This is counting the cost on aljazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week the princes purge some of the richest royals and businessmen in the arab world under arrest well look at what it means for saudi inc. Also this week a potential banking shut down in the kurdish region of iraq well look at how the secession referendum is affecting the economy. Plus the trumps meet the g. s what are trade relations between the worlds biggest economies really warming up or is it all just lost in translation. Its got a four and a hostile rating on trip advisor but the Ritz Carlton Riyadh is more like a five star prison for saudi princes ministers and billionaires theyre being held there on corruption charges crown Prince Mohammed bin sandman is trying to shake up saudi arabia wresting more than two hundred people the crackdown on the kingdoms elite is seen by many as consolidating his power of Credit Ratings agency said it could bring a backlash and create a Political Uncertainty in an already volatile region the princes purge has been a wake up call for many people doing business in the arab worlds biggest economy and oil producer thats despite the Saudi Central Bank saying its business as usual for lenders and the companys own by those arrested for say wealthy saudis are moving assets out of the region. Assets built up through corruption will become state property so how much money is at stake or the wall street journal reports the government is targeting as much as eight hundred billion dollars one of the tech worlds most important investors is among those detained prince and waleed bin talal has stakes in twitter and apple is net worth has fallen over two billion dollars to nearly sixteen billion since his arrest and shares in his Company Kingdom holding dropped shares have been selling off across the g. C. C. And as of wednesday more than seventeen and a half billion dollars was knocked off the value of stocks the billionaire backer of the saudi bin ladden group one of the kingdoms Largest Construction Companies is also caught up in the Anti Corruption sweep at least one thousand seven hundred Bank Accounts have been frozen so far and of course saudi arabia produces one in nine barrels of the worlds oil the uncertainty has hit oil prices with the price of crude touching a two and a half year high this week. We join us now from london is Michael Stephens michael is a Research Fellow for middle east studies and head of the Royal United Services institute for defense and Security Studies good to speak with you again michael now a lot has been said about the political motivations behind this decision that the crown prince is a mill eliminating all of his rivals in one fell swoop but putting that aside the hope for those who welcomed this purge is that it will speed up much needed Economic Reforms because those who are seen to be standing in the way are now out of the way do you see it that way well that certainly somebody need to do something about the level of corruption which existed in saudi arabia the fact that frankly in terms of its pure rhotic structures it was not performing very well the change that was promised by the havent been selma and following his vision twenty thirty launched just wasnt coming he was having to row back on a huge amount of the goals and targets that he said himself and i think he probably wrote out of patience but just said listen there are guys in the way of my Reform Program if theyre in the way im going to get them out the way i dont really care how if some of them are corrupt that means i cannot corruption charges against them if some of them arent or find another way so its really you know short term pain long term gain nothing but the end of the day what were going to see here is that this is going to be destabilizing for the kingdom hes getting rid of Something Like whats supposed to be four hundred senior people have been seventeen hundred Bank Accounts frozen now this is a huge change at the top of the tree and the rabia and its going to cause a little bit of instability but if miss Prince Mohammed thinks that in the long run hes got this all under control then were going to have to wait and see i think its too early to know if hes going to be successful you know you mentioned corruption there in the saudi government is saying this is part of an Anti Corruption drive but theyve been very vague about what that is exactly what is corruption as it is defined in saudi arabia i think corruption as it is defined. The arabia is what mohammed bin salmond defines it as if you have business interests in the kingdom and you have fallen on the wrong side of Mohammed Bin Salman i would probably be pretty worried right now i would be concerned that at some point my name was also going to be on the list so there are of course incidences where i think its well documented in Bin Laden Group for example where the government and Bin Laden Group in hand in hand for many many years but one group survived off kickbacks of you know preferential dealing off cook tenders these sorts of things have been some and its been very very clear and very firm in dealing with a group like that a large group there now sort of half back in favor saudi which is the group which is half owned by. Hariri from lebanon who was the former Prime Minister has also come under some strain as well and i think what hes done is hes trying to do two things hes trying to take up the big boys the Big Companies and say hey corruption at the institutional level is not acceptable but hes also taking on individuals so hes named individuals and listen he said you personally i have evidence that you have engaged in corrupt dealings and you are going to be tried and we have evidence to support that claim so if the evidence is there for all of these companies and all these individuals then i guess we will accept what those corruption charges are in the International Community if the evidence is not there then i think there is going to be a problem but one of the other big names in that per purge was prince well hed been. One of the considered one of the richest men in the world hes invested heavily in a number of big western companies so what effect is that going to have on the Foreign Investment climate i mean does he raise questions about the stability and the predictability of the saudi government and perhaps go as far as. The driving of a flight of money and wealth out of the country because they dont know what hes going to do next. Well its certainly got people worried i think theres no doubt at all that the detention of a really big bin talal has has caused people to raise some eyebrows people are wondering whats going on there on shore about their investments with Kingdom Holdings which of course is a massive multinational conglomerate operating on the wiley but until its name and of course what youll then finding is that people now have a nervousness about whether they want to invest in saudi arabia or not i dont think theres going to be capital flight simply because i think people are waiting to see whats going to happen but as we know whenever politics starts to interfere with the flow of money people get extremely nervous indeed it was the same when the cattle crisis broke out people immediately began to lessen their Risk Appetite and i think the same will happen here what we havent been someone has to do know is basically say that for the greater good ive done these measures you need to hold on you need to trust me in the direction im taking the kingdom but of course thats not how investing works people dont want to know that next week their investments are going to be insecure and be told that in ten months or eleven months time it will be all ok so there is a risk there and people are nervous there is no doubt and of course people will ask questions about where this is leading and what the end goal is and who else might be affected you know at the end of the day there are ominous signs that more people could be brought into this anticorruption drive and that does make people a bit worried what impact do you think this might have on the on the debt market money all the g. C. C. States are trying to raise debt at the moment theyre still pretty favorable conditions in saudi arabia theyre not in the situation which im on is in or bahrain is in people would be quite happy to to lend money to saudi arabia at the moment but we need to see where this this political corruption drive goes where but what impact is this going to have at least in the short term on oil prices and on the oil markets in the region. Well weve seen a little bit of a jump in oil prices not huge jump based on i guess a little bit of suspected instability but at the end of the day saudi arabia is a pretty stable producer now theyve been in discussions with the russians as well though about clipping a little bit of production levels but essentially you know the days of the opec cartel having control over oil prices or less over saudi arabias main worry is you know if oil starts to creep back to seventy then u. S. Shale comes on line and then saudi starts to get squeezed out of its market share so saudi arabia in terms of its production levels doesnt want to cut too much because it just doesnt want to lose that market share theyve been burned before in that particular sphere so actually what it means is that the market will still continue to see relatively low prices i dont think youre going to see any spikes could speak with you Michael Stevens joining us from london venezuela another petro dependent economy is inching closer to an official default president Nicolas Maduro has invited bond holders to caracas to talk about debt restructuring the country has roughly one hundred twenty billion dollar foreign debt mountain servicing that debt has put the country on the brink of starvation and bankruptcy will do those already late with a bond payment on the state run oil company and pressure is growing on the u. S. To impose an oil ban along with more sanctions still to come on counting the cost the secret tax a fair revealed in the Paradise Papers of the worlds most valuable company quietly moved its money to the island of jersey. Now Iraq Central Bank has ordered private banks to close their branches in the kurdistan region within a week if they dont they will face penalties the economy there has taken a hit after the secession referendum and as Stephanie Dekel reports now from darkhawk while a cease fire is now in place the uncertainty continues to affect the region. The fresh air and serenity of these mountains usually attract kinds of visitors not just kurds but tourists from baghdad and elsewhere in iraq the bustling Mountain Resorts which would still be busy at this time of year are empty this ancient cave turned cafe used to be packed with customers and not anymore. After the referendum iraqi forces and shia militias attacked the Peshmerga Forces from that time business has been very bad because now iraqi forces are standing against the peshmerga all the borders the carriage he has with the rock and all the connecting roads have been cut. Business travelers are also staying away its been noticeable in every city weve traveled through hotels are virtually empty imagine khalid used to run sixty to seventy rooms a day now its ten if that he says the situation has never been this bad. Both our Airports International flights have been suspended by baghdad when a businessman wants to come to kurdistan from turkey for example he doesnt take the land road kurdistan is safe but when people see media reports theyre frightened every day we see different reports about issues with the border crossings i dont think businessmen will take the risk to hercs general director for tourism says visitor numbers are down eighty percent and investment in the region is also shrinking due to the current situation. After military action and the decisions made by the iraqi Prime Minister about twenty five Hotels Motels and Restaurant Owners had to close their doors in less than a month in province because they were not able to make ends meet this is all due to baghdads actions its not a good move from their. People here have lost faith in those they consider to be their allies especially the United States they say they simply take yes on a legally nonbinding piece of paper but the message the referendum on secession sent means the kurds of Northern Iraq now feel abandoned and completely isolated and they say the consequences for them appear far from over. Now the Aviation Media and Technology Industries saw a flurry of deals this week starting off air in the middle east Qatar Airways has snapped up a nine point six percent stake in loss making Cathay Pacific hong kongs flagship carrier for six hundred sixty two Million Dollars the gulf airline has been buying minority status in other air carriers to drive traffic through its fighting back against the ongoing embargoed by saudi arabia and three other arab states. A potential mega merger in the mobile chip market broadcom is made a blockbuster one hundred thirty billion dollars offer to buy qualcomm if completed its estimated the deal would be the largest tech merger ever but it could run into regulatory problems the merged company would have a big say over the price of chips power most of the worlds wife i devise is. U. S. Competition regulators want major changes to eighty and t. s proposed takeover of time warner they want to sell big parts of their business including possibly news channel c. N. N. Threatening to derail the whole thing now in the leaders of the worlds two biggest economies met this week the big question on everyones mind is u. S. President donald charm changing his tune when it comes to china is two day trip there was full of lavish pomp and ceremony with chinas president being looking eager to present a welcoming face the chinese called trumps trip to the country a state visit plus and when it comes to trade this is one of the worlds most important relationships nonbinding deals worth two hundred fifty billion dollars was signed and the Smiling Faces and tone was certainly friendlier than joining trumps Election Campaign i dont blame china. There for all. Who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens i give china great credit. Were joining us now from hong kong is jeff lewis senior asia strategist with the u. S. Based Manulife Asset Management thanks very much for being with us now candidate donald trump talked quite a lot on the campaign trail about china trade deficit and getting tough on on china but so far he hasnt delivered its just been talk this point is he softening his position now and what might that mean for trade relations with china hopefully donald trump will treat xi jinping as an equal the two economies now are the biggest in the world china is the top trading partner to nearly everybody. Deserves to be treated with as a serious player i dont think youll be able to force concessions on china so a Good Relationship between the two leaders and then let the teams of trade negotiators carry on theyll be a lot of hard negotiation over the next twelve months you talk there about treating china as an equal but it does seem as if china is very much in the ascendancy here while u. S. Leadership. Across a number of areas is being questioned so it gets to the question of who is playing who here i think its in the interests of both leaders to prove santa have a positive face on this the. Idea that china is. Is really to damage other economies really doesnt bear much examination the trade surplus has come down dramatically policy on the renminbi has changed a lot china is no longer gain in rapid market share in world trade so i think the adjustment cost of bringing china into the World Trading system they were large but theyre largely in the past the u. S. Economy after all now is at full employment so in the absence of a regional trade sneaker. The t p p was always floored by excluding china then i think were having to rely on these bilateral trade negotiations between large economies like us china us japan its a second best solution but its all its all we have in this current political environment theres little hope of another multilateral trade round where do you see the biggest tensions right now between china and the u. S. In trade i think the tensions will probably center of over things like. Intellectual property. And transfer of technology. Probably those issues are more. Contentious now than say dumping of steel or basic materials where china is clearly in the process of cutting back excess capacity in the past those kind of disputes have been solved through countervailing juices there is a procedure for that which has been used quite a lot by the previous u. S. Administration on a very specific basis but i think now there are some more general principles at stake which need to be hammered out in the comprehensive economic dialogue talks between the us and china jeff lewis thanks for being with us of course for farah global tax laws are growing louder thats after it emerged the u. S. Commerce secretary Britains Queen elizabeth pop star bono and a top aide to the canadian Prime Minister are among fastens named in a leak of offshore financial accounts many on hand has more on the socalled Paradise Papers. More than thirteen million files taken mostly from the offshore law firm epilepsy and leaked to the same jim a newspaper that took hold of the Panama Papers last year this new release shedding light on who was secretly investing huge amounts of money in offshore tax havens theres a new Global Industry that caters to money that moves around the world and this money moves to tax havens and it used to evade taxes to hide assets to steal money if you are going to prime it you buy Large Businesses the Paradise Papers are being poured over by around one hundred different Media Outlets newspapers broadcasters from around the globe so why so much interest well first up the money involved here is huge Boston Consulting Group estimates ten trillion dollars is held in these offshore Financial Centers and while most of us know them as techs havens few of us actually use them thats because around half of that ten trillion dollars is concentrated not in the rich but in the mega rich think zero point zero zero one percent of households and while in most cases putting your money offshore and outside of your countrys financial regulations is legal many argue hiding from the text men is unfair and critics say governments have been slow to deal with it. But its more than an equality and aleck affinis the offshore Financial System is also incredibly secretive arguably enabling the wealthy and the powerful to hide their dealings and break the law very difficult when somebody is using five or six different offshore jurisdictions going to true picture what theyre really doing and in countries need that because Law Enforcement not easy to cross borders but crime can cross borders so this ross please come forward day one of the disclosures and overdye they have been some big names Donald Trumps come a secretary wilbur ross with apparent links to russian businesses and made to canadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau using offshore havens to not paetec sit home and revelations around the investments of Queen Elizabeth the second the Law Firm Appleby insists they reznor no evidence of wrongdoing but legal or not as more information rolls out the public will be assessing with the whats being done is ethical even appropriate or maybe given whos involved just not a good look or trouble in paradise two for the worlds most valuable Company Apple it was revealed this week that it uses a secret tax haven the English Channel island of jersey apple currently has two hundred fifty two billion dollars of untaxed cash outside the u. S. The Paradise Papers allege that back in two thousand and thirteen irish officials under Huge International pressure closed the tax loophole and so apple legally made new arrangements in jersey apple says it pays every dollar it owes in every country in the around the world now in todays on demand instant Digital World many libraries have to shrug off their stuffy and silent image qatars new National Library open this week and as well as books it has computers a kid zone and coffee its all part of the countrys effort to refocus its economy rob math and reports. When emotions are reduced to emote and a handful of tweeted letters scattered across the internet can inspire the world or plunge it into despair words have weight and print is still powerful if you recall the first word in the quran is read i think that thats really going to be leading the people to use this library to operate and to understand the resources in a region in a country that has a long tradition of loving the written words this is qatars new National Library these shelves can hold around one point two million books racks of history fiction and reference sit alongside computers Music Studios three d. Printers stages for musical and feared her performances and on a lower floor out of direct sunlight ancient texts for researchers to study this is the Heritage Library its got over twenty six thousand printed books over four thousand nine you scripts its got over thirty thousand photographs and over twelve hundred moms but the staff here at the library know that if they wanted to be a success they have to appeal to a different type of reader as well children to do that theyre banishing what used to be a basic requirement in libraries silence we think of our library as. A noisy place so its a noisy Childrens Library and we encourage children to express themselves however they feel we believe in learning through play and this is why you can find a lot of toys here in the library that supported their Cognitive Development in addition to their love of reading. Since the one nine hundred seventy s. Economy has been driven by its vast oil and gas reserves but eventually those will start to shrink the new qatar National Library is part of a plan to move the economy to one based largely on knowledge and education but this is a tremendous investment and its an investment not just in this building but its an investment in education and research for the country i think its got a huge role to play in creating the next generation of of readers students and we hope leaders too for the staff of the new National Library the printed word either real or in cyberspace is key to qatars future and that is our show for this week get in touch with us by tweeting me at hasnt and to use that a j c t c when you do or drop us an email counting the cost that aljazeera dot net is our address theres more for you online at c. N. N. Dot com slash c. T. C. That will take you straight to our page which has individual reports links and entire episodes for you to catch up on. 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