Business Quick Take

■ Eating
China's restaurants boom
When the world's most populous nation decides to go out to eat, the results can be prodigious. The people of China, a culture whose culinary obsession is renowned worldwide, spent more than 600 billion yuan (US$73 billion) dining out last year, the official Xinhua News Agency said yesterday. That figure was an 11.5 percent increase over 2002. The statistics were part of what the government calls 13 straight years of annual double-digit growth in the restaurant industry. And government analysts say they expect this year to be even better, with more than 700 billion yuan (US$85 billion) spent dining out. The figures coincide with an increase in living standards among many Chinese, especially on the more affluent east coast, as economic reforms begun a generation ago gain momentum.

■ Electronics
Sony pulls out of LCD deal
Global electronics giant Sony has withdrawn from a Japanese government-led project to develop new liquid crystal displays (LCDs), Jiji Press said yesterday. The Japanese firm made the decision after it concluded an agreement with South Korean microchip maker Samsung Electronics in October last year to jointly produce flat panels, the news agency said. The project was launched in 2002, drawing officials from universities and major electronics manufactures, including Sony Corp and Sharp Corp, with ?15.3 billion (US$144 million) in subsidies. The project is designed to develop the next-generation flat panel, as demand for LCDs is rapidly growing in the global market. Immediate confirmation of the report was not available.

■ Shipping
S Korea's shipbuilding up
South Korean ship exports rose 3.6 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$11.06 billion last year, official data showed yesterday. The shipyards also secured record new orders to build 470 vessels totalling 16.75 million tonnes last year, compared with 230 vessels totalling 7.59 million tonnes in 2002, according to the ministry of commerce, industry and energy. This year's ship exports will stand at US$12 billion but orders will drop sharply because of a backlog, it said. South Korean shipbuilders have basked in brisk sales in recent years to capture a bigger share of the global market. The rise in orders reflects tougher international rules on outdated vessels, a trend toward bigger ships and growing demand for big-ticket liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrying vessels. South Korea built 12 LNG vessels last year.

■ Internet
Parents in uproar over game
Parents in China have voiced fears that Internet love games give children a premature interest in adult family life, state media said yesterday. Teenagers are increasingly turning to cyberspace games in which they can "tie the knot", go on virtual honeymoons and "have children" all at the click of a mouse, Xinhua news agency reported. The agency quoted a mother whose 14-year-old son came home from a lengthy session at an Internet cafe proudly declaring that had got himself a wife and a son. "I was very surprised to see him addicted so much to grown-up activities," the mother said. Xinhua quoted another case of a schoolboy who met his cyber-spouse in an online game called Crazy Tanks. It is estimated that China had 78 million Internet users by the end of last year, second only to the US.