The government is planning to support 41 health and cosmetics companies’ advancement into the U.S. market. The “Columbus Project,” to be funded by the ministry and other related agencies, aims to help Korean firms increase their share of the U.S. market from the current 1.1 percent to 3.4 percent by 2015, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said Thursday.The 41 companies include some household name

Two Korean-led consortia satisfy bid qualifications for $20b railroad planTwo consortia including Korean enterprises passed the pre-qualification criteria for a $20 billion railway project in the United Arab Emirates, raising hopes for the country’s first-ever railway construction export, state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said Friday.The list of firms involved in the bid includes b

Financial institutions run into trouble when their officials exhibit a serious lack of morals. A case in point is the chaos at Shinhan Financial Group last year that was triggered by an internal feud among its three top executives. The trio staged a crippling power struggle in total disregard for the group’s reputation and the interests of its shareholders.The trio was ousted and the financial gro

Former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan appears to have learned no lesson from the Sejong City debacle last year. Upon his appointment as prime minister in September 2009, Chung staked his political career on a bill aimed at changing the concept of the planned city from an administrative town to a science-technology hub.Chung, a former Seoul National University economics professor, went in all guns bl

As the world’s second largest economy, China’s continuous and concrete efforts to raise its energy efficiency are important not only for itself, but for the world. That China has managed to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 19.06 percent between 2006 and 2010 on the 2005 levels is a cause for both optimism and caution. It is encouraging to see that the Chinese economy ha

No one doubts the importance of U.S. action to end the regime of Moammar Gadhafi. Unlike Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose overthrow inspired a resistance movement in Libya, Gadhafi has made war on his own people. The United States’ response has been muscular, if delayed. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton explicitly have called for Gadhafi’s removal, a dramatic de

On April 7, 1977, members of the revolutionary committees had plastered a poster of Moammar Gadhafi’s image on my father’s car. On that same day they had, under the dictator’s direct supervision, publicly hanged several dissidents in Benghazi.On the day of the execution, the Ghibli winds blowing from the desert filled the air with dust and turned the sky into a reddish-gray canopy. I’d taken a bus

Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi remains an obsession for advocates of decency. He personifies what is unknowable about the uprisings roiling the Arab world. What does the revolution mean, besides being an outlet for rage? What new order might emerge? After unwanted leaders are removed, what is there to stop like-minded individuals from insinuating themselves into power? Of what enduring value could

The Democratic Party of Japan and its junior coalition partner People’s New Party managed to pass the fiscal 2011 92.411 trillion yen budget through the Lower House early Tuesday morning. The opposition-controlled Upper House is certain to vote down the budget. But the budget will be enacted anyhow. Article 60 of the Constitution says that the budget will be enacted within 30 days of being sent to

As of January this year, Taiwanese travelers can visit the Schengen Area visa-free, marking yet another step toward the island’s goal of acquiring wider visa exemption privileges for its passport holders.The inclusion of the European Union brings the number of countries and territories offering Taiwanese citizens visa exemptions to 96, with 75 granting Republic of China passport holders visa-waive