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World Business Quick Take

■ Computers
ProMOS invests in China
ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德), the country's second-largest maker of memory chips, signed an investment agreement with the authorities of Chongqing in central China to build a semiconductor plant. The factory will manufacture chips from silicon wafers measuring 8 inches in diameter, the Hsinchu-based company said in a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. There was no information about the investment amount or production capacity. The company, together with Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶), Taiwan's largest memory-chip maker, and Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光), last month received approval from the government to set up operations in China.

■ Currency
Yuan under pressure to rise
The Chinese yuan will continue to face pressure to rise this year due to an expanding trade surplus, an official from the country's foreign-exchange regulator said. "As China's surplus of international payment, a majority of which is made up of rising trade surplus, is likely to sustain this year, market expectation for the renminbi to rise further will remain throughout this year," Xie Hemin (謝和民), deputy director of the current account department at the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said at a trade conference in Beijing yesterday. The yuan rose 0.31 percent to close at 7.7739 against the US dollar in Shanghai on Friday. It has risen 6.3 percent since a fixed exchange rate of 8.30 to the US dollar ended in July 2005.

■ Internet
Another library joins project
Google announced on Friday that another major US college library had joined its controversial project to put the world's books online. The more than one million written works at the University of Texas library in the city of Austin will be converted to digital format and added to Google Books Library Project. The university's collection includes rare books and manuscripts from early Latin American history, Google said. The Google Book Search project was initiated in 2004. Google has partnerships with the New York Public Library and major universities to add their collections to its virtual book shelves.

■ Trade
Business leaders call for FTA
Powerful US and Japanese business leaders called on Friday for a free-trade agreement to link the world's two largest economies. After day-long talks in New York, the US Business Roundtable organization and Japan's Keidanren group also pledged to work together on taking advantage of China's rapid growth, and on climate change. The groups said their proposed "Economic Partnership Agreement" held "tremendous potential" for the US and Japanese economies, and urged their governments to start negotiations as soon as possible.

■ Finance
Citigroup's Q4 profits drop
Citigroup announced a 26 percent drop in its latest quarterly profits on Friday, attributing the earnings slowdown to a one-time gain a year ago and the scaling back of its Japanese operations. However, Citigroup -- one of the world's largest financial institutions -- still posted hefty fourth-quarter net profits of US$5.13 billion, more than the combined profits of Merrill Lynch, Apple and American Airlines. Citigroup reported earnings per share of US$1.03, US$0.02 better than most Wall Street analysts had anticipated.

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