The Korea Herald

Kookmin Bank pushes for aggressive downsizing

Jan 18, 2011

Kookmin Bank is accelerating its major manpower restructuring, transferring 219 underperforming employees to an extra department designed for retraining.A certain portion of them will likely face dismissal or be pressured to quit if they fail to reach a certain level of performance within about two years, an official of the nation’s largest bank said Tuesday.The employees at the department are obl
Gangwon shares affordable housing know-how with Vietnam

Jan 18, 2011

Gangwon Province is hosting a team of Vietnamese government officials on a week-long trip here to study Korea’s housing policies for low-income earners.The program, requested by Vietnam’s Ministry of Construction, is co-organized by the International Urban Training Center, a state-run training center for policymakers in Gangwon Province and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in Vietnam
Ban calls for global clean energy revolution

Jan 18, 2011

U.N. secretary-general also addresses climate, poverty and healthABU DHABI ― Global innovation in clean energy is essential to fight climate change, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday at the 2011 World Future Energy Summit. “The prevailing fossil fuel-economy is contributing to climate change and global energy needs are growing rapidly,” he said during his keynote speech at t
Roubini sees spread of EU debt crisis as key 2011 risk

IndustryJan 18, 2011

Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist who predicted the global financial crisis, said a key risk to the world economy in 2011 is the likely spread of Europe’s debt crisis. “One of the most important risks is financial contagion in Europe if the euro zone’s problems spread, as seems likely, to Portugal, Spain and Belgium,” Roubini wrote in an article in the Australian Financial Review
Foreign investment in China rises to record

IndustryJan 18, 2011

Foreign direct investment in China rose to a record $105.7 billion last year, underscoring confidence that rising incomes will boost demand in the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Investment climbed 17.4 percent from a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement in Beijing to Tuesday. Spending in December rose 15.6 percent from a year earlier to $14 billion. Estimates of five
Singapore’s export growth slowed in Dec.

IndustryJan 18, 2011

Singapore’s exports rose at a slower pace in December, ending a year in which shipments jumped the most since 2003 as the global economic recovery boosted demand for the island’s goods. Non-oil domestic exports climbed 9.4 percent from a year earlier, after a revised 9.9 percent gain in November, the trade promotion agency said in a statement in Singapore Monday. The median forecast of 14 economis
Ssangyong to build mall in Singapore

IndustryJan 18, 2011

Ssangyong Engineering & Construction has won a 35 billion won ($31 million) deal to build a premium shopping center in Singapore, the latest boost to its growing presence in one of Asia’s hottest construction markets.The builder signed the contract with City Development Ltd., the largest property developer of Singapore, on Thursday. Ssangyong will design and construct a two-story luxury mall with
LG Display likely to swing into red in Q4 on EU fines

TechnologyJan 18, 2011

LG Display Co., the world's No. 2 supplier of liquid crystal display (LCD) panels, is likely to report a loss for the fourth quarter, industry sources said Tuesday, as a fine of 215 million euros (US$285 million) by the European Union (EU) takes a toll on its bottom line.According to the sources, the penalty will be reflected in the company's earnings for the October-December period, which are sla
Apple CEO Steve Jobs takes medical leave

IndustryJan 18, 2011

SEATTLE _ Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs, the charismatic frontman for the company that overturned the smart phone industry and invented a new category of tablet computers, is taking a second medical leave of absence in two years.In the last decade, Jobs, 55, has survived a rare but curable form of pancreatic cancer and undergone a liver transplant. The news that he will again step down from his day-to
GS Caltex closes plant on power outage

IndustryJan 17, 2011

GS Caltex Co., Korea‘s second-largest refiner, said Monday that it had shut down all of its crude distillation units and its No.1 residue fluid catalytic cracker in the southern part of the country due to power failure. Power at the Yeosu complex was cut off at 4:10 p.m. local time and resumed 23 minutes later, according to the official“The affected facilities could not restart within today, thoug
Offshore tax evasion faces crackdown

Jan 17, 2011

NTS to focus on paper companies being used to evade tax, hide moneyThe National Tax Service on Monday vowed to toughen its crackdown on offshore tax evasion by wealthy persons and large businesses as one of its priorities this year.The tax authority said it will step up curbs on borrowed-name financial transactions often used by companies to manipulate their incomes. It will also enhance the inqui
Civil servants told to don long johns

Jan 17, 2011

Korea’s civil servants have been ordered to do their public duty by switching off the heating and donning long johns as the severe cold puts a strain on power resources, officials said Monday. In an emergency energy savings plan, all ministries and state-run companies have been told to turn off the heating from 11:00 am to noon and 5:00-6:00 pm, the Knowledge Economy Ministry said. Government buil
Expert calls for tougher supervision of banks

Jan 17, 2011

Banking regulators across the globe need to introduce marco-prudential measures, including a bank levy, in a bid to enhance soundness of the economy and the financial system, an expert said Monday.“New bank capital rules called BASEL III can be considered an outcome from an agreement on micro-prudential measures. But there has been not enough agreement on macro-prudential tools so as to enhance th
Korea’s trade surplus hits record high $41.2b in 2010

Jan 17, 2011

Korea’s trade surplus reached a record high last year, aided by robust exports of semiconductors, ships and other key products, the customs office said.The country’s trade surplus reached a revised $41.2 billion in 2010, down from an earlier estimate of $41.7 billion, according to the Korea Customs Service. But the 2010 reading still marked the largest trade surplus, exceeding the previous record
Firms’ direct financing drops 10.4% in Dec.

Jan 17, 2011

Korean companies’ direct financing shrank 10.4 percent in December from a month earlier due to a drop in corporate bond sales, the financial regulator said Monday.Local firms raised a total of 9.4 trillion won ($8.4 billion) through sales of stocks and bonds last month, compared with 10.5 trillion won in November, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said in a report. The decline came due to co