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World Business Quick Take

■ Retail
Wal-Mart union formed
The first labor union at a Wal-Mart store in China has been formed following a lobbying campaign by the country's official All-China Federation of Trade Unions, a news report said yesterday. Thirty employees at a Wal-Mart store in the southeastern city of Quanzhou, in Fujian Province, voted on Saturday to form a union, the official Xinhua news agency reported. It said a 29-year-old employee named Ke Yunlong was elected chairman of its seven-member committee. Wal-Mart opened its first Chinese outlet in 1996 and says it has 28,000 employees in China.

■ Malaysia
Abdullah touts Johor as hub
Economic development planned in southern Johor state will turn the area into a world-class hub on par with Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday. The South Johor Economic Region, located just across the strait from Singapore, will be developed by the government's investment arm, Khazanah Nasional Bhd, over the next five to seven years.

■ Biotech
Singapore to up funding
Singapore will pump almost S$1.5 billion (US$949 million) into the biomedical sciences sector as the city-state seeks to expand the industry which has become a new engine of growth. The funding will go towards boosting Singapore's foundation in basic sciences and also to develop capabilities in translational and clinical research over the next five years, the National Research Foundation said. Since its establishment in 2000, the biomedical sciences sector has become a vital part of Singapore's key manufacturing sector.

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