World Business Quick Take

■ Computing
Windows, heal thyself
Microsoft is to include a self-healing mechanism in its next version of Windows that will warn users when one of the disk drives is about to fail and recommend remedies. The details were presented in the company's latest release of preliminary test versions of its next generation Windows Vista operating system that was distributed Monday to some 500,000 people. Vista is scheduled to go on sale to consumers in about a year. "One of things we're trying to do is make sure that PCs are able to fix themselves in a way that they haven't been able to in the past," Mike Burk, a Microsoft product manager for Windows Vista, was quoted as saying in the trade press. Other features that were revealed in the beta version were the inclusion of Microsoft's anti-spyware technology into the Windows system and the release of Windows Media Player 11, the company's next generation digital media console.

■ China economy
Reforms worry many
China is worried about the negative effects a more thorough opening of its capital markets would have on its fast growing economy, chief central banker Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) said in comments seen yesterday. With some worried that accelerated reform could spark damaging financial shocks, many in Beijing are calling for a slower pace, he said in remarks carried in the official China Securities Journal. "Opening the capital market will lead to more competition but there will be negative consequences," Zhou told a financial forum Tuesday evening. The People's Bank of China head did not specify precisely what were the risks, only saying that "we should not commit childish errors to avoid paying an even higher price."

■ Automobiles
Suzuki open to joint R&D
Suzuki Motor said yesterday that it was open to joint research and development initiatives with firms other than General Motors, which controls the Japanese small-car maker. "Research and development of new technologies are a type of initiative that require time and patience. Possibilities of joint R and D must be explored actively," Osamu Suzuki, chairman and chief executive officer of the Japanese firm, told reporters at the Tokyo Motor Show. "We are not limiting ourselves to GM. Research and development should be done with various firms. We should think about things flexibly," he said. "Be it hybrids or fuel cell technologies, we must research various technologies," he said.

■ Computers
Dell opens call center
Dell, the world's largest personal computer producer, announced yesterday it was setting up a major customer call center in the Philippines. The call center, to be located in a special mall in a suburb of the Philippine capital, will initially employ 100 when it opens in February next year but this will eventually increase to 700 in a few months, Dell Computers Southeast Asia vice-president Rajan Anandan said. The company also formally opened a recruitment and training center in the Makati financial district yesterday and will begin interviewing applicants on Nov. 1. Andanan said Dell chose the Philippines as the site of its newest call center because of the high English proficiency of Filipinos and the telecommunications infrastructure. He declined to say how much Dell was investing in this country.