Lotte Mart plans third outlet in 2013; E-Mart to open first Hanoi store next year, 52 outlets by 2020 Just two years have passed since Vietnam opened its retail sector to foreign businesses on a full scale. The Vietnamese market has grown so quickly that sales and service revenue in the retail sector are expected to reach $85 billion in 2012. As global retailers are coveting the growing market ...

Korean social commerce firm Coupang said Thursday it is aiming to be listed on the U.S. stock market by 2013 after cementing its position as the country’s top electronic commerce company. Kim Bom-suk, chief executive of the company, said it will also enter the overseas market to compete with global industrial players following its listing on the NASDAQ. “We will first gather the funding which w...

Korean builder strives to become one of the world’s 100 largest construction firms Hanwha Engineering and Construction Corp. began work on the world’s largest domed arena in the Philippines on Thursday. The work for the $175 million contract, signed on Aug. 4, got underway in a ceremony attended by Hanwha E&C officials including vice chairman Kim Hyun-chung and those from the Filipino Christian...

SK, POSCO, Hyundai Motor, LG seek resources, new markets in the region Korea’s leading businesses are making their forays into Latin America, which has emerged as a favored destination among global investors for its growing economy, ample natural resources and robust domestic demand. SK, POSCO, Hyundai Motor, Hyundai Heavy, Samsung, LG and other firms offer know-how for resources and infrastruc...

Chung Ji-yi, executive vice president of Hyundai U&I and eldest daughter of Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, is to be wed next month, industry sources said. Chung’s groom-to-be is employed at a foreign financial company in Japan and reportedly has no ties with the conglomerate community here. The wedding will take place at Hotel Shilla in downtown Seoul on Sept. 3. It will be a private ...

More than half of Korean workers received unfair treatment from their bosses when proposing new ideas, a poll showed on Thursday. According to Career, a local recruitment website, about 56.6 percent of the 380 respondents said they had being treated unfairly after handing in their proposals. About 65.1 percent of those said that their bosses credited themselves when they liked the proposal, b...

Lee holds series of meetings as Korea’s top company faces challenges from global, industry-wide woes Samsung Group appears to be struggling to weather the latest global economic uncertainties stemming from troubles in some of the world’s largest economies, coupled with industry-embedded problems such as declining memory prices. Adding to the concerns is a highly-publicized patent dispute with A...

Hyundai Heavy Industries and some other companies bearing the Hyundai name will set up a charitable foundation with 500 billion won ($467 million), the shipbuilder announced Tuesday. Much of the fund will be raised by Hyundai Heavy Industries and its subsidiaries, and the group’s largest shareholder, Rep. Chung Mong-joon of the ruling Grand National Party. Hyundai Heavy Industries and its subsid...

KT&G Corp., the country’s largest cigarette maker, plans to raise the proportion of annual revenues injected into corporate social responsibility projects to 3 percent. The target was included in the company’s long-term social contribution plans announced Tuesday. KT&G CEO Min Young-jin said in a statement that the company plans to raise the proportion of the revenues spent on social contributi...

CJ CheilJedang, Korea’s largest food maker, said Monday that it will establish the world’s first methionine plant in Malaysia next year. In April, CJ sealed a deal with France-based chemical firm Arkema to make an investment of more than $400 million in Kerteh, Terengganu State of Malaysia. If the plant, which will have a capacity of 80,000 tons annually, is completed as scheduled, the producti...