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World Business News Quick Take

■ BANKING

S Korea to privatize KDB

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said yesterday his government would privatize the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) in three years as part of his economic reforms. “The policy to privatize the KDB remains unchanged,” Lee told a televised news conference. “It is said to take about four years, but the government plans to privatize it in three years while monitoring market situations.” Seoul’s financial watchdog said last month it would turn KDB into a holding company this year in preparation for privatization, but it did not give a timeframe for completing the whole process.



■ CREDIT

Loan strategy reconfigured

China is making it easier for companies to sell short-term debt, to try to reduce an over-reliance on bank loans for funding and decrease risks in the financial system. Non-financial companies will no longer need government approval to sell commercial paper with maturities of less than one year on the interbank market, the People’s Bank of China said in a statement on its Web site late yesterday. They will only need to register with a dealers association before issuing the debt. “The financing structure in China has been unbalanced, direct financing is underdeveloped and enterprises have relied too much on bank lending which has created hidden risks,” the central bank said in a separate statement.



■ OIL

CNOOC signs agreements

China National Offshore Oil Corp Ltd (CNOOC, 中國海洋石油), China’s biggest offshore oil producer, signed agreements with overseas partners to develop 22 areas off the Chinese coast that the company’s parent offered for international bidding last year. CNOOC signed “production sharing contracts” with foreign companies to jointly explore in these areas, chairman Fu Chengyu (傅成玉) said at the Boao Forum in Hainan yesterday. “Those foreign companies basically include every one of our current partners in offshore development in China.” Companies in China are accelerating efforts to find oil as demand for fuel for power plants, cars and machinery rises in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.



■ COMMODITIES

Chavez chides IMF

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday that his government could afford to buy some of the IMF’s gold reserves as the US-based lender faces hard times. Chavez raised that idea with a chuckle as the IMF, the lender of last resort for countries in trouble, considers trimming costs by selling off some of its gold reserves. “Look at how the US empire must be in unimpeded decline, that the International Monetary Fund ... is selling its crown jewels,” Chavez said during a speech at a military parade.



■ CONSUMING

Cash cards may be unsafe

Millions of cash cards and security access cards may now be unsafe, the Hanover-based c’t magazine reported recently. Experts have succeeded in cracking the encryption of the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip used in a widely available card system. Stored information was successfully read out and copied from chips in the Mifare Classic series, the report claims. Depending on the intended use for the card, this could potentially lead to personal data landing in the wrong hands. One way to tell whether a card includes an RFID chip is to hold it against a very bright light source. “You can see lines all the way around the chip. That is the antenna,” says Christiane Ruetten from c’t.


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