Abundant new supply in Seoul’s central business district has continued to perpetuate a tenants’ market in 2012. Tenants have kept control of the office rental market as the CBD experienced a record high vacancy rate and landlords were pressured to reduce rents. Approximately 1.35 million square meters of new prime and grade A office space will be added to the market by 2016. Most of this new space will be located in the CBD and Yeouido, and should drive vacancies up in these areas. Compared to t

Big conglomerates will increase salaries for new employees in the latter half of this year while most small or mid-cap companies plan to maintain the same level as before. The average annual salary of new employees to be hired in the latter half this year will be increased by 5 percent compared to the same period last year, according to Job Korea, an online job search portal. The job portal researched 206 companies that plan to hire four-year-university graduates as new employees within the year

The Asian Forest Cooperation Organization, or AFoCO, was inaugurated last week, becoming the first organization in the region to deal with cooperation among member nations on issues related to forestry.The inauguration was made after the Governing Council held the first board session dealing with the agreement on cooperation in the field of forestry in Seoul last week.The council endorsed the proposal to establish the secretariat of AFoCO and regulations on how to operate the administrative grou

Following is an open letter from President Lester R. Brown of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute to Korea Forest Service Minister Lee Don-koo about the meeting of forestry ministers from Korea and ASEAN member states in Seoul last week. ―Ed. Dear Minister Lee Don-koo:My congratulations to you for arranging the Agreement between the ASEAN Member States and the Republic of Korea on Forestry Cooperation, the first ever intergovernmental commitment to sustainable forest  management in Asia.

Experts and government officials hailed the Seoul meeting of forestry ministers from Asia as a milestone in cooperating on forestry in the region. Forestry ministers from Korea and member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nation, or ASEAN, congregated in Seoul to participate in the Special Korea-ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Forestry, where the Seoul Declaration was adopted last week. The two-day international conference voiced each nation’s cooperative support for forestry maintena

  Abercrombie & Fitch was a brand that was hugely popular in the 2000s, with its skin-baring ads appealing to teenagers while infuriating parents. Now, however, Abercrombie is not attracting the crowds like it used to, according to news reports.The retailer has lost one-third of its market value in the past fiscal year with sales falling in the U.S. and Europe and has closed down 71 U.S. stores. It is expecting to close another 180 by 2015. Even while the brand remains relatively popular oversea

The number of women who gave birth in their 40s or older has almost doubled over the past decade, according to a government report on Monday.Mothers in their 40s and 50s gave birth to over 10,600 babies last year, according to Statistics Korea. The figure is the largest-ever since 1981. Even taking into account twins, at least more than 10,000 mothers older than 40 gave birth last year, said the government agency. The number of these older mothers has been increasing for six consecutive years. I

Facebook Inc.’s struggle continues with no end in sight, especially after its stock prices hit a record low and marketers expressed skepticism whether Facebook ads were really working.Shares of the world’s largest social network operator plummeted 5.4 percent to close at $18.06 in New York on Friday, the lowest amount since it went public on May 17 with $38 per share.The fall of the company’s stock to half of its initial value is a shameful outcome, while its earlier projection of stock prices w