South Korea’s global competitiveness in the transportation and construction service sectors remains solid despite the recent economic downturn triggered by eurozone woes and sluggish growth among many industrialized economies, a government report showed Sunday.The finance ministry said that in the nine months of this year, the surplus in the transportation industry reached $7.3 billion, up $1.2 billion from the same time period in 2010, in the latest service sector balance sheet report.It said o

South Korean shares are expected to move in a tight range this week as fiscal debt problems in Europe and the U.S. will continue to weigh on investor sentiment, analysts said.The benchmark KOSPI closed at 1,776.40, down 3.3 percent last week, marking the fourth consecutive week the index has declined.The index earlier gained ground despite the U.S. Congressional committee’s failure to identify ways to cut the budget deficit as Moody’s Investors Service said it will not downgrade the U.S. soverei

South Korea’s financial watchdog said Saturday that it has clinched a preliminary deal with its counterpart in Turkey to promote partnership between them.The Financial Services Commission said its chairman, Kim Seok-dong, has agreed with Vedat Akgiray, chairman of Capital Markets Board of Turkey, during his two-day visit to Turkey.The FSC added that the two agencies also agreed to set up branch offices in Seoul and Istanbul. The FSC said that the office will help local financial firms make inroa

Cyworld, once a social networking phenomenon in South Korea before losing ground to Facebook and Twitter, vowed to make a comeback with its redesigned global service which could fill a niche rivals have yet to exploit: users’ desire for self-expression.Earlier this month, Cyworld launched a test version of its revamped Cyworld social networking service for international users, making a second entry into the global market since shutting down its U.S. service two years ago.Armed with lessons from

Interest payments on household debt exceeded the 50 trillion won ($43 billion) mark for the first time this year as people took out more loans and coped with higher borrowing rates, financial sources said Sunday.Sources said that interest payments on debt reached around 5 percent of the gross national income that will inevitably exert negative influence on consumer spending, production and economic growth.Data from local financial institutions and the Bank of Korea showed household interest paym

DETROIT (AP) — You can‘t drive far in the U.S. without seeing a Toyota Camry, Honda Accord or Ford Fusion.Midsize sedans have been America’s favorite cars for decades. That‘s changing. More people are choosing small cars like the Chevrolet Cruze and even smaller ones like the Honda Fit because they’re worried about gas prices and car payments. There‘s another reason, too: Small cars are no longer the cramped econoboxes of the 1980s and 1990s, and they have many of the same features as larger car

South Korean futures companies saw their earnings rise 14 percent in the first half from a year earlier, helped by increased commission income and returns from derivatives investments, the financial watchdog said Sunday.The combined net profit of seven local futures firms came to 27.7 billion won ($23.8 billion) in the April-September period, compared with 24.3 billion won in the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). The companies closed their books on March 31.The

Toyota Motor Korea Co. has recalled 3,357 Lexus ES330 and RX330 vehicles for faulty power steering pulleys that can cause safety problems for drivers, the transportation ministry said Sunday.According to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, the problems in the two models can cause the power steering system to fail or suddenly make it hard to control the handling of the car.Vehicles subject to the recall were cars made by Toyota in Japan between June 1, 2004 and March 31, 2011.Fr

Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co., South Korea‘s fourth-largest builder, said Sunday that it has signed a $723 million deal to set up a thermal power plant in Nigeria.The builder said the new plant will be located 65 kilometers northwest of Port Harcourt, the largest city in the West African country, and near the large OML 58 gas treatment plant. The plant will have a power generation output of 420 megawatts with construction to be completed in 34 months.Daewoo E&C will be in charge of the e

A plan to reform the governance of state-funded research institutions by integrating 20 of them is dragging on due to opposition from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. Under a plan by the Finance Ministry, 20 of the 27 state-funded think tanks would be merged into a single institution under the control of the National Science and Technology Commission, which allocates most of the government’s research and development budget. The rest would remain under direct control of the ministries of knowle