Sovereign fund head touts ESG, impact investment

ESG and impact investment will offer a new way for investors to make financial returns while leaving a positive, social and environmental impact, and South Korea hopes to spread the practice of “responsible investment,” Korea Investment Corporation CEO Jin Seoung-ho said Tuesday. The chief of the country’s sovereign wealth fund said ESG investment, which looks at environmental, social and governance factors, and impact investment, which aims to make money and measureable socia

EconomyNov. 30, 2021

Renault 5 EV wins Future Mobility of the Year award

Renault Samsung’s Renault 5 EV concept car has received this year’s Future Mobility of the Year award, the automaker said Tuesday.  The third annual award was set up by KAIST’s Cho Chun Shik Graduate School of Green Transportation and evaluated by global automotive journalists. Of 46 new concept cars unveiled from 2020 through the first quarter of 2021, Renault’s concept car has been picked based on the mobility tech and innovative service that can be useful for fu

IndustryNov. 30, 2021

Household debt poses limited risks to S. Korean economy: finance minister

South Korea's top economic policymaker said Tuesday the country's snowballing household debt is posing limited risks to the economy, given borrowers' capability to repay debt and banks' financial health. Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki made the remarks during his meeting with the delegation of S&P Global Ratings, led by Kim Eng Tan, senior director of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings at the global credit appraiser. The delegation kicked off its annual consultations with the Korean government Mo

EconomyNov. 30, 2021

Industrial output posts highest negative growth in 18 months

SEJONG -- South Korea’s industrial output and facilities investment declined on-month, though the two sectors also recorded positive growth on-year, reflecting economic uncertainty under constant pressure of the pandemic, data showed Tuesday. The industrial output decreased by 1.9 percent in October from a month earlier, which marked the highest negative growth since it posted minus 2 percent in April 2020. Production in the manufacturing segment, including automobiles and metals, decrea

EconomyNov. 30, 2021

Race for EV charging stations intensifies for market dominance

Amid the global transition to electric vehicles, EV makers are moving fast to set up charging infrastructure in Korea not only to increase their sales but to gain dominance in a country where a no clear market leader has surfaced yet. For automakers, building recharging points, which are still in the nascent stage here in terms of both numbers and maintenance, has become pivotal to overcome EVs’ general and biggest weakness –- a short driving range.  According to the governmen

IndustryNov. 30, 2021

Officials tout Laos as hidden gem for land developers

Laos is fast emerging as a land of opportunity for land developers, ahead of a highly anticipated launch of a new high-speed train connecting the Southeast Asian country with China next month. The Thatluang Lake Special Economic Zone, the only economic zone in the capital city of Vientiane, in particular, is expected to benefit, providing a boost for the local economy and luring foreign investors. Korean real estate investment firm D&C Mineun held a weeklong promotional seminar on Nov.

IndustryNov. 30, 2021

Seoul stocks dip to yearly low amid new COVID-19 variant scare

South Korean stocks tumbled to a 52-week low Tuesday as concerns over the potential impact of the omicron coronavirus variant continued to weigh on investor sentiment. The Korean won rose against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) plummeted 70.31 points, or 2.42 percent, to close at 2,839.01 points. Trading volume was high at about 968 million shares worth some 19.2 trillion won ($16.2 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 874 to 48. Foreigners sold a

MarketNov. 30, 2021

Hyundai E&C to sell new apartments in Pyeongtaek

Hyundai Engineering & Construction said it will begin sales of 698 new apartments later this month in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. The apartments belong to a new estate named Hillstate Pyeongtaek The First, which will consist of a total of 1,107 homes between 59 to 84 square meters in size, and will mark the first sale of new homes in Seojeong-dong, Pyeongtaek in 14 years. Commercial areas around Songtan metro station and Seojeong-dong with banks, hospitals and the Songtan bra

IndustryNov. 30, 2021

[Interactive] S. Korea top Asian country in global innovation rankings

South Korea has clinched the top spot in Asia in a United Nations agency’s global innovation rankings, coming in fifth globally. In the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Global Innovation Index 2021, Korea was ahead of Singapore, Japan and China. It was behind Switzerland, Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom. Korea, Asia’s fourth-biggest economy, was in 10th place last year. (Yonhap) By Nam Kyung-don

EconomyNov. 30, 2021

Dunamu to launch video chat metaverse platform

Dunamu, the operator of cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, said Tuesday that it has launched the beta version of its video chat metaverse platform, pushing the boundary between the real world and virtual reality. Metaverse refers to virtual communities that let users interact in real time. On 2ndblock, the metaverse platform, a video chat window automatically pops up when users’ avatars are close by, and users can see each other’s faces through webcams. They can also actively communic

MarketNov. 30, 2021

Shinhan completes review of stablecoin cross-border transfer technology

South Korea’s Shinhan Bank said Tuesday it has completed its review of its cross-border wiring and transfer technology for stablecoins, but remained cautious on its actual adoption. Stablecoins are a form of cryptocurrency designed to have a stable value tied to traditional government-backed currencies, or to a commodity such as gold, to dodge the volatilities that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have. “With the stablecoin transactions growing overseas, including JP Morgan&rsqu

MarketNov. 30, 2021

SK Inc.-SK Materials merger paves way for W5tr investment in battery, chip, display materials

A merger between SK Inc. and SK Materials has been completed to pave the way for a 5 trillion won ($4.2 billion) investment in key businesses including battery, chip and display materials, officials said Tuesday. “By 2025, SK Inc. will invest a total of 5.1 trillion won into four key sectors -- battery materials, power and compound semiconductors, semiconductor materials and displays,” a company official said. The core business SK Inc. will absorb from SK Materials is anodes, on

IndustryNov. 30, 2021

Celltrion signs COVID-19 treatment supply contract with 9 European countries

Celltrion Healthcare has inked supply contracts for its COVID-19 antibody treatment Regkirona with nine European countries as of Monday, the company said Tuesday. Under the contract, Celltrion Healthcare, an affiliate of local biopharmaceutical company Celltrion, plans to roll out an initial supply of 150,000 vials of Regkirona to the countries before the end of the year. The amount is enough to treat 50,000 people. More supply orders of the antibody are expected to be placed in consideratio

IndustryNov. 30, 2021

Samsung unveils 5G chips for cars

Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it rolled out an automotive semiconductor chip that delivers a fifth-generational network connectivity for in-vehicle infotainment services for the first time in the industry. The newly-launched telematics control unit for cars, Exynos Auto T5123, aims to provide essential information to a vehicle in real-time via high-speed download speeds of up to 5.1 gigabits per second. Samsung said the new auto chip will allow passengers to enjoy high-definition content st

TechnologyNov. 30, 2021

S. Korea, Britain seek closer cooperation in 5G, AI

South Korea and Britain have agreed to bolster bilateral cooperation in artificial intelligence and 5G on the sidelines of a tech forum, Seoul's ICT ministry said Tuesday. Lee Tai-hee, South Korea's deputy minister for planning and coordination at the science and ICT ministry, held talks with Chris Philp, parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in London on Monday (local time) as he visited the Future Tech Forum. During their meeting, Lee

TechnologyNov. 30, 2021

Smaller firms' exports hit new high this year

Exports by South Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have reached an all-time high this year amid a global economic recovery, government data showed Tuesday. As of Monday, local SMEs' overseas shipments exceeded the previous full-year record of $105.2 billion set in 2018, according to the data from the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and the Korea Customs Service. Smaller companies' exports stood at $100.9 billion in 2019 and $100.7 billion last year. This year's SME exports accou

IndustryNov. 30, 2021

[Contribution] Forests and Glasgow Climate Pact

All 197 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ended up coming to an agreement, the “Glasgow Climate Pact,” a day after two weeks of intensive negotiations over the course of the 26th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP 26). Unlike before, forests have been included on the key agenda of the UN climate conference. At the World Leaders Summit “Action on Forests and Land Use” event, the “Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration” was

IndustryNov. 30, 2021

Overseas card spending down 14.8% in Q3 on weak won

South Koreans' overseas card spending declined 14.8 percent in the third quarter from three months earlier as the government tightened rules on withdrawals of money from automatic teller machines and the won depreciated against the dollar, central bank data showed Tuesday. According to the data by the Bank of Korea (BOK), the amount of money spent overseas by South Koreans with cards, including credit and debit cards, came to $2.88 billion in the July-September period, down from $3.37 billion

EconomyNov. 30, 2021

Genesis unveils exterior of all-new G90 sedan

Genesis, the luxury brand of Hyundai Motor Co., on Tuesday unveiled the exterior images of the all-new Genesis G90 sedan ahead of its local launch next year. The G90 is a fully revamped model following its face-lift in 2018. Genesis plans to launch the flagship G90 sedan and its long wheelbase version in the domestic market early next year, a company official said. Under the brand's design philosophy of Athletic Elegance, the new G90 features an extension of Genesis' "two-line" de

IndustryNov. 30, 2021

[Graphic News] South Korea’s household debt-GDP ratio highest worldwide: report

　South Korea has the highest ratio of household debt to gross domestic product among major economies in the world, a report showed, indicating it could crimp consumption and weigh on the economy down the road. 　The country’s household debt stood at 104.2 percent of its GDP as of end-June this year, the highest among 37 economies, according to the report by the Institute of International Finance. 　Hong Kong came next with 92 percent, followed by Britain with 89.4 percent, the United Stat

BusinessNov. 30, 2021