China is well known for its fakes, but the economic giant has unveiled plans to take imitations to a whole new level. The latest plan is to copy an entire European town.Chinese real estate company China Minmetal Corp has started a project to recreate the Austrian city of Hallstatt in Huizhou. A total of $900 million is to be invested in the project.Included on the UNESCO World Heritage list for it

A majority of Korean retailers are optimistic about business conditions in the third quarter of the year on hopes of a rise in their sales during the summer holiday season, a poll showed Tuesday. The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry said its retail business index fell slightly to 119 for the July-September period from 125 for the second quarter, but it was well above the benchmark level. A r

The number of air passengers taking international flights in and out of South Korea grew about 2 percent in May from a year earlier as more holidays bolstered overseas travel, the Transportation Ministry said Tuesday.Air passengers on international flights totaled 3.32 million last month, up 2.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affa

Conglomerate denies reports on selling SK Securities to SK C&CSK Group remains undecided despite the fast-approaching deadline for complying with fair trade laws dictating that the group divest itself of stakes in SK Securities Co.On Tuesday, the group denied a Yonhap News Agency report that it had decided to sell SK Securities shares to the IT services provider SK C&C if the revised bill is not p

LG Electronics said on Tuesday it would roll out the world’s fastest A4 color desktop printer, able to print up to 60 pages per minute, this month.In a press conference held in downtown Seoul, the global electronics giant said it joined hands with global player Memjet to release the product “Machjet LPP6010N” in the local market.The event comes as LG Electronics is putting more weight on the print

Samsung Everland Inc. on Tuesday said its theme park “Everland” was ranked among the global top 10 of such facilities for a fifth straight year in 2010. Everland stood at 10th place, with 6.88 million visitors according to recent figures from the Themed Entertainment Association. Everland has been included in the list of top 10 theme parks since 2006, the Seoul-based company said. In the category

Hyundai Motor is enjoying rapid sales growth in India, capturing nearly 20 percent of the emerging market in May. The automaker sold 31,123 vehicles last month, up 14.6 percent from a year ago. Its market in India has reached 19.5 percent, raising the possibility of sales growth for 13 consecutive years.The figure is the highest monthly market share for this year, rising 0.2 percentage points from

Korea and Japan’s bourse operators are considering cross-trading as part of efforts to strengthen their footing amid rising competition among global exchanges, an official said Tuesday.The Korea Exchange and the Tokyo Stock Exchange held the first round of working-level talks on the issue late last month, according to a ranking official at the Korea Exchange.“No concrete plan has materialized yet,

The Financial Supervisory Service is poised to decide whether to order stern disciplinary measures against the CEO of Hyundai Capital for incurring cyber attacks due to allegedly negligent internal controls.As officials of the regulatory body move to fine-tune the sanction level on Hyundai Capital CEO Ted Chung, he could be banned from holding a job in the financial industry for the next few years

The number of Koreans aged 100 or more has almost doubled since 2005 under the country’s improved medical services, Statistics Korea said Tuesday.The number of centenarians numbered 1,836 in November, posting a 9.1 percent increase from 961 in 2005, the state agency reported in its census report compiled every five years.The number of females in the group, 1,580, exceeded their male counterparts,

Creditors of Daewoo Electronics Corp. are seeking to sell the third-largest electronics firm in Korea to a Swedish company following their failed sale efforts with the initial preferred bidder from Iran, sources said Tuesday.Creditors including Korea Asset Management Corp. sealed a contract in last November with Iranian electronics firm Entekhab Industrial Group to sell their combined 97.5 percent

Korea’s overall corporate profitability worsened in the first quarter from a year ago as oil costs rose and the local currency’s gain dented prices of export goods, the central bank said Tuesday.The average ratio of operating profit to sales, a key barometer of profitability, reached 6.3 percent in the January-March period, down from 7.2 percent from a year earlier, the Bank of Korea said in a rep

Charges on imports dropped on shortage items as prices soarThe government plans to extend tariff cuts for 35 out of 46 items due to expire this month and add 14 more items to the list to ease import cost burdens on local consumers, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.Under the plan, items such as pork, garlic, mackerel, wheat, soybean oil, sugar, and coffee will continue to enjoy lower tariffs. The