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World Business Quick Take

■ Capital Markets
HK rated No. 1 in Asia
Hong Kong has been ranked the best capital market in Asia and globally for the second-straight year fol-lowed by Singapore in second place regionally and fourth in the world, a Milken Institute study showed yesterday. The Capital Access Index 2004 released by the US-based institute ranked the Nether-lands and Britain ahead of the city-state globally. Hong Kong's "top ranking is due to its strong and vibrant banking system despite regional public health problems," the institute said. The US landed sixth, falling three spots from last year. The fall was attributed to corporate governance issues follow-ing major accounting scandals at companies such as Enron and WorldCom. Covering 85 economies, the index is an annual examination of the openness of markets around the world.

■ Internet
Ad revenues shrinking
China may have the second-largest online population in the world but it only has about 1 percent of the global market for Web advertising, state media reported yesterday. Last year the Chinese Internet ad business was valued at US$130 million, compared with a worldwide market totalling US$11.5 billion, the People's Daily said on its Web site. The figure indi-cates that China's huge online numbers -- it had 79.5 million netizens by late last month -- do not necessarily translate into revenue for the country's ad-dependent dotcoms. Even more worrying for the Beijing leadership, which has said it is committed to developing a high-tech economy, China's market share is actually shrinking, according to Shanghai Research Co, the source of the data. The Chinese Internet ad market is expected to grow 67 percent this year compared with last year, below the 91 percent growth predicted for the world as a whole, the research company said.

■ Automakers
Mitsubishi gets funding
Ailing automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp will receive ?450 billion (US$4 billion) in funding from the Mitsu-bishi group and other investors as it struggles to draft a revival plan without additional money from German partner DaimlerChrysler AG, the company said yesterday. Under the plan, Mitsubishi Motors will keep its Illinois plant open and will target an overall sales increase over the next three years, the company said in a state-ment. The plan will also include thousands of job cuts to a global work force of 44,000 at factories and offices in Japan, the US, Europe and Australia. The company said it plans to shutter an engine plant in Australia next fiscal year but will leave open an passenger car plant there. In the next fiscal year, the company will close a passenger car plant in the southern Japanese city of Okazaki in fiscal 2006.

■ Indonesia
New gas stations planned
The state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina has announced plans to build 300 gasoline stations nation-wide in anticipation of the liberalization of the market next year, news reports said yesterday. "The move is aimed at anticipating the introduction of a liberalized fuel oil market in November 2005," Pertamina spokes-man Hanung Budya told the state-owned Antara news agency. He said the 300 new stations would require a total investment of 1.3 trillion rupiah (US$151.2 million).

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