South Korea's top 10 business groups held real estate worth nearly 31 trillion won (US$30.4 billion) in the three Gangnam districts of southern Seoul, data showed Tuesday, with Samsung Group listed as the richest property holder there.Samsung held property worth 12.68 trillion won in the area to take up more than a third of the assets held by the top players, the data compiled by market tracker Chaebul.com showed. It held 44 plots of land and 20 buildings, including its headquarters located near

South Korea's public organizations were ordered to pay about 230 billion won (US$226 million) in additional taxes last year as a result of tax audits, government data showed Tuesday.According to the data provided by the National Tax Service (NTS), public firms and other state-run institutes which received tax audits last year were ordered to pay 230.4 billion won in additional taxes.The amount is much larger than the 59.6 billion won from a year earlier. It also marked the largest amount since 2

South Korea's service industry has rapidly increased sales and employment over the last five years, outperforming the manufacturing sectors, data showed Monday. The number of workers employed by 330 listed companies in the seven service sectors jumped 46.5 percent to 274,766 last year, up from 197,505 in 2009, according to data compiled by Chaebul.com, which tracks the nation's big business groups.The government pledged last week to nurture the seven service areas -- health, medical, tourism, ed

Local firms spent more than 9 trillion won (US$8.8 billion) last year on business-related entertainment, government data showed Monday, indicating they continued to spend heavily to treat clients despite the slumping economy.According to the National Tax Service, the firms are estimated to have spent more than 9 trillion won last year on entertainment expenses, which refer to those covering meals, drinks and other treats aimed at facilitating business deals. The estimate is larger than the 8.77

"Sin stocks" of tobacco, alcohol and gambling companies have gained recently on hopes of bigger dividends after the administration's new economic team introduced measures to induce companies to pay higher returns to investors in a bid to revitalize the sluggish economy, data showed Wednesday. According to market researcher FnGuide, six "sin stocks" related to tobacco, alcohol or gambling rose an average of 7.71 percent over a two-month period since June 13 when Choi Kyung-hwan, a ruling party le

South Korea’s exports of farm products jumped 11 percent from a year earlier in July on growing shipments to major markets, including China and the United States, the government said Tuesday. Outbound shipments of farm products, including processed food and agricultural goods, came to $526 million last month, compared with $473.7 million in July 2013, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. The increase was attributed to growing demand for South Korean food in nearly al

South Korea will develop 10,000 new small and medium-sized exporters by 2017 as a way of enlarging its overall exports and boost electronic trade by more than 10-fold, the trade ministry announced Tuesday.In its report to the trade-investment promotion commission chaired by President Park Geun-hye in Seoul, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said it plans to increase the number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) involved in exporting by 10,000 to total 100,000 by 2017. To suppo

The South Korean government said Tuesday it will build more cable cars and resorts to help boost tourism in forests and mountain areas as it unveiled a set of measures to invigorate the country's trade and investment. South Korea has yet to explore and develop the mountain tourism industry, an area that the business community says has much growth potential. According to the business lobby group Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), a poll last year said hiking was the second most popular sports

South Korea will allow wider fluctuation in daily stock prices in an attempt to give the dulled local equity market a much-needed boost and strengthen the autonomy in price-setting, the country's financial regulator said Tuesday.South Korea currently limits daily price changes to 15 percent, a rule that has been in place for nearly 16 years despite the growth in the size of the bourse and market cap."We will expand the daily price limit to some extent, for example, 30 percent, in order to beef u

South Korea will lower regulations for building integrated resorts incorporating a wide range of tourist contents with gaming facilities to help boost its economy and tourism industry, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said Tuesday. In a meeting of the trade and investment promotion committee presided over by President Park Geun-hye, the tourism ministry said it will support mega resort projects under way on Yeongjong Island, the nation's main gateway, and the southern resort island of

South Korea on Tuesday announced measures to boost its food exports by developing new products suited for different markets as part of a greater effort to boost overall outgoing trade.Under the measures announced at a meeting of trade and investment promotion committee in Seoul, the Ministry of Fisheries and Oceans and the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs said in a joint report that they will initially focus on increasing exports of processed foodstuffs."The government seeks to fi

South Korea will support the launch of for-profit foreign hospitals on Jeju Island and other free economic areas in a bid to induce foreign investment in promising service sectors, the government said Tuesday.The current daily stock price limit will be eased "in phases," and a master plan will be drawn up by the end of this year to encourage the construction of world-class resort complex facilities, it said.These steps were included in a list of deregulations and plans unveiled by the government

The following are key features of the measures that the government unveiled Tuesday to boost trade and investment. They are focused on easing regulations and removing road blocks that hamper investment in service sectors. - Provides support for the opening of for-profit foreign hospitals on Jeju Island and in free economic zones- Expands the daily stock price change limit from 15 percent to 30 percent- Establishes technology credit bureaus (TCBs) and a tech database (TDB)- Creates 3 trillion won

South Korea's economic growth is forecast to weaken if the Iraq crisis rapidly worsens, a report showed Sunday, raising concerns the geopolitical risk may burden Asia's fourth-largest economy, which is already struggling to prop up tepid consumption.The country's gross domestic product (GDP) may fall as much as 0.08 percentage point this year if the ongoing insurgency worsens to the level in 2008 when Iran threatened to seal off the Strait of Hormuz, according to the report by the Hyundai Resear