Korea’s growing economic muscle and brisk exports will turn the country into a leading global exhibition destination, said Choe Dae-kyu, vice chairman of the Association of Korea Exhibition Industry. Registered under the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the organization promotes trade fairs held here and supports related policies. Its 44 members are largely exhibition hall operators, event organiz...

Indie pop duo to play Olympic Hall on July 16 While idol group-centered K-pop has been heavily covered by the media, the Korean indie music scene has received relatively little attention. Seeking diversity of Korean music, The Korea Herald is starting a series of interview articles shedding light on the Korean indie music scene. ― Ed. The 1990s is often called “golden age of Korean pop” because...

Deploying an industry wide business ethics program for bankers and regulators is imperative to uproot irregularities and cut long-held collusive ties, the chief Asia economist at HIS Global Insight said in Seoul on Tuesday. “Ethics need to be taught and shared among peer groups. Professionals above graduate level often have never had chances to train themselves on what is right and wrong in spec...

Shin says trilateral secretariat to drive global influence of three as a group With South Korea playing the role of a middleman, the Korea, China and Japan cooperative secretariat has the potential to be a global economic giant capable of wielding influence in Asia and beyond, the first secretary-general of the institution said. “These are three already influential nations we are talking about....

Indonesia is more than just a honeymoon destination Bali, beautiful island of Indonesia filled with luxury resorts and hotels, has been grabbing the attention of Korean tourists, particularly after Korea’s hugely famous celebrity couple Jang Dong-gun and Ko So-young chose Bali for their honeymoon last year. However, the South Asian country has a lot more to offer, a tourism official said. “Not...

The Traffic Broadcasting System, which operates the all-English radio station TBS eFM here, celebrates its 21st anniversary on Friday. The broadcaster’s chief said the media company will keep its identity, which is to put public interest before ratings. The Seoul City-run media company operates five channels ― TBS at 95.1 FM in Korean, TBS eFM on 101.3 FM in English, Chinese and Japanese broadca...

Vietnam War veteran stresses calm amid defoliant contamination allegations Their missions during the Vietnam War ended four decades ago, but they are still fighting a war ― an unexpected one against illnesses resulting from their exposure to Agent Orange, a senior member of a veterans’ group here said Monday. Pointing to the gray-haired members of the Korean Disabled Veterans’ Association for A...

KOICA head to give lessons on Korea’s shift from aid recipient to donor nation Based on its experience of developing into one of the world’s largest economies from one of the poorest countries in five decades, South Korea is ready to create a shift in the international aid and development assistance paradigm, the chief of the state-run international volunteers’ group here said. “We must admit t...

YEOSU, South Jeolla Province ― Facilities and social overhead capital investments made for the Yeosu Expo will form the basis for south coast development, chairman of Organizing Committee for Expo 2012 Yeosu Korea Kang Dong-suk said. “The social overhead capital investments are not solely for the Expo, they were timed to coincide with the event to increase accessibility to the southern coast,” K...

Country aims to increase accommodation in Manila by 50 percent in 3 years The Philippines’ recent policy to spur competition among international airlines will lead to a general reduction of tourism costs there, the country’s tourism secretary said. “Our new President (Benigno Aquino III) introduced an ‘open skies’ policy to promote competition among airlines by allowing more airlines to come in...

Global corporations should pursue revenue opportunities in such clean technologies as solar cells and smart-grids to keep up with the trend toward a low-carbon economy, said Gil Forer, the head of Ernst & Young’s global cleantech unit. Forer said corporations should take advantage of transformational opportunities and adopt clean technologies. “A number of factors including the growth in world ...

Park Se-pill (Park Hyun-koo/The Korea Herald) The fabricated cloning research by Hwang Woo-suk in 2006 remains a painful memory for Koreans, who had taken pride of their nation’s edge in a field that promised to transform medicine. No one agonized more over the fraud case than Park Se-pill, Korea’s top stem-cell researcher. Research in the area was brought to a virtual standstill as the governm...

Songwriter Priscilla Ahn says new album written during period of reflection Folk singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn has stayed busy since she debuted in 2008 with album “A Good Day” under EMI’s jazz music label Blue Note Records. Often compared with jazz vocalist Norah Jones, who also debuted with the Blue Note Records, Ahn’s beautiful but not-too-pretty tone, unique lyrics and simple acoustic gui...

Podotree, a local mobile application venture firm, is gearing up for overseas business expansion, with the goal of becoming the top player in the Japanese and U.S. markets, the company’s chief executive said Tuesday. In an interview with The Korea Herald, CEO Lee Jin-soo said the company released its Cube Dog 3-D Toy mobile application in global app stores, except the Japanese market, on Tuesday...

The decision to build a plant in Korea for manufacturing dry pumps for semiconductors was a natural one designed to give Edwards a leg-up in the Asian markets. “Korea is geopolitically well-situated to be able to export to the (Asian) markets due to its proximity to the customer, ability to form intimate relationships with them and concentration on technology and right quality of people,” Mathew...