Following is the fourth in a series of stories featuring economic issues facing the Park Geun-hye government that was inaugurated on Feb. 25. ― Ed.Two days after the launch of the Park Geun-hye administration on Feb. 25, the National Tax Service began an investigation into 66 fake oil manufacturers and distributors charged with tax evasion, as part of efforts to implement one of the new government’s top agenda items ― bringing the shadow economy to light. Tax evasion in the fake oil market, in w

This is the third in a series of case studies on the nation’s leading state-run companies which have made success stories overseas. ― Ed.The state-run Korea National Oil Corp., or KNOC, is expected to shift its gears to quality-driven growth this year from external expansion through M&A deals to become a globally competitive energy giant, KNOC officials said. Under the initiative of the previous government to cultivate state-run energy development companies as global players, which was set in Ju

The inauguration of Korea’s new government may rev up cooperation between Korea and Russia, particularly in the energy field. President-elect Park Geun-hye, who is to take office on Monday, earlier pledged to stabilize domestic energy supplies and to achieve a logistics network covering Eurasia.Eying such potential, En+ Group, a Russia-based diversified mining, metals and energy group, is poised to seek more energy-related cooperation with Korea, including a cross-border electricity supply proje

The nation’s clean energy businesses are going downhill, squeezed by a slump in domestic demand and exports, according to a report.The report released by the Renewable Energy Center under Korea Export-Import Bank forecast that sales of the local renewable energy industry were expected to post minus growth this year over 2012, mainly due to slow local demand. Sales in the clean energy industry have shown a downward trend for two consecutive years in 2011 and 2012, after peaking in 2010 at 8.1 tri

State-run energy companies have launched a project to support faltering local shipping and shipbuilding companies by placing orders for coal import deliveries and shipbuilding. On Thursday, five power generation subsidiaries of the Korea Electric Power Corp., including Korea Midland Power and Korean Southern Power, signed an 18-year contact with four local shipping companies for the delivery of their coal imports, the energy source to fuel thermal power plants nationwide.The shipping companies a

Chung Kwang-mo, chairwoman of the Consumers Union of Korea, died in Seoul on Wednesday after a life devoted to improving consumer rights. She was 84.Chung, born in 1929 in Seoul, started her career at the Pyeonghwa Daily as a journalist in 1951 after graduating from Ewha Womans University and later worked at the Seoul Daily and Hankook Ilbo. She then shifted her career to consumer rights activism, creating the Consumers Union of Korea, the nation’s first private organization for consumer rights