Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. formed a partnership with the mobile telecom service provider Vodafone to collaborate in telematics and related fields, the South Korean carmakers announced on Monday.Based in London, Vodafone is the world’s largest mobile telecom service provider in terms of revenue.Telematics, which combines telecommunications with informatics, is applied to a range of onbo

   WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is working hard to clear the pending free trade deal with South Korea through Congress this spring so as not to lag behind the European Union, which ratified a similar deal with Seoul set to take effect in July, the chief U.S. trade official has said.   "The EU-Korea trade agreement is scheduled to take effect on July 1 of this year," U.S. Trade Representa

LG Electronics, Korea’s leading consumer electronics manufacturer, said Sunday that it plans to start a business-to-business energy consulting service next month as a new source of income.The business will involve analyzing energy flows, including heating and air conditioning in office buildings and providing solutions for energy saving. LG’s initiative reflects the group’s efforts to secure futur

BEIJING (AP) ― China’s leadership is promising to steer the economy in a new direction in its blueprint for the next five years that would empower consumers and narrow a yawning wealth gap but require politically contentious reforms.The latest Five-Year Plan ― a throwback to central planning but a useful roadmap of party goals ― calls for creating self-sustaining growth based on domestic consumpti

Korea will expand the amount of powdered milk and frozen pork belly subject to no import taxes as part of efforts to ease price hikes sparked by the massive slaughter of livestock amid the spreading foot-and-mouth disease, the finance ministry said Monday.The measure, finalized during a Cabinet meeting held earlier in the day, will go into effect from early March under the government’s quota tarif

Korea’s recent failure to legislate tax benefits for sukuk, or Islamic bonds, is seen to begin taking a toll on the country’s access to one of the world’s fastest growing financial sources. The Malaysian government is said to have declined requests by Korean companies to grant issuance of corporate bonds in the country, spurring concerns that it may be the first reaction to Korea’s reluctance to g

The Financial Services Commission is expected to approve Hana Financial Group’s takeover of Korea Exchange Bank in March, an official said on Monday. “There seems to be no major problem with its funding plans,” said an FSC official.He said the regulatory body is likely to approve Hana’s request at a meeting on March 16. His remark came after several securities firms raised the possibility that Han

LG Electronics said Monday it will hire 1,100 new employees for the first half of this year, up 83 percent from the number recruited during the same period last year.The world’s No. 3 handset maker said that 80 percent of its newly hired workforce in four different business units will be involved in research and development activities.The company will also employ more software developers so that t

Ssangyong Motors Co. on Friday posted net profits of 8.1 billion won ($7.2 million) for 2010, marking a return to profit after two years in the red.The company, which recorded net loss of 346 billion won in 2009 and 710 billion won in 2008, said that rising sales and cost-cutting efforts allowed it to return to profit.Last year, the company’s domestic and overseas sales increased by 131.6 percent

Fujifilm Holdings Corp. agreed to buy Merck & Co.’s BioManufacturing Network for making supplies used in clinical studies of biological drugs, a Merck spokesman said in an interview.The network Fujifilm is acquiring is made up of Merck subsidiaries Diosynth RTP LLC in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and MSD Biologics (U.K.) Ltd. in Billingham, England, Ian McConnell, a spokesman for Whiteh