S. Korea's global competitiveness ranking stays at 23rd in 2021: report

South Korea's global competitiveness ranking remained unchanged this year after rising by five notches in the previous year on the back of its efforts to contain the pandemic, a report showed Thursday. The country ranked 23rd in terms of global competitiveness among 64 countries surveyed, according to the 2021 report by the International Institute for Management Development. IMD, a Swiss-based international institution, has been releasing the report every year since 1989 based on a country's e

EconomyJune 17, 2021

Korea revokes approvals for 1,700 communication equipment, devices

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said Thursday it has revoked approvals for around 1,700 pieces of network equipment and communications devices manufactured by a nearly 400 companies, including China’s Huawei and Korea’s Samsung Electronics. The decision affected a total of 1,696 pieces of equipment from 378 companies that were found to have test records certified by an entity not approved by the Korean government. Under the country’s radio wave law, communi

TechnologyJune 17, 2021

[Market Close-up] Market drops over US Fed’s rate hike plan, but officials say Seoul safe from volatility

The Seoul stock market traded bearishly Thursday after the US Federal Reserve projected rate hikes in 2023, ending a brief winning streak this week on economic and corporate improvements. But upon watching the market drop in response to the Fed’s hawkish stance, South Korean policymakers expressed confidence about dealing with any resulting volatility in the financial market. First Vice Finance Minister Lee Eog-weon said Asia’s fourth-largest economy may be affected to some extent

EconomyJune 17, 2021

KT invests W23.6b in country’s largest enterprise fintech firm

KT, the second largest telecom business in South Korea, is moving to expand its presence in the financial sector by making an investment in a local fintech firm, the carrier said Thursday. The mobile carrier signed a deal to invest a total of 23.6 billion won ($20.8 million) in WebCash Group that owns WebCash, BizPlay and Roum IT, as part of forming a strategic partnership with the financial IT platform group for enterprises. It is KT’s second investment made in a financial firm afte

TechnologyJune 17, 2021

Local pharma to begin phase 2 clinical trial for Lou Gehrig’s disease therapy

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has granted approval for a phase 2a clinical trial of Engensis, an investigational gene therapy for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, under development by South Korean biotechnology company Helixmith, the company said Thursday. Engensis is a gene therapy that utilizes a plasmid, a small circular DNA molecule, to provide the hepatocyte growth factor gene to patients’ nerve and nerve-supporting cells, whi

TechnologyJune 17, 2021

Kakao to launch new subscription-based content platform in August

Kakao, the nation’s largest mobile messenger operator, is preparing to launch a new subscription-based content platform in August, according to the company on Thursday. The company is currently running a closed beta test of the new platform among its content partners, it said. The platform will allow producers to create, edit and publish various forms of content including news, videos, music and texts. Users can choose the content they want and subscribe via KakaoTa

TechnologyJune 17, 2021

Cha Vaccine Institute to begin clinical study of hepatitis B third-generation vaccine

South Korean biotechnology company Cha Biotech has received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for its plan to conduct a phase 1 clinical trial of a hepatitis B third-generation vaccine, the firm said Thursday. Following the green light, Cha Vaccine Institute, the firm’s vaccine development subsidiary, will begin administrating the vaccine candidate to adults between the ages of 19-65, aiming to complete the study by October 2023. The hepatitis B vaccine candidate is dev

TechnologyJune 17, 2021

Kia unveils ‘Kia Store’ design concept for showrooms

Kia on Thursday unveiled the new design concept for its showrooms, renamed “Kia Stores” to reflect a renewed brand identity and strategy. Each Kia Store will provide customized service and a varied mobility experience to users, officials said in a release. The Kia Store model was inspired by the company’s “opposites united” design philosophy, which seeks to embrace opposing concepts and combine them in an integrated design. To maximize the contrast, every Kia

IndustryJune 17, 2021

Eastar Jet to be acquired by cash-rich property developer SJ

Sung Jung, a midsized real estate developer here, on Thursday confirmed its intention to acquire the financially struggling low-cost air carrier Eastar Jet by raising its initial bidding amount. Losing out on the bid was the well-funded consortium led by underwear manufacturer Ssang Bang Wool and equipment maker Kanglim. The companies saw their stock value take a double dip this week amid the neck-and-neck takeover battle. The real estate developer submitted its official statement to the Se

IndustryJune 17, 2021

Seoul stocks snap 5-day rise on Fed's hawkish comments, Kosdaq tops 1,000 points again

South Korean stocks ended a five-session winning streak Thursday as investor sentiment for risky assets weakened over the Federal Reserve's comments about an earlier-than-expected timeline for a rate hike. The Korean won steeply fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) fell 13.72 points, or 0.42 percent, to close at 3,264.96 points. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.8 billion shares worth some 14.4 trillion won ($12.7 billion), with losers outnum

MarketJune 17, 2021

Waves of female leaders

Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tai (fifth from left, second row) poses with female midlevel managers during a launch ceremony of a new in-house program titled Hana Waves held at its headquarters in central Seoul on Tuesday. Members invited to the first series of programs have been recommended by CEOs of Hana affiliates to develop their leadership roles as part of the group‘s gender diversity efforts at the C-suite level. (Hana Financial Group)

MarketJune 17, 2021

GS Caltex makes S. Korea’s 1st ‘carbon neutral’ crude oil purchase

GS Caltex said Thursday it has purchased 2 million barrels of crude oil certified as “carbon neutral” at the point of production, becoming the first South Korean firm to buy carbon neutral crude oil. According to the total energy company, the carbon neutral oil is extracted from Sweden-based Lundin Energy’s Johan Sverdrup oil field in Norway. The offshore field, certified as carbon neutral under product testing company Intertek’s CarbonZero standard, emits 0.45 kilogr

IndustryJune 17, 2021

Saudi Aramco selects S-Oil as ‘best performing’ affiliate

S-Oil won the excellence award from Saudi Arabian oil giant Aramco which honors high-achievers among the group’s refining and petrochemical affiliates at home and abroad. It was awarded the best performance award, the top prize in the operational excellence category at Saudi Aramco 2021 President’s Affiliates Excellence Awards, S-Oil said on Thursday. Saudi Aramco assesses the business results of its downstream affiliates every year and presents awards in four categories -- hea

IndustryJune 17, 2021

LG Energy Solution batteries power world’s largest ESS project

LG Energy Solution said Thursday it has completed the supply of its new battery system TR1300 to the world’s largest energy storage systems project in California, which is able to power 225,000 households during peak hours. According to the South Korean battery manufacturer, the 1.2-gigawatt-hour ESS facility, developed by Texas-based power generation firm Vistra, is equipped with 4,500 TR1300 battery racks. Vistra connected the energy storage systems to the power grid and began oper

IndustryJune 17, 2021

South Korea's housing market unperturbed by rate hike: experts

The likely scenario of South Korea’s central bank carrying out out a rate hike by the end of the year is unlikely to cool the heated housing market here, industry insiders said on Thursday, dismissing the impact of monetary policies on real estate prices that surged in recent months. The envisioned rate hike would lead to an increase in the interest rates for household loans and mortgages extended by local commercial banks. But the housing market is likely to stay hot for a while mainly d

EconomyJune 17, 2021

Han Sung Motor opens Dream Gream online merch store

Han Sung Motor, an official Mercedes-Benz dealer, on Thursday opened an online store offering merchandise made by students participating in its Dream Gream art scholarship program. The store sells merchandise made by its scholarship recipients, artistically gifted middle and highs school students, in collaboration with professional artists. Items on sale include note papers, decorative masking tape, travel bags and fabric sprays, as well as items produced in collaboration with companies inclu

MobilityJune 17, 2021

Merck Korea offers technology education program for students in Gyeonggi Province

Merck Korea is offering education on semiconductor and display solutions to local high school and college students studying related subjects, as part of its ESG initiative, the company said Thursday. According to the Korean unit of the science and technology company, the new education program comes after Kai Beckmann, member of the executive board of Merck and CEO of the Electronics, and Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung agreed on a partnership in April. During their meeting, the two sid

IndustryJune 17, 2021

[News Focus] Volume of online shopping up 3 trillion won in a year

SEJONG -- The active shopping via the internet of households is likely to contribute much to the gross domestic product of South Korea in terms of increasing production and reducing the inventories of local manufacturers. The prospects can be read from a surge in recent years in the monthly turnover of retailers selling products online. According to Statistics Korea, monthly online shopping transactions reached 15.09 trillion won ($13.49 billion) in April 2021 (the latest available figure). T

EconomyJune 17, 2021

State asset manager KAMCO sells W200b in ESG bonds

South Korea's state-run Korea Asset Management Corp. (KAMCO) said Thursday it has sold 200 billion won ($177 million) in environment, social and governance (ESG) bonds to help support pandemic-hit households and companies. The five-year bonds, which mark KAMCO's first ESG debt sale in line with standards set by the International Capital Market Association, carry an annual interest rate of 1.884 percent. The state asset manager said the proceeds will be used in helping the vulnerable by purchas

IndustryJune 17, 2021

Corporate sales rebound, profit margin grows in Q1 amid pandemic

South Korean companies saw their profitability continue their growth in the first quarter, with their sales rebounding from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, central bank data showed Thursday. The ratio of operating profit to sales of firms in the country reached 6.4 percent in the first quarter, up from 4.2 percent tallied a year ago, according to the data by the Bank of Korea (BOK). At the same time, the pretax net profit margin of South Korean companies rose on-year to 7.9 percent from

EconomyJune 17, 2021