KITA chief at EUCCK monthly luncheon

Korea International Trade Association chairman Han Duck-soo will speak about Korea’s FTA policies and their effect on business at a luncheon Thursday organized by the European Union Chamber of Commerce.Before being appointed KITA chief, Han served as prime minister and ambassador to the United States.The luncheon will be held at the Grand Hyatt hotel. The cost is 65,000 won for members and 80,000 won for non-members. For more information, visit www.eucck.org.

April 30, 2012

Microsoft, LGE may hold talks on smartphones

Steve Ballmer is highly likely to meet Koo Bon-joon during visit to Seoul this month: sources　Eyes are on the possibility of Microsoft’s chief executive Steve Ballmer holding a meeting with the chief of LG Electronics, as the U.S. software giant chief is expected to visit Seoul this month.Industry sources said Ballmer is likely to engage in business meetings with local industry representatives, in

IndustryApril 30, 2012

Girls happy with bodies less depressed

Teen girls happy with the size and shape of their bodies report higher levels of self-esteem, U.S. researchers said. Kerri Boutelle, associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, said the study involved 103 overweight adolescents surveyed between 2004 and 2006. The girls were assessed for body satisfaction, weight-control behavior,

TechnologyApril 30, 2012

Doctors opt to deny treatment for smokers and obese: survey

More than half of doctors think that the National Health Service has the right to deny the obese or smokers non-emergency treatment, a recent study showed.The survey conducted by Doctors.net.uk, a professional networking site, found that 593 (54 percent) of the 1,096 doctors who responded answered “yes” to the question, “Should the NHS be allowed to refuse non-emergency treatment to patients unles

TechnologyApril 30, 2012

Vaccine institute seeks to resume operations in N.K.

The new head of the International Vaccine Institute disclosed a plan to revive a program to develop a laboratory on epidemic diseases in North Korea, which has been suspended since 2010.“IVI had a program in North Korea that started in 2006, and the program targeted surveillance studies so we could understand the epidemiology of the study, like how many cases, and the importance of a study in a country,” IVI director general Christian Loucq told The Korea Herald.The original program focused on J

April 30, 2012

The secrets of Korea’s caviar kingpin revealed

CHEONGJU (Yonhap News) ― The banks of the Namhan River bend throughout this region of the Korean countryside, said to be the geographical center of the nation. It’s an area dotted with apple orchards and surrounded by green hills, where on a quiet afternoon the sound of chanting can be heard, echoing from a Buddhist temple. At one spot along the shoreline stand what appear to be above ground, Olympic-sized swimming pools. But you won’t find any athletes doing laps in their lanes. The river water

IndustryApril 30, 2012

Samsung-Apple settlement talks set for May 21-22

Samsung Electronics confirmed Sunday that the planned CEO-level meeting between the company and Apple will take place in a San Francisco court house on May 21-22. A Samsung spokesperson contacted by The Korea Herald refused to elaborate further on the issue, though. The Suwon, Gyeonggi Province-based company said earlier on April 18 that its vice chairman Choi Gee-sung will meet Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook following a court order for a settlement conference. On April 17, U.S. Judge Lucy Koh

IndustryApril 29, 2012

Lockheed Martin to build Korea flight training center

U.S. aerospace and defense giant Lockheed Martin Corp. will build a flight training center in western South Korea for pilots working for local low-cost carriers, the land ministry said Sunday.Under an agreement signed Friday with Incheon International Airport Corp., Lockheed Martin will invest $15 million in the envisioned training center, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs.The training center will be located near Incheon International Airport, about 40 kilometers

IndustryApril 29, 2012

Korea aims for debt below 30% of GDP

Korea is seeking to lower its debt by more than 4 percent to below 30 percent of its gross domestic product by 2015 to boost fiscal soundness amid spiraling household borrowing and social spending. The latest roadmap for the debt sustainability of Asia’s fourth-largest economy was unveiled Saturday at a strategic meeting for national finance at Cheong Wa Dae, presided over President Lee Myung-bak and attended by ministers, other cabinet members and private experts. To that aim, the government pl

April 29, 2012

Eyes on social entrepreneurism

More companies are turning their eyes on social entrepreneurism aimed at promoting a fairer society by helping the underprivileged, industry observers said.They said social entrepreneurism will be further emphasized as a major trend for corporate growth in the future.Most big companies have focused on engaging in corporate social responsibility activities by providing financial and other support to the poor and underprivileged. According to a report by the nation’s largest lobby group, the Feder

April 29, 2012

Stocks to track eurozone developments

South Korean stocks are expected to track developments in eurozone countries and global and domestic economic data this week, local analysts said.The country’s key stock index, the KOSPI, closed at 1,975.35 on Friday, a dip of 0.1 percent from a week earlier, mainly due to North Korea’s geopolitical risk, and persistent eurozone woes fueled by the downgrading of Spain’s long-term credit rating by two notches. Concerns fiscal instability may spread to the Netherlands and France further affected t

April 29, 2012

Korean bank earnings drop in first quarter

South Korean banks saw their net income decline sharply in the first quarter from a year earlier, but gross income rose slightly, the country’s financial watchdog said Sunday.The combined net profit of local banks was an estimated 3.5 trillion won ($3.09 billion) for the January-March period, down 1 trillion won from a year earlier but up 4.1 trillion won from the previous quarter, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.Their gross income, however, increased by around 100 billion won to

April 29, 2012

Woori sale to resume Monday

Chief regulator shows confidence in attracting competitive bidderThe Public Fund Oversight Committee will put up the state-controlled Woori Financial Group for auction again on Monday.In a statement on Sunday, the PFOC said it would attract preliminary bidders for the nation’s largest financial group by July 27 after making official notification of the sale on April 30.The new sale project comes after financial authorities failed to attract a preferred bidder for Woori Financial several times be

April 29, 2012