Hyundai Engineering & Construction has clinched a $2.45 billion deal to build a seawater processing facility in Iraq, marking its first overseas contract this year, officials said.The South Korean builder on Wednesday signed a letter of intent with the state-run Basra Oil Co. for a 49-month project to build a seawater supply plant in the southern state of Basra.Once completed, the facility will be capable of supplying 5 million barrels of fresh water per day, contributing to increasing crude

DAEJEON -- Established in January, 2016, The Shortcut, a community-based Finnish organization, has been offering pro-bono training programs for people with diverse backgrounds, including refugees, immigrants, and multicultural youth, to help them get a breakthrough in the technology sector.While nurturing people to have skill sets, the organization also helps quench the thirst for skilled personnel in the startup world. “What we do is accelerate people from diverse backgrounds to thin

Former BMW engineer says the family-led firm will help seek sustainable, long-term strategy under Chung’s smart leadership

Despite government efforts to curb smoking, the tobacco industry here and abroad has been advancing with new innovative products, the latest being US e-cigarette maker Juul Labs that formally launched here Wednesday.Juul claims that that its vape pens will hit the local market Friday, challenging the tobacco market here which has recently been led by heat-not-burn tobacco devices.  It is the American startup’s first Asia-Pacific entry since it was launched in 2017.In the US, Juul acco

South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco will be upgrading its benefit sharing system, expanding opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises and increasing performance compensations, the company said Thursday.Pioneered by Posco in 2004, benefit sharing system is a joint cooperation between corporates and SMEs that provides a win-win scenario for both parties. Not only can SMEs utilize technologies of large corporates, but corporates can also improve its materials and secure a stable

North Chungcheong Province set aside 8.2 trillion won for 120 bio-health projects by 2030

The labor union of Renault Samsung Motors Corp. on Tuesday voted down a tentative deal on wages and working conditions that it reached with the company last week, the union said.  Of the 2,219 union members present for the vote, 51.8 percent cast their ballots against the deal while 47.8 percent voted in favor.Last Thursday, the company and union announced that they had struck the tentative deal after drawn-out negotiations that started in June last year.During the negotiations, the company soug

South Korea’s largest steelmaker Posco said Tuesday it plans to invest 1 trillion won ($838 million) to nurture promising domestic startups.The core aim of the project is to establish an industrial complex, called Venture Valley, for startups that will aid firms in research and development. It will also launch a startup fund, called Venture Fund, to help a slew of firms in association with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korean Venture Capital Association.Some 200 billion won will be i

South Korea’s leading commercial banks face a growing dilemma, caught between the interests of clients that generate power from coal and a global drive for coal-free financing. While their loan volume continues to grow in both the coal and renewable energy sectors, pressure is building on Korean lenders to shift their investment rules toward decarbonization.(Yonhap)According to industry data submitted to the National Assembly, the country’s four major commercial banks -- Shinhan, KB Kookmin, KEB

DAEJEON--Government officials, investors, and startup CEOs flocked to Daejeon City, the nation’s fifth-largest city, on Tuesday to participate in EXIT Daejeon 2019, a startup conference being held from Tuesday to Thursday.At Daejeon Convention Center, the main venue of the conference, fledgling startup CEOs took the stage to pitch disruptive ideas in front of a panel of judges early in the morning Tuesday.The Investor Editor-in-Chief Kim Ji-hyun (from left) and panelists -- Slush Head of VC Moaf

DAEJEON -- Slush, which first started as a small nonprofit event for startups in Finland in 2008, has grown into one of the leading events where investors, government officials and entrepreneur wannabes rub shoulders and discuss how to bring disruptive ideas to life.Andreas Saari, Slush head and CEO of Wave Ventures, the first student-run venture capital fund in the Nordic region, said market conditions in Finland have become more favorable for startups since the establishment of the startup con

Samsung Electronics Service, an after-sales subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, said Tuesday it will introduce a video consultation service for customers who experience problems. When customers contact, a text message with a link to the video system will be sent. It will connect customers with service engineers, allowing them to show problematic parts of their products directly to the engineers.  (Samsung Electronics)“The service will help customers explain better the problems they face, while sa

DAEJEON -- All eyes are on Daejeon, South Korea’s fifth-largest metropolitan city, as it moves to put together leaders of the global startup community through Exit Daejeon 2019.The three-day conference, also known as Global Startup Festival Daejeon, kicked off at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the Daejeon Convention Center, hosting some 300 participants in this city some 140 kilometers south of Seoul.“Here in Daejeon, we have a wonderful set of communities already in place with the best universities based in

S. Korean conglomerate said its three key conglomerates created W12.3tr ($10.3 billion) worth of social contribution last year

The South Korean government has been running the Accelerator Investment-Driven Tech Incubator Program for Startups, or TIPS, with public and private sector partners, to discover and nurture promising startups Startups under three years old are eligible to apply for the program led by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Each selected team is eligible to receive up to 1 billion won ($838,000) in funding, used as seed capital, research and development expenses or marketing fees.For years, the progra