BUSINESS BRIEFS
Abe looks to boost India ties
Advertiser Staff and News Services
TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who says relations with India may become more important than Japan's links with the U.S. or China, leads his biggest corporate mission to the South Asian country today.
Abe travels to New Delhi with 243 executives from companies including Toyota Motor Corp. and Canon Inc. Japan has 4,757 companies in China and only 216 in India, said Nomura Securities Co. Ltd.
Japan has been investing in China and other parts of Asia since the late 19th century and now wants to tap growth in the world's second-fastest-growing major economy. Abe says India, as an Asian democracy, is a natural ally. Strengthening links may help both nations counter China's growing global influence.
CHINA MULLS INVESTING ABROAD
BEIJING — China, holder of the world's largest foreign-exchange reserves, is considering allowing individuals to invest directly overseas for the first time to ease pressure on its currency to appreciate, a regulator said yesterday.
Chinese individuals are permitted to invest abroad only through licensed funds run by banks and brokerages. China's foreign-exchange reserves have swelled to a record $1.33 trillion, encouraging the government to loosen capital controls aimed at safeguarding financial stability.
SKYPE PHONE SERVICE RESTORED
NEW YORK — Skype said its Internet phone service has returned to normal after a software bug left many users unable to log on for two days.
An estimated 220 million people worldwide use the Skype service, which lets its users make long-distance phone calls over the Internet.
The worldwide outage began Thursday. Users from Vietnam to Brazil to Germany to the United States said they could not log on. Skype said the issue was a problem with its software.
