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World Business Quick Take

■ Automobiles
Nissan expands China stake
Nissan Motor Co, the last of Japan's three biggest automakers to enter China, may expand production capacity at its Chinese venture with Dongfeng Motor Corp if demand beats the companies' expectations. A decision on whether to expand the Dongfeng Motor Co venture will be made in the next two years, the venture's president Katsumi Nakamura said in a Bloomberg television interview. Capacity may be increased if it looks as if demand will exceed 5.5 million units in 2007, he said. Nissan's truckmaking affiliate Nissan Diesel Motor Co may make as many as 100,000 mid-size to heavy trucks together with Dongfeng by 2008, Nakamura said. The companies may also make as many as 2,000 buses a year by 2007.

■ Tourism
China extends tax breaks
China is extending tax breaks for travel-related businesses until the end of the year in an effort to cut back on the lingering impact of SARS on tourism, state media and tourism authorities said yesterday. The number of foreign tourists visiting China is still much lower than in recent years, although domestic and outbound tourism has basically recovered from the downturn in travel due to SARS, which was declared under control in June. For that reason, tax breaks for airlines, travel agencies and other tourism-related businesses which had been set to expire at the end of September have been extended until the end of the year, the China National Tourism Administration said in a notice posted on its Web site. The decision by the Finance Ministry and the State Administration of Taxation was approved by the State Council, China's Cabinet, it said.

■ Labor
Executives to lose jobs
A recovery in the global technology sector is underway with investments set to grow 4 percent to 5 percent to US$2.1 trillion next year, but many executive jobs could be lost, research house Gartner said yesterday. "We now see true recovery in the making," Gartner's regional vice president said. "The combination of business transformation with key technology advances, architectural changes, market forces and best practices will lead to a strong recovery for IT in the near future," he said. Gartner said companies will set aside bigger budgets next year for technology upgrading in a bid to strengthen their businesses and raise productivity. But the projected recovery in the technology sector is expected to result in widespread job losses, possibly numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

■ Macroeconomics
Work needed worldwide
The global economy is not growing fast enough to provide jobs for millions of people who want them, according to a study released Tuesday by the Conference Board, a private business research group. World economic growth rates have slowed sharply since the 1960s, with growth rates falling not just in the US but also in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, the survey found. Only East Asia and South Asia recorded stronger growth during the past decade than in the 1960s. "It is startling to think that what was viewed as the boom times of the 1990s was actually the slowest-growing decade in the world economy in the past 40 years," said Gail Fosler, chief economist of the group and author of the analysis.

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