South Korean stocks closed 0.7 percent higher Wednesday as signs of a recovery in the U.S. economy eased concerns over a possible recession, analysts said. The local currency rose to a fresh one-year high against the U.S. dollar.The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index rose 13.61 points to 1,955.15. Trading volume was moderate at 493.9 million shares worth 4.16 trillion won ($3.76 billion), with gainers outpacing decliners 459 to 352.“Good news from overseas markets boosted investor senti

The government will step up its efforts to protect small and mid-sized enterprises from technology leaks as related damage has continued to increase in recent years, the top economic policymaker said Wednesday.“The government will stay at the forefront to prevent SMEs from being victimized by technology leaks,” Finance Minister Bahk Jae-wan told a crisis management meeting.Bahk said such damage sustained by SMEs has been increasing every year and they remain vulnerable to such problems. He also

Pension and insurance investments held by South Korean households reached a record high in the first half as they looked for safety amid a protracted economic slump, data showed Wednesday. The amount of pension and insurance assets held by local households and non-profit organizations stood at 629.4 trillion won ($569.5 billion) as of the end of June, accounting for 26.4 percent of the 2,384.8 trillion won total, according to the data by the Bank of Korea. It is the biggest portion tallied since

HONG KONG (Yonhap News) ― AmorePacific Corp., South Korea’s No. 1 cosmetics manufacturer, plans to complete construction of its second Chinese plant in 2014 in a bid to expand its capacity in the world’s most populous country, company officials said Wednesday. The factory, currently under construction in Shanghai, will manufacture cosmetics products worth 1 trillion won ($905 million) per year when it is completed, they said.The South Korean cosmetics maker runs another factory in Shanghai, whic

The nation’s focus of policy for the robot industry will shift to commercialization from research and development, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Wednesday. The new policy direction was unveiled in the ministry’s second-round roadmap for the robot industry, titled “Future Strategy for Robot (2012-2022).”“One of the key points in the future robot policy is to support various sectors, public or private, to adopt and use robots in their daily work,’’ Kang Kam-chan, a ministry official, said

Online portals and media are gearing up for the presidential election on Dec. 19.Firms such as SK Communications and Daum recently introduced their respective websites presenting news on the presidential candidates.The National Election Commission also approved the use of the Internet and social networking services for the candidates’ election campaigns. SK Communications, which runs the online portal Nate, said Tuesday that it launched a special webpage for the 18th presidential election focusi

Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., South Korea’s leading power equipment maker, said Wednesday it has clinched a deal to build a wind farm on an island off the west coast of the country.Under the deal with the Korea South-East Power Co., a unit of the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp., Doosan Heavy will build the wind farm in a thermal power plant complex on Yeongheung Island. The wind farm, which will be able to generate up to 24 megawatts of electricity, will start commercial opera

Google Inc. was told by European Union regulators to bolster its privacy policy in a warning that may trigger a new round of clashes with data-protection watchdogs across the bloc. The company “empowers itself to collect vast amounts of personal data about Internet users” without demonstrating that this “collection was proportionate,” the privacy regulators said in a letter Monday to Chief Executive Officer Larry Page, obtained by Bloomberg News. “Google should modify its practices when combinin