Women suffer greater employment shock than men amid pandemic: report

South Korean women have suffered employment strains more than men amid the pandemic as job posts in the in-person service segment, hard hit by the virus outbreak, sharply eroded, a report showed Thursday. The COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow to married women in the labor force, compared with previous economic turmoil when married men suffered sharp job losses, according to the report by the Korea Development Institute (KDI). The number of employed women aged between 25 and 54 declined

April 22, 2021

Impact investing scene faces call for measurement tool

South Korea’s impact investing scene is facing a call for a standardized tool to measure the social impact a startup generates via its business, as the demand to address social challenges is on the rise and more young entrepreneurs are looking to take on the challenges. Such a tool is key to leveraging social ventures’ impact and sustaining their solution for international problems in the long run, in order to assure investors that their investment goes to the right social ventures,

April 22, 2021

Shinhan Asset to shy away from domestic equities with low ESG scores

Seoul-based Shinhan Asset Management said Thursday it plans to implement an equity investing framework associated with the environmental, social and governance factors for its domestic large-cap equity funds. Starting in May, 16 publicly pooled domestic equity funds managed by the fifth-largest asset management firm in South Korea must have at least 70 percent exposure to stocks that received the integrated ESG ratings of “BB” or above. The same strategy has so far been exercised

April 22, 2021

Container cargo volume at seaports up 1.3% in Q1

The volume of container cargo processed at South Korea's seaports rose 1.3 percent on-year in the first quarter of 2021 as global trade continued to recover from economic jitters sparked by the new coronavirus pandemic, the country's oceans ministry said Thursday. Container cargo processed at the seaports reached 7.29 million twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) in the January-March period, rising from the previous year's 7.19 TEUs, according to the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. TEU stands

April 22, 2021

Daily turnover of securities market jumps 18.5% in Q1

The daily turnover of South Korea's securities market soared more than 18 percent in the first quarter amid a stock market rally, data showed Thursday. According to the Korea Securities Depository, the daily amount of local stock and bond transactions settled by the agency averaged 30.7 trillion won ($27.5 billion) in the January-March period, up 18.5 percent from three months earlier. Compared with a year earlier, the daily turnover was up 6.9 percent. The average daily turnover of the count

April 22, 2021

S. Korea to invest W114tr by 2030 to expand railway network

South Korea will invest 114.7 trillion won ($102.7 billion) over the next decade to expand the railway network for major cities across the nation, the transport ministry said Thursday. The fourth nationwide railway plan aims to extend the railway from the current 4,274 kilometers to 5,137 km by 2030 to allow people to travel across the nation in less than three hours, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation said. The project would raise the railway transportation capacity to ab

April 22, 2021

Hankook Tire supplies tires for Porsche sports car

Hankook Tire & Technology Co., the world's seventh-largest tiremaker by sales, said Thursday it began to supply tires for the Porsche 718 Boxter this year. Hankook Tire has provided the high-performance Ventus S1 evo 3 tires for the sports car since early this year, the company said in a statement. The company did not provide the exact time frame for the supply deal or the value of the deal. It has provided its original equipment (OE) tires for Porsche's Macan SUV, Cayenne SUV, and elect

April 22, 2021

Seoul stocks open higher on bargain hunting

South Korean stocks opened higher Thursday as investors sought to buy oversold stocks after the benchmark index took a breather the previous session. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) rose 20.69 points, or 0.65 percent, to 3,192.35 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. Stocks came to a strong start after the Kospi slumped 1.52 percent the previous session under increased valuation pressure. Investor sentiment remained strong, backed by rosy speculations about soli

April 22, 2021

Jeju Air to resume flights to Saipan next month

Jeju Air Co., South Korea's biggest budget carrier by sales, said Thursday it will resume flights to Saipan late next month in a preemptive measure to absorb post-coronavirus travel demand. Jeju Air plans to reopen the Incheon-Saipan route on May 28 upon permission from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, a company spokesman said over the phone. "The transport ministry is in consultations with the health authorities to decide whether to approve one flight a week on the r

April 22, 2021

Samsung SDS swings to black in Q1

Samsung SDS Co., an IT service unit of Samsung Group, on Thursday said it swung to the black in the first quarter of 2021 on the back of robust cloud business and logistics platform projects. The company reported net profit of 158.5 billion won ($141.7 million) in the January-March period, shifting from a loss of 30.3 billion won a year earlier. Its operating profit jumped 26.8 percent on-year to 217.1 billion won, while sales rose 25.7 percent on-year to 3.06 trillion won in the first three m

April 22, 2021

[Exclusive] SK Telecom plans M&A, foray into nonmemory chip market: CEO

SK Telecom, South Korea’s No. 1 mobile carrier, aims to grow into a global key player in nonmemory chip design and is on the lookout for acquisition targets, its chief executive officer said Wednesday. Speaking exclusively to The Korea Herald, SKT CEO Park Jung-ho said, “SK Telecom will take the lead in development of nonmemory chips, helping SK hynix (expand into the overall semiconductor market).” The SKT chief doubles as vice chairman of SK hynix, the world’s third

April 21, 2021

Naver Webtoon eyes IPO in US

Naver is considering listing its web cartoon in the US as part of efforts to go global, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. Naver’s chief financial officer Park Sang-jin said the company is eyeing more dollar bond sales and a possible future US initial public offering for Naver Webtoon, according to the wire service. “To grow, it’s inevitable that we go global,” Park was quoted as saying. “We should find business opportunities and meet capable partners to suppleme

April 21, 2021

[Feature] Korea’s aging society faces burden of rising debts, heavy taxes

Cho Young-eun, a 68-year-old retiree in Seoul, thought she would have a comfortable life in the years ahead. She and her husband had an apartment to live in, and a pension and savings to cover their daily expenses. But her expectations were shattered when she learned about the tax hike on her home in Gangnam last month. She paid around 4 million won ($3,577) in comprehensive real estate taxes last year but might have to pay nearly 3 million won extra this year and 7.5 million won more next y

April 21, 2021

FTC digs into Google’s disputed app billing

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog set out to investigate US-based tech giant Google on its enforcement of the disputed “in-app billing” system, responding to market backlash that the given payment system is an abuse of power by a market monopolizer. The Fair Trade Commission has recently placed a research and service order to figure out ways to restore fair competion in the mobile app market, officials said Wednesday. The research will involve interviews with app developers on

April 21, 2021

17 Korean startup founders named Forbes' young innovators

Founders and leaders of 17 rising startups in South Korea were picked as young innovator by the Forbes in a survey that listed 300 successful entrepreneurs under age 30, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups said Wednesday. The list of startups includes SelectStar, Codeit, Carpenstreet, Sleek, TableManager, Devotionfoods, Happy Moonday, Glorang, The Carbon Studio, ReDwit, Classum, Juni Essentials, Neubility and Sentbe. SelectStar, which provide AI-backed data collection and annotation service, was

April 21, 2021

KT says sorry for slow internet provided to most expensive plan subscribers

KT, one of South Korea’s top three telecom carriers, said Wednesday it has found 24 subscribers to its most expensive internet plan, which guarantees a connection of 10 gigabits per second, were not getting the high-speed connection they were paying for. “Our investigation has found that an error has occurred in our customer data during the process of expanding and upgrading network facilities,” the firm said in a statement posted on its website, offering an apology and compe

April 21, 2021

S. Korea to introduce standardized ESG index

South Korea will launch a standardized environmental, social and governance index as businesses are confused by more than 600 different ESG indices existing home and abroad. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy on Wednesday held a conference with firms interested in ESG efforts and unveiled a draft of the envisioned measure, following President Moon Jae-in’s call for ESG standards at the 48th Commerce and Industry Day ceremony held on March. 31. The government-envisioned index, w

April 21, 2021

Concerns rising as more young Koreans dip their toes into crypto market

Six out of 10 new crypto investors in the first three months of the year were in their 20s and 30s, a report showed Wednesday, raising concerns that the surging market volatility could pose risks for young amateur investors. The number of newly opened accounts on the nation’s top four crypto trading platforms -- Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit -- came in at 2.5 million between January and March, according to the report released by Rep. Kwon Eun-hee of the opposition People Power Part

April 21, 2021

Seoul stocks snap 7-day winning streak on valuation pressure

South Korean stocks snapped their seven-day winning streak to plunge 1.5 percent on Wednesday, as investors attempted to cash in recent gains. The Korean won fell against the US dollar. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) fell 49.04 points, or 1.52 percent, to close at 3,171.66. Trading volume was moderate at about 1.7 billion shares worth some 16.7 trillion won ($14.9 billion), with losers outnumbering gainers 597 to 277. Foreigners sold a net 1.43 trillion won, while ret

April 21, 2021

Kimchi exports hit all-time high in Q1

South Korea’s kimchi exports hit an all-time high in the first quarter of this year, recording the biggest trade surplus, government data showed on Wednesday. Overseas sales of kimchi recorded $46.6 million in the first quarter, breaking the previous record of $42 million in the second quarter of 2020, according to the Korea Customs Service and the food industry here. Imports was $38.5 million in the first quarter. The trade surplus of $8.06 million marks the biggest in 11 years and th

April 21, 2021