SEOUL, March 17 (Korea Bizwire) – Hundreds of South Korean diplomats and business officials gathered at a hotel Thursday to explore new markets overseas amid the lifting of sanctions on Iran and the effectuation of a bilateral free trade pact with China, the Foreign Ministry said. The annual session brings together South Korean ambassadors and other chiefs [...]
SEOUL, March 15 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korean conglomerates are considering revealing their key management decisions and other information in English to better communicate with foreign investors and help with their investment decisions, industry sources said Tuesday. On Monday, the Korea Exchange (KRX) said it will ask some 170 companies listed on the country’s main bourse, [...]
SEOUL, March 15 (Korea Bizwire) – The average amount of debt that Koreans are declaring when applying for personal bankruptcy is getting lower and lower. The phenomenon indicates that many are having difficulties handling even low debt levels without depending on protection offered by bankruptcy. The Korea Legal Aid Corporation analyzed personal bankruptcy data between 2012 [...]
SEOUL, March 7 (Korea Bizwire) – After suffering record losses last year, South Korean shipbuilders may have to brace for yet another tough year based on a prolonged global slump stemming from low oil prices and tougher competition with Chinese rivals, sources said Monday. The nation’s big three shipyards — Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Daewoo [...]
SEOUL, March 4 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s policy lender Korea Development Bank (KDB) has established a partnership with an asset management affiliate of the World Bank Group to jointly develop new investment opportunities in Asia, the bank said Friday. A memorandum of understanding for a business partnership between the KDB and the International Financial [...]
SEOUL, March 3 (Korea Bizwire) – Data shows that the top 100 Korean companies in terms of market capitalization have undergone a rapid change in business sectors over the past 10 years. The rankings reflect a shift from industrial businesses such as construction and shipbuilding to ‘non-smokestack’ industries such as service and distribution. On the [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) – The gap between South Korea’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita and that of Japan narrowed in 2015, mainly due to Asia’s No. 2 economy continuing to wrestle with a prolonged slump, a report by a local economic think tank showed Tuesday. South Korea’s GDP, which came to US$27,226 in 2015, is equal to 84percent of the $32,432 posted by Japan, data compiled [...]
SEOUL, March 2 (Korea Bizwire) – The wage gap between South Korea’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and conglomerates expanded on-year in 2015, data showed Tuesday, reflecting the growing imbalance in compensation among salaried workers. According to the data compiled by the Ministry of Employment and Labor and Statistics Korea, employees at smaller companies only made 62 percent of [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 29 (Korea Bizwire) – The number of college graduates outside the labor force has more than doubled over the past 15 years due to a rise in those who gave up looking for jobs amid a prolonged economic slump, government data showed Monday. South Korean college graduates who are neither employed nor unemployed [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 25 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea and France will hold a variety of events this year to boost mutual exchange and cooperation between venture startups in their countries, marking the 130th anniversary of their diplomatic establishment. The French Embassy in Seoul said Thursday that a French support center for startup companies called “French [...]