a link to that story. Sorry, Mum.
The shopping bot suggested a bathrobe for Christmas. A link
(07:55):
to that in our show notes for you today. In
terms of the markets, stocks losing momentum today, on the
last trading day of November, the all country world indexes
in the REDMSCI Asia Pacific Index down two tenths of
one percent, and European stock future is just about in
the green, but obviously very light trading given we've still
got the sort of Thanksgiving day break in the US
(08:18):
shortened trading there. Brent crewed futures currently Brent is trading
at sixty three dollars sixty five, up by half of
one percent. We've had a run of monthly losses though.
OPEC plus Nations preparing to meet on Sunday, there was
a CME trading halt for commodity futures and options to
think about two gold could hear fourth month of gains.
(08:38):
We're up six tenths of one percent. Those are the
markets this morning. Now, let's get into our top stories
this morning and discuss the death toll from Hong Kong's
deadliest fire in at least fifty years. It has now
risen to at least ninety four people, with hundreds more
still unaccounted for. The disclosures have raised concerns over the
(09:02):
enforcement of safety standards, and it comes at a delicate
moment for Hong Kong because the financial hub has been
working to try to rebuild its international image after mass
protests and a national security crackdown. Jenny Marsh leads our
Greater China Economy and Government coverage and joins us now
from Hong Kong with more journey. Hello, what do we
actually know about the cause of this really devastating fire.
Speaker 7 (09:26):
So there's a lot of speculation out there at the
moment about what caused the fire, and the focus of
course right now is on the bamboo poles and the
nets that once incased this building. You know, officials said
that are briefing yesterday that the nets and the plastic
sheeting all burned far, far faster than they would expect.
They called that very unusual. And there's a lot of
(09:49):
focus too on the contractor who was He was hired
to do the renovation that the building was undergoing, which
is the reason they had all this bamboo structure around
the tower. So israel murky as to how it originated.
But there are also some details that you know, this contractor,
the residents have been complaining about from the beginning, and
(10:11):
the government had visited the site sixteen times since the
renovation began, as recently as just a few weeks ago,
and they had also signed off and approved this netting,
saying that it met their fire safety standards, So you know,
the contractor, there are questions about, but there are also
questions here about whether the government really acted forcefully enough
(10:31):
to prevent this disaster from happening.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Hong Kong police have arrested three senior figures as an
engineering firm. What do we know about the businesses involved?
Speaker 7 (10:41):
They have and they've just also breaking now in local media.
Two more consultant directors have been arrested too. So the
focus does seem to be widening around this company. We
know that it has eleven other residential building projects in
Hong Kong right now. Previously, this company had breach safety
requirements and other construction projects, according to labor documents that
(11:05):
local media have seen, and it was convicted of two
offenses in twenty twenty three. So this is a company
which had a history of sort of not performing to
the standard that the government were setting.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
The devastation has also highlighted Hong Kong's deeper housing issues, surely,
as it's also trying in some senses to regain its
global financial hub status, that the housing issues are very significant.
Speaker 7 (11:31):
Absolutely. You know, these tower blocks were very very close
together and in just sort of quite a small square footage,
they housed nearly five thousand people, you know, And there's
a lot of conversation now too about is how safe
is it to live at the top of these blocks.
These are thirty one story tower blocks, and you know,
when the rescue mission was going on yesterday, you could
(11:53):
really see that the water cannons that the firefighters had
they just were not powerful enough to reach the top
floors of those buildings. Whether the fire is left to
rage without really being controlled, and I think there's a
lot of questions now about you know, if buildings are
so tall that we cannot rescue people from them, that
we cannot extinguish fires, should people be allowed to live
(12:13):
in them? And you know, thirty one stories isn't actually
that big for Hong Kong. You know, there are people
that we know here who will live in sort of
sixty story towers. So I think there's a lot of
questions more broadly going forward. But Hong Kong is has
the most high risers in the whole world, So you
know this isn't something We're not going to move away
from this model of living, but there are safety questions
(12:35):
I think going forward.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah, the terrible high rise blaze I mean for London
is of course, you know, awfully reminiscent of Grenfelle, huge disaster.
Will continue to follow this story and thank you for
your reporting today. That is Bloomberg's Jenny marsh Our Greater
China and Economy government editors speaking to us to stay
(12:57):
with us. More from Bloomberg Daybaku coming up to this, Well,
let's focus in on something here in Europe now the
ways may finally be over for Belgrade. This is Europe's
largest city that doesn't have a subway an underground the
four point four billion euro subway line, though apparently it's
unstoppable now according to local officials. Bloomberg. A reporter in Belgrade,
(13:22):
Misha Savage, joins us now to discuss Misha, good morning,
what is the plan find this subway in Belgrade? Where's
the money coming from, Who's building it? What's the timeframe?
Speaker 8 (13:35):
Yes, for most residents, it's almost unbelievable that after so
many decades of preparations and promises and failed projects, the
thing can the project may finally be coming to fruition.
Typically for Serbia's geopolitical balancing, because it wants to be
on good terms with everyone, even in this time of divisions.
(13:57):
The main contractors are French and the Chinese companies. For
France it's Alstrom, with a few more subcontractors also French
and China's Power China, the huge company credited with some
of the biggest protests in Asia, and for the Chinese
(14:18):
it's their first huge venture in Europe. For municipal transport,
the money is probably coming from the national combined national
and city budget, which is huge. It counts from more
than a third of the whole nation. Because typically for
Eastern Europe. The economic focus is so much on the
(14:40):
capital city and the province is typically drained.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
How long is it going to take him? It's quite
It's going to be difficult, isn't it to deliver such
a huge construction project.
Speaker 8 (14:56):
Now they say it should be the first line should
open in twenty thirty. Obviously it is measured in years,
but the key moment to finally see progress is when
those huge TBMs it stands for tunnel boring machines will
be imported from China in pieces and then assembled all site.
(15:20):
Once they start digging, it will take just a couple
of years and then to be fully completed with French equipment,
trains command center like a big hub from which they
will operate what they say will be driverless trains and
sliding doors that prevent people falling off onto the tracks.
(15:44):
So it will take them at least six months up
to a year for testing, and then I expect there
will be huge pomp for the opening ceremonies.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
This is Bloomberg Daybreak Europe, your morning brief on the
stories making news from London to Wall Streets.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
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on Apple Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.
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I'm Caroline Hepka and.
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I'm Stephen Carol. Join us again tomorrow morning for all
the news you need to start your day right here
on Bloomberg day Break Europe
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