High-ranking officials, politicians and scholars from several Southeast Asian nations recently gathered in Hanoi to attend a workshop on economic partnership between Korea and the region. Some of them proposed that cooperation with Korea go beyond industrial and financial sectors to cover climate change, population aging and the environment.The workshop, hosted by the Korea Development Institute, a state-funded think tank in Seoul, was part of a series of consultations with a group of developing

The Benigno Aquino administration’s flagship Public-Private Partnership (PPP) programme took a big leap forward last week with the approval of 407 billion pesos ($9.7 billion) worth of infrastructure projects that will address flooding in Metro Manila, improve access to the provinces and deal with the transportation problem in the metropolis.Topping the list of projects approved by the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Board chaired by President Aquino is the 35-billion peso flo

It is essential that the candidates in the upcoming Democratic Party of Japan presidential election review the DPJ’s past three years in power and hold a responsible policy debate to rehabilitate the party and restore public trust.Official campaigning for the DPJ presidential election began Monday. Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda; former Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu; former Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Kazuhiro Haraguchi; and former farm minister M

Economic democratization is one of the three campaign keywords for Park Geun-hye, the presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party. But the party still remains sharply divided over how to implement the elusive concept.Thus far, the party’s task force on economic democratization has put forward four bills to curb chaebol’s abuse of their economic power.The first proposal zeroes in on the court practice of granting suspended sentences to chaebol chairmen who have committed crimes, while the

Korea is widely recognized as a powerhouse in many high-tech manufacturing fields, including IT, automobiles and shipbuilding. Each year, Korea posts a large surplus in manufacturing trade. Yet a recent OECD report has given Korea a painful reality check about its technological competitiveness. In 2010, Korea earned $3.35 billion through technology exports. But its technology import bill was three times larger than that ― $10.2 billion. As a result, Korea posted a deficit of $6.9 billion in tech

The world has many trouble spots that have long posed a risk to peace and stability ― the Persian Gulf, Israel and its neighbors, and the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, to name the most obvious. One looming danger is far from the usual arc of crisis. It’s the South China Sea, where territorial disputes and national ambitions are heightening tension and posing a small but not insignificant risk of escalation.China has long been at odds with many of its neighbors over various islands in these waters

Does anyone own the rectangle? Should anyone own the rectangle?These questions may sound absurd, but they’re at the heart of U.S. patent law’s Battle of the Titans: Apple vs. Samsung. On Aug. 24, a San Jose, California, jury awarded Apple Inc. a whopping $1.05 billion in damages. Apple had accused Samsung of copying its intellectual property, including its very broad design patents for rectangular “electronic devices.” And Apple wants to use those patents to stop its competitor from selling item

China’s surreal and uneasy relationship with Hong Kong is a story you just have to love. The latest chapter: the mainland government’s campaign to force-feed “patriotic education” to Hong Kong’s students, extolling the genius of the Communist Party and all it has done for China and humanity. That mind-numbing phrase evokes a wealth of literary ― not to mention rock ‘n’ roll ― references that parents, teachers and students rallied around as the school year started. Hong Kong wisely heeded public

The administration has come up with cosmetic tax cuts and other supposedly stimulus measures to prop up the sagging economy. By taking these measures, it apparently hopes to show the ruling party that it has done what little it can.Under pressure from the Saenuri Party to give the listless economy a shot in the arm, the administration has decided to halve tax rates on the acquisition of homes until year-end ― to 1 percent on homes priced 900 million won or less and 2 percent on the amount in exc

Korean presidential elections have basically been races between the ruling and main opposition parties in the past. Third-party candidates, if they have made it to the finish line, have been little better than spoilers. Yet, the routes to a two-way competition have often been convoluted, as witnessed during the run-up to the 1997 and 2002 elections.In his fight against a formidable conservative rival, the liberal candidate Kim Dae-jung won the support of a lesser conservative candidate, Kim Jong

On Monday (Sept. 10), the training wheels came off in Kosovo. That’s the day the international community officially ended its oversight of our country and turns full responsibility for the courts, the constitution, the parliament ― everything ― over to the people of Kosovo and their elected leaders. This is a huge milestone on our journey to becoming Europe’s newest nation ― and a multi-ethnic, free-market democracy.Emerging after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia and enduring war, genocide a