Korea Electric Power Corp. said Friday that it will invest 8 trillion won ($7.2 billion) in smart grids until 2030. A smart grid is a new electric transmission system that allows two-way communication, as well as trade, between suppliers and consumers. KEPCO will spend 400 billion won a year for the next five years to improve facilities for the supply and distribution of electricity, the company s

Korea‘s severest foot-and-mouth disease outbreak is expected to come under control by early March as nationwide vaccination efforts take effect, a senior policymaker said Friday.In a radio interview with a local broadcaster, Farm Minister Yoo Jeong-bok said the number of FMD cases has started to fall off in recent weeks after the first round of nationwide vaccinations have been completed on all ca

POSCO, the world’s third-biggest steelmaker by output, and its units raised their cost-cutting target for this year by 20 percent to sustain profits amid rising iron ore and coal prices.The group aims to cut overall costs by 2.4 trillion won ($2.2 billion) this year from a previous target of 2 trillion won in an effort to “Improve competitiveness,” Chung Jae-woong, a spokesman for Pohang, Korea-ba

   South Korean stocks ended 1.82 percent higher Friday as investors hunted for bargains following recent bearish trading, analysts said. The local currency gathered ground against the U.S. dollar.   The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) advanced 35.92 points to 2,013.14, ending above the 2,000-point level for the first time in three sessions. Trading volume was heavy at 488.9 mi

  A free trade pact between South Korea and the EU will bring great economic benefit to both sides, and break ground for the consolidation of the two markets, an EU diplomat said Friday.      On Thursday, the European Parliament approved the free trade pact with South Korea, bringing it one step closer to coming into force this July. Seoul and Brussels signed their bilateral free trade agreement (

 The European Parliament approved a free trade pact with South Korea on Thursday, bringing it one step closer to coming into force this July, diplomatic sources said.   The trade accord, adopted in Strasbourg, France, during the European Parliament's plenary session, is the most ambitious free trade pact the European Union (EU) has so far negotiated, and the first of its kind with an Asian country

Korea’s population mobility fell in 2010 as people were discouraged from moving amid slumping property market conditions, a government report showed Thursday.According to the report by Statistics Korea, a total of 8.23 million people changed their legal residence last year, down 3.1 percent from a year earlier. This marked the fourth consecutive year with less movement since 2007 when the mobility

The bid for Brazil’s planned $20 billion bullet train venture slated for April is shaping up to be a three-way race between South Korea, Japan and Europe, a Seoul official said Thursday.The head of the Latin American country’s transport regulator ANTT Bernardo Figueiredo said this week that at least three consortia will be competing for the right to build and run a high-speed railway in country. C

The government faces an uphill battle to legislate tax benefits for Islamic bond investors at a parliamentary session starting Friday amid sturdy objections from opposition politicians and churches.The Finance Ministry is pushing for a bill on Islamic bonds, or sukuk, that would grant tax exemption on profits earned by bondholders in a bid to widen Korea’s access to increasing Middle Eastern oil m

Asian Development Bank appointed Korea’s former financial regulator Rhee Chang-yong as its new chief economist, the bank said Thursday.Rhee, a Korean national, was the vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission and chairman of the Securities & Futures Commission, and has over 20 years experience as an economist, financial advisor and academic, according to the bank. (Bloomberg)