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World Business Quick Take

■ Oil exploration
Japanese firm wants rights
A Japanese oil producer yesterday requested oil and natural gas drilling rights in an area of the East China Sea disputed by Beijing and Tokyo, the company said. Teikoku Oil Co said it has asked to test drill in three areas covering a total of 400km2 after Japan's Trade Ministry said earlier this month it would start reviewing applications from companies hoping to explore the deep-sea reserves. Teikoku Oil already applied in 1969 and 1970 to drill in the area, but Thursday's request covers a more specific region based on studies the company conducted in the 1980s and research carried out by the Japanese government, said Masaaki Akasaka of Teikoku Oil. Both Japan and China claim the gas deposits and are hungry for the resource to power their huge economies.

■ Internet
Australians shop online
Australians rank third in the world in their embrace of online shopping behind Americans and the British, research released yesterday showed. The money spent over the Internet has risen by over a third in the 12 months to March, the Visa International research found. More than 4 million of the 20 million Australians now purchase online. EBay Australia said it had over 2 million members.

■ Auto industry
DaimlerChrysler plans SUV
DaimlerChrysler AG said yesterday it will build a new sports utility vehicle (SUV) at a plant in northern Germany as it expands its range of vehicles. The German-US automaker, the world's fifth largest, had said it was looking to add another SUV to its lineup, and was determining whether it would be built in Brazil or in Germany. "The decision to produce the vehicle in Bremen is a building block of our employment accord, and also shows that Germany is a competitive production location if the right framework conditions are defined," chief executive Juergen Schrempp said.

■ Biotechnology
Malaysia to offer incentives
Malaysia announced plans yesterday to jump-start its biotechnology industry by giving financial incentives to new ventures and finding ways to tap the nation's tropical flora and fauna to produce new health care and food products. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi unveiled a National Biotechnology Policy that includes establishing a corporation to manage financial support for research and identify commercial prospects for new biotech products and services. The government will offer tax incentives for biotech investments to encourage participation by the private sector and set up new facilities for research in genomics, molecular biology and pharmaceutical products, Abdullah said.

■ Real Estate
China to curb growth
China's State Council, the Cabinet, has vowed to curb overheating investment in the property sector and soaring house prices, state press reported yesterday. During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) concluded that overheated investment and rising housing prices were the two major problems in the real estate sector, the official Xinhua news agency said. It was the third time within a week that Beijing has expressed concern over the country's fast developing property sector, where residential house prices grew 13.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter.

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