Car boss calls for more government aid

Carlos Ghosn, the head of car giants Renault and Nissan, wants more government help for all European car-makers, but is it a begging bowl too far or sensible support?

With the banks, government support is more easily understandable. It's not ideal, but if they fall, then entire economies might all fall with them.

With other industries, like Europe's car industry, for example, it's getting two types of government help - easier financing, courtesy of the tax-payer, and money to people who scrap their old cars and buy new ones instead.

Recovery aid

To see how all this is panning out, Business Daily turned to one of the industry's big figures.

Carlos Ghosn is the head of Renault in France and Nissan in Japan, which he went in and rescued.

He is one of those typical car-industry nomads - he was actually born in Brazil and brought up in Lebanon but he's worked in North America, Asia and Europe.

He's also now head of the organisation which represents all the companies that make cars in Europe from BMW through Opel to Volkswagen.

First broadcast on Business Daily on 16 June 2009