South Korea’s iconic community development movement ― Saemaul Undong ― is to be expanded to developing countries in a joint effort with the International Fund for Agricultural Development, according to a top banker on Tuesday. “The global spread of the Saemaul Movement in partnership with the IFAD is very meaningful for South Korea, the only nation to have transformed into an aid donor from a recipient,” Seop Shim, senior executive director of Korea Eximbank, told The Korea Herald at the bank’s

Chinese tourists are expected to spend over 30 trillion won ($29 billion) in the domestic market in 2020, according to industry data. According to a report published by Hana Daetoo Securities, the number of Chinese tourists in South Korea will reach 15 million by 2020 based on an annual average growth rate of 20 percent. They are predicted to spend around 30 trillion won in that year to record a five-fold increase from last year’s 6 trillion won. The 30-trillion-won figure corresponds to around

The Myanmarese economic deputy minister is expected to meet with Lotte Group’s vice chairman Lee In-won in early September when he visits here. The two are expected to discuss business opportunities centering on calls from Myanmar to Lotte to invest more in Myanmar’s food and hotel businesses, according to industry sources. Lee Jae-hyuk, chief executive of Lotte Chilsung Beverage, a unit of Lotte Group, will also reportedly accompany the Lotte vice chairman to the meeting. “We believe Myanmar’s

South Korea aims to bolster its forest partnership with Central Asia by sharing its forest expertise and boosting cooperation in restoring the region’s damaged forest ecosystem, the national forestry chief said.“Central Asia is becoming an important region to South Korea as a growing number of Korean companies have been making inroads into the countries, which have abundant natural resources and high growth potential,” said Shin Won-sop, minister of the Korea Forest Service, in an interview with

A former CEO of LIG Insurance is expected to become the new head of the General Insurance Association of Korea, according to industry sources Thursday. The sources said that one of the two candidates selected by the nomination committee ― Kim Woo-Jin, former vice chairman of LIG Insurance ― stepped down, leaving only Jang Nam-sik, former chief executive of LIG Insurance in the race.Jang holds a bachelor’s degree in social science from Seoul National University. He has worked for LIG Insurance fo

Global agricultural leaders and professionals are to gather next month at the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage Congress hosted by South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and the Korea Rural Community Corporation. The ICID Congress ― the largest international conference on irrigation and drainage ― will bring together up to 1,200 government officials and specialists from 60 countries who will share their knowledge and research in Gwangju from Sept. 14-20.

KB Financial Group, the nation’s largest financial group, expects its persistent efforts toward business diversification to help it overcome a recent crisis involving extensive data leaks. The diversification scheme is mainly focused on weaning the group off its traditional banking businesses to branch out into non-banking sectors, such as insurance and loan brokering.One example is its launch of KB Capital in March, following its acquisition of Woori Financial.Only five months in, KB Capital ha