Concerns persist on conglomerate monopolization, low productivity, employment inequality

Concerns are growing over the possible hollowing-out of Korea’s key manufacturing industries as local companies rush to move factories to countries with better conditions to detour anti-business policies at home and global trade friction.According to industrial sources, 97.1 percent of TV sets made by Korean electronics firms in 2017 were manufactured at overseas plants. The corresponding figures reached 93.2 percent for mobile phones, 86.9 percent for washing machines and 80.3 percent for

Bithumb, South Korea’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in trade volume, said Wednesday it would suspend transactions in user accounts after some 35 billion won ($31.6 million) worth of assets were stolen.The financial loss stemmed from “abnormal outside access” that occurred from Tuesday night until Wednesday morning, its spokesperson said.  “(Bithumb) will suspend all money deposits or withdrawals, until we secure the stability of the service,” read the

South Korean small businesses on Wednesday proposed operating an inter-Korean technology training center and inviting global companies to a joint industrial complex with North Korea to expedite cross-border economic cooperation.The Korea Federation of SMEs recommended nine South-North businesses, explained in detail in its report to the government in April, which emphasizes technological education as the first priority in pursuing cooperation with the North.  While North Korean workers have

Public institutions are hiring more people, but not those without college degrees, government statistics showed Wednesday.According to state portal All Public Information in One, 361 state-run institutions employed 22,560 people in permanent positions last year. The proportion of hires for whom high school was their highest educational attainment was 1,858, or 8.2 percent.The latest figure marks a 30.6 percent increase in overall hiring from 2013 but a drop of 7.9 percent for employment of peopl

The government will push to overhaul the evaluation process for state-invested firms so as to help improve their trustworthiness, which has been tarnished by job-related irregularities, and boost job creation, the country's chief economic policymaker said Tuesday."State firms are urged to raise their productivity and effectiveness as well and play a key role in creating and spearheading a system for innovative growth," Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said in a meeting to review state fi

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of interviews on promising startups in the financial technology industry. This is the 17th installment. -- Ed.Foreign workers in South Korea from Southeast Asia or South Asia have faced various hurdles when remitting their income here to a home country.There are language barriers in financial services offered by banks, hefty commission charges and differences in banking service environments, to name a few.Using schemes such as collateral cash pooling, cros

‘US rate hike will not lead to drastic capital outflow here’

Prosecutors have filed for arrest warrants for four officials at Samsung Securities Co. for knowingly selling bogus shares that were issued to them by the firm by mistake, a prosecution office said Tuesday. The four officials face charges of fraudulent trading, committing fraud using digital devices and embezzlement in violation of the Capital Market Act, the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office said.They will be arraigned for a review of their writs at a district court Wednesday. Pr

South Korea’s local currency fell for four consecutive trading days and breached a seven-month low against the US dollar, amid investor risk aversion and the strengthening dollar following growing fears of a US-China trade war.The dollar-to-won exchange rate came to 1,104.8 won in closing Monday, up 7.1 won compared to the previous session’s close Friday. The higher rate equals weaker won. The Korean won was the weakest in seven months since closing on Nov. 15, 2017 at 1,112.3 won ag

Calls are growing for President Moon Jae-in’s administration to readjust its income-led growth policy, which experts say has been only worsening unemployment and low-income households’ livelihoods.According to the latest data from Statistics Korea, the country’s jobless rate stood at 4 percent last month, up from 3.6 percent in May last year, when Moon took office. The figure for young people aged 15-29 rose from 9.2 percent to 10.5 percent over the cited period.The overall and

South Korea’s Woori Bank is set to apply for regulatory approval Tuesday to adopt a financial holding company structure.Following a regular board of directors’ meeting Tuesday, the bank will submit a plan for the restructuring to the Financial Services Commission, a financial regulator, according to the company. If the bank manages to earn a regulatory nod from the FSC by mid-November, the reform plan will be confirmed in the shareholders meeting at the end of this year. A new holdin

SEJONG -- The government said Monday that it will continue its efforts to realign budget spending in a way to tackle the country's chronic low birth rate, boost job creation and facilitate innovative growth."The government will focus on the three key policies by improving the country's overall budget spending scheme," Deputy Finance Minister Kim Yong-jin said in a policy meeting.Kim said government agencies are urged to actively respond to changes in policy implementation and to do mor

While South Korea’s employment indexes continued to struggle amid controversies on increased minimum wage, the job decreasing rate turned out to be the most drastic for the primary labor force age clusters in their 30s and 40s, data showed Sunday. The number of newly employed people in their 40s stood at 669.7 million in May, down 88,000 from the same period last year and marking a decline for 31 consecutive months, according to data released by Statistics Korea.This was the longest period

The increasing pace of household credit in South Korea showed little sign of abating, data showed Sunday, and the lingering debt crisis is likely to affect Korean households‘ finance amid central bank pressure for a key rate hike in tandem with the US Fed hike last week.Total credit to households as a percentage of gross domestic product came to 94.8 percent as of the fourth quarter of 2017, up 2.2 percentage points from the year prior, according to data by the Bank for International Settl