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World Business Quick Take

■ Restaurants
McDonald's explores coffee
Smoothies, iced coffee and other specialty coffees could be added to the menu at US McDonald's restaurants, a top executive of the world's largest restaurant chain said on Wednesday. President and chief operating officer Ralph Alvarez said at a conference sponsored by Bear Stearns in New York that the company was exploring those drinks to attract new customers. McDonald's scored a hit with the addition of premium coffee to its US restaurants a year ago. Alvarez said coffee unit volume was up 15 percent.

■ Insurance
Discounts for the skinny
Amid a growing obesity epidemic in the US, an insurance company has started giving customers another reason to slim down by being one of the first in the country to offer discounts to customers who keep a low body-mass index (BMI). The program by Phoenix Cos Inc offers discounts of up to 20 percent on life insurance to customers whose BMI is between 19 and 25. BMI is a ratio of body fat that takes height and weight into account. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines obesity as a BMI of 30 or more; People between 25 and 30 are considered overweight.

■ Aviation
Qantas buyout clears hurdle
The proposed A$11.1 billion (US$8.6 billion) acquisition of Qantas Airways Ltd by an investor group cleared a hurdle yesterday when the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said it would not oppose the sale. Qantas' board has recommended shareholders accept the bid by Australia's Macquarie Bank, Forth Worth, Texas-based Texas Pacific Group, Canada's Onex Corp and others. The ACCC said it did not seem Macquarie Bank's "partial direct and indirect interests" in Sydney Airport would lead to discrimination in favor of Qantas.

■ Trade pacts
EU model `not for Asia'
Trying to set up a grand EU-style economic community for Asia "does not appear feasible," the president of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said yesterday. The focus should be shifted toward sub-regional groups, ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda said in a speech at a Manila conference of the Asian Institute of Management. "We should rely on a pragmatic step-by-step bottom-up approach rather than on conceiving and implementing a comprehensive pan-Asian vision as was done in Europe," Kuroda said. ASEAN has set 2015 as a target for establishing such an economic community.

■ Investment
Foxconn invests in Vietnam
Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group (鴻海科技集團), one of the world's largest contract electronics manufacturers, plans to invest US$5 billion in Vietnam to support the building of technology zones and urban development, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday. Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) signed a letter of intent with the Vietnamese government to invest US$1 billion to build a technology zone. Encouraged by the investment incentives offered by Vietnam, Gou then decided to invest an additional US$4 billion. Reports had said the group was to take up a zone to make electronics. The group includes Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Hong Kong-listed Foxconn International Holdings Ltd (富士康控股).

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