SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – A wave of restaurant closures is sweeping across South Korea as small business owners grapple with rising inflation and escalating delivery fees. Despite government pressure to reduce commissions, the country’s leading delivery app, Baemin, announced an increase in its brokerage fees starting August 9, pushing many struggling entrepreneurs to the [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering Co. (HD KSOE) said Wednesday it has received a 219.5 billion-won (US$159 million) order to build two liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) carriers for a shipper in the Middle East. The two LPG ships will be built at the shipyard of HD Hyundai Mipo [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Korea Bizwire) – In a move to strike a balance between corporate expansion and small business protection, South Korea has announced changes to regulations governing bakery chains. The new rules, set to take effect this month, will allow major bakery companies to open more stores while slightly relaxing distance restrictions from smaller, independent [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 7 (Korea Bizwire) — The government will push to shorten the period of payment settlement for e-commerce platforms to their vendors and require that companies separately manage funds needed for payments in an effort to prevent a recurrence of the crisis involving Qoo10-owned marketplaces, the finance ministry said Wednesday. They are part of [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 5 (Korea Bizwire) — The industry ministry said Monday it has launched a shipbuilding training center in Indonesia to provide training programs for Indonesian workers seeking job opportunities in South Korea. The center, located in Serang, 78 kilometers west of Jakarta, will train around 30 to 40 workers for a three-month period, offering [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Korea Bizwire) – China has once again become the leading destination for South Korean products in the first seven months of this year, driven by increasing demand for semiconductors, data showed Sunday. Exports to China surged 14.9 percent year-on-year to $11.4 billion in July, marking the highest monthly total in nearly two [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 4 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s exports of kimchi hit a fresh record high in the first half of this year, driven by the growing global popularity of Korean cuisine, particularly in North America and Europe, data showed Sunday. Outbound shipments of kimchi, a traditional Korean side dish typically made from fermented cabbage, [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – The opening of a premium coffee shop in Seoul’s upscale Cheongdam-dong district has ignited controversy over luxury pricing in a time of high inflation, highlighting the growing economic disparities in South Korean society. Lotte Department Store introduced Bacha Coffee, a Moroccan luxury coffee brand, to South Korea on August 1. The [...]
SEJONG, Aug. 2 (Korea Bizwire) – In a significant shift in consumer behavior, South Korea’s overseas direct purchases, commonly known as “jikgu,” surpassed 2 trillion won in the second quarter of this year. This milestone, reached for the first time since record-keeping began in 2014, was largely driven by a dramatic increase in purchases from China. [...]
CHANGWON, Aug. 1 (Korea Bizwire) – In the sweltering heat of a late July morning, Kim Young-bong wiped sweat from his brow as he tended to his herd of 270 Korean native cattle, known as hanwoo, in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province. “Raising cattle is absolutely miserable right now,” Kim, 61, lamented. “We can’t even get fair [...]