SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — Major South Korean firms’ spending on research and development (R&D) expanded more than 8 percent in 2021 though their sales weakened amid the coronavirus pandemic, a market tracker said Wednesday. Combined R&D expenditures by 224 out of the country’s top 500 companies by sales stood at 60.4 trillion won [...]
SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — About a half of foreigners have the intention to travel to South Korea within the next three years, a survey showed Tuesday. The Korea Tourism Organization conducted a survey twice last year of about 30,000 foreigners over 15 years of age residing in 21 countries. Among them, 19.4 percent [...]
SEOUL, April 27 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea has opened the way for municipal governments to beef up the number of local public servants in case national disasters like COVID-19 pandemic occur. According to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on Tuesday, the government held a Cabinet meeting and passed a partial revision of [...]
SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s imported electric vehicle (EV) market, once dominated by Tesla Inc., is now facing fierce competition with European brands releasing new models. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA) reported that a total of 5,278 units of imported EV [...]
SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The country’s first joint branch shared by two different banks has opened in Gyeonggi Province. Hana Bank and Woori Bank announced that their joint branch began operation in Suji District, Yongin on Monday, the first of its kind in the banking industry. The two banks’ separate branches that used [...]
SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korean refiners posted the biggest quarterly growth in exports of their petroleum products in the first quarter from a year earlier, driven by robust fuel demand and rising oil prices amid eased COVID-19 border controls, a report showed Tuesday. The combined outbound shipments of petroleum products by SK [...]
SEOUL, April 26 (Korea Bizwire) — Labelless mineral water bottles, first released in 2020, are gradually expanding their presence in the water bottle market. According to Lotte Mart, a discount store chain operated by retailer Lotte Group, labelless products grabbed a share of 62 percent in total sales of water bottles. Labelless water bottles overtook [...]
SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of South Korean workers who took parental leave in 2021 decreased year-on-year for the first time since the system was introduced in 2001, government data showed Monday. A total of 110,555 workers took time off to take care of their children last year, down 1.3 percent from [...]
SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) — A WeChat chatroom for apartment residents in Shanghai’s southwestern district of Minhang was recently filled with words of appreciation to their “Korean neighbors.” The incident came after South Korean food producer Pulmuone Co. gave out free tofu to thousands of households in this apartment complex stricken by a month-long [...]
SEOUL, April 25 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul Metropolitan Government said Sunday it will offer a free animal insurance policy for 12 months to those who adopt an abandoned animal. Anyone who adopts an abandoned animal through 13 designated public agencies and institutions and registers the animal with their local government will be eligible for [...]