LG Group Chairman Koo Kwang-mo marks two years Monday since he took the helm of South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate. Under his new and pragmatic leadership, the group has seen quiet but significant changes. Koo became the new leader of LG on June 29, 2018, at the age of 40 after his father, Koo Bon-moo, passed away a month earlier. He inherited the group in the Confucian tradition whereupon the eldest son takes over the family business. The late Koo’s management philosophy

Industry June 28, 2020

Companies doing business in Korea have shared their best practices and lessons learned amid the pandemic in a seminar hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea on Friday. On the day, AmCham hosted the “Doing Business in Korea Seminar 2020,” which was attended by around 100 distinguished guests, including officials from the US and Korean governments and CEOs of foreign companies. In his congratulatory remarks, AmCham Chairman & CEO James Kim highlighted the need fo

Industry June 26, 2020

South Korean businesspeople have called for easing unfavorable regulations that are not applied in rival countries in order to secure the competitiveness of the nation’s major industries. On Friday, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a second meeting of the regulatory improvement for the major industries with the private and public sectors to listen to the regulatory difficulties of the equipment industry and seek solutions. The meeting was attended by industry associations

Industry June 26, 2020

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has approved the merger between French multinational corporation LVMH and American jewelry company Tiffany & Co., saying there is no concern of competition restrictions, officials said Wednesday. On March 13, LVMH filed a business combination report with the nation’s Fair Trade Commission after signing a deal in November last year to acquire all of Tiffany’s shares. The merger has so far been approved by the authorities in the US, Austr

Industry June 24, 2020

South Korea’s non-regular workers lost jobs more than six times as much as regular workers amid the pandemic, data showed Tuesday. A local civic group Gabjil119 surveyed 1,000 office workers about how COVID-19 has changed work life from June 5-10. According to the survey, 12.9 percent of the respondents said they became unemployed regardless of their will over the past six months. Of the total, 26.3 percent of non-regular workers said they lost jobs, 6.7 times more than 4 percent of

Industry June 24, 2020

Yakult, a sweet probiotic drink in a tiny pale peach bottle, has been Koreans’ favorite beverage for more than 40 years, even creating its own culture through “Yakult ajumma.” While it sounds similar to yogurt and also contains lots of probiotics -- as much as around 20 billion lactic acid bacteria per bottle -- yogurt and Yakult are different products. Yakult originates from Japan, referring to a drink brand made of skim milk powder that contains probiotic culture with su

Industry June 23, 2020

When social media influencers are paid to post recommendations or reviews on social media, they must clarify that fact and make sure the disclosure is easy to read, the nation’s antitrust watchdog said Tuesday. The Fair Trade Commission said it had finalized revisions to its advertising guidelines, which deal with how to disclose financial interests when posting reviews on social media. The revisions will take effect Sept. 1. The guidelines are designed to prevent violations of the law

Industry June 23, 2020

South Korean exporters are likely to benefit from rising opportunities in China due to diverse government policies this year, a report suggested Monday. According to the report on China’s six major policy directions and implications released by the Korea International Trade Association’s Institute for International Trade, China’s economic growth rate in the first quarter was minus 6.8 percent, down 12.8 percent from the previous quarter. To revive the economy, the Chinese go

Industry June 22, 2020

Hyundai Engineering & Construction has been selected as a contractor for Hannam newtown district 3 by the association of housing redevelopment of the region in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Sunday. At the first round of voting, Hyundai won 1,167 votes, Daelim Industrial had 1,060 votes and GS Engineering & Construction won 497 votes, respectively. Hyundai was selected in a runoff with 1,409 votes. Daelim had 1,258 votes. The construction of Hannam 3 District is estimated to cost 1.8 trillion w

Industry June 21, 2020

Local golf courses and ranges are booming here as overseas travels remain restricted while outdoor activities are considered relatively safer amid the coronavirus pandemic, industry sources said Sunday. Golf tour reservations rose 300 percent on-year in June, according to Korea’s travel agency Very Good Tour. “The actual demand must be a lot higher considering how Koreans do not tend to hire travel agencies to play golf here. It is very difficult to book a golf course even on week

Industry June 21, 2020

Liquor, which once lost ground to beer, soju and wine, is recently gaining popularity as people are enjoying drinking at home amid the pandemic, according to industry sources Sunday. E-mart said liquor sales increased 23 percent year-on-year after analyzing alcoholic beverages sold between March and May this year. Sales, in particular, rose 36.4 percent and 36.5 percent in April and May, respectively. Lotte Mart also saw its spirits sales grow 30.8 percent from May 1 to June 17 on-year. B

Industry June 21, 2020

South Korea’s full service airlines have decided to extend the validity of their mileage points by one year as customers are finding it difficult to use them amid the virus pandemic, officials said Thursday. Korean Air and Asiana Airlines decided to extend the validity period that expires on January 1, 2022, after consultation with the Fair Trade Commission and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The move comes after persistent criticism that the expiration is unfair as

Mobility June 18, 2020

Despite public apathy and tougher shareholder censure, South Korea’s chaebol groups are preparing a generational shift in leadership. The Korea Herald looks at different conglomerates and succession scenarios. -- Ed. South Korea’s largest conglomerate Samsung’s de facto leader Lee Jae-yong made headlines last month by announcing that he would not pass on managerial rights to his children. Although Lee is the first conglomerate head to officially declare an end to family s

Industry June 18, 2020

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry is set to hold its seventh photo contest under the theme of “the workplace and life of businesspeople” along with an additional contest for “COVID-19,” the business association said Thursday. The nation’s largest photo contest in terms of prize money, began in 2014 to capture images of companies and workers leading the Korean economy. Annually, the contest recieves the highest number of entries among paid photo contes

Industry June 18, 2020

YouTube is seen to be the biggest online platform through which misinformation and fake news is being spread in South Korea, according to a new survey. The latest “Digital News Report 2020” released by the UK-based Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism noted that 31 percent of online news consumers surveyed picked YouTube were most concerned about the platform being used to spread false information. It was followed by Facebook (10 percent), KakaoTalk and other messenger se

Industry June 18, 2020