South Korea will build a new Chinatown near Seoul that will serve as an international shopping and tourism hub, authorities said Wednesday.The Chinatown, expected to be over 2.3 million square meters in size, will be built in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to the Yellow Sea Free Economic Zone (YSFEZ) authority.The YSFEZ is one the country's several free economic zones (FEZs) located near the capital area. The project, proposed by a special purpose company (SPC) esta

Korea's consumer sentiment slightly improved this month from a month earlier with more people also expecting better conditions for their livelihood down the road, central bank data showed Wednesday.The composite consumer sentiment index came to 101 for April, moving up from 100 the previous month and reaching the highest mark since the start of the year, according to data from the Bank of Korea. Consumers at a department store in Seoul (Yonhap)A reading above 100 means optimists outnumber pessim

The head of Korea's central bank on Wednesday expressed his apparent opposition to lowering the key interest rate too much, saying a low or negative rate may have only a limited, if not adverse, economic impact."We are beginning to see the adverse effects of low interest rates employed since the (2008) financial crisis, such as a drop in the profitability of financial institutes and a rise in private debts," Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Lee Ju-yeol said at an international financial forum in Seoul.

The government on Wednesday unveiled a set of comprehensive measures to boost employment of young people and women, vowing to help about 40,000 jobseekers land jobs by matching them up with employers and doling out direct payments in exchange for new hirings.The measures came after the unemployment rate for people under 30 reached an all-time high of 9.2 percent last year, with the overall jobless rate hitting a five-year high of 3.6 percent. Job fair in Seoul (Yonhap)Joblessness among the young

Korean shipyards may be in big trouble, but they still lead the global market in terms of order backlog, industry data showed Wednesday, possibly suggesting their guaranteed survival at least for a few years to come.According to the data from global research firm Clarkson Research Services, the country's three largest shipbuilders - Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Industries, and Samsung Heavy Industries - are also ranked as the world's three largest in terms of order bac

With Korea on the verge of a massive corporate restructuring, controversy has resurfaced over entrepreneurial moral hazards following the sale of shares in a financially troubled shipper by the family of its former chairwoman, watchers said Wednesday.According to a recent regulatory filing, Choi Eun-yeong, former chairwoman of Hanjin Shipping, and her two daughters sold their entire 0.39 percent stake, or 669,248 shares, in Korea's biggest container carrier between April 6-20.                  

Cargo processed at Korean seaports edged up in the first quarter from a year earlier as a rise in domestic shipments made up for a drop in exports and imports, government data showed Wednesday.The country's seaports handled a combined 366.1 million tons of freight during the January-March period, up 1.5 percent from 360.7 million tons tallied a year earlier, according to the data compiled by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.Export-import cargo, which accounted for 82.6 percent of the total,

The number of South Koreans in the agrofisheries sector continued to decrease due to a rapidly aging population and urbanization, government data showed Monday.Households engaging in the farming and fishing business totaled 1.24 million last year, down 7.9 percent from 1.34 million in 2010, according to the data compiled by Statistics Korea.The number of farmers and fishermen also dropped 16.4 percent to 2.92 million from 3.5 million over the five-year period.The families involved in the agrofis

Korea's leading business groups are expected to reduce their new recruitment in 2016 from a year earlier, a survey showed Thursday, boding ill for job seekers already struggling with a high unemployment rate.According to the survey by the Federation of Korean Industries of the top 30 groups, they plan to employ a combined 126,394 new workers this year, down 4.2 percent from a year earlier. Federation of Korean Industries (Yonhap)The companies include Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG and Lotte.Fina

Apple Korea Inc., the local unit of the U.S. tech giant, has revised its unfair business agreement with local maintenance service firms for the first time in the world, the South Korean antitrust watchdog said Thursday.Apple has designated six local repair firms including Ubase Inc. and Dongbu Daewoo Electronics Service Corp. as its authorized repair service providers that can do business under the worldwide Apple Authorized Service Agreement.The previous agreement let the U.S. firm terminate co

Trade volume between North Korea and China posted double-digit growth in the first quarter of 2016 from a year earlier despite the United Nations' punitive economic sanctions imposed on the reclusive country, official data showed Wednesday.The size of bilateral trade stood at 7.79 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in the January-March period, up 12.7 percent from the same period last year, Huang Songping, spokesman of China's General Administration of Customs, said during a press briefing on the count

China's Anbang Insurance Group agreed with Allianz Group on Wednesday to acquire the local unit of the German insurance giant, industry sources said, in what would be Anbang's second takeover of a life insurer here in about a year.The agreement calls for Anbang to purchase a 100 percent stake in Allianz Life Insurance Korea Co. from Allianz, according to the sources. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.Anbang is estimated to have offered up to 300 billion won ($260 million) for the in

The government said Wednesday that it will take tough action against the stealing of technology owned by small and mid-sized enterprises, as related damage has continued to increase in recent years.Under a set of punitive measures, the government will force people or companies that maliciously leak or steal technology and know-how from SMEs to give compensation of upwards to three times the size of the damages incurred.Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn (Yonhap)Also, the government said it will increa

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kwon Oh-hyun was South Korea's highest paid chief executive in 2015, as the professional manager topped executive annual salary rankings with 14.95 billion won (US$13 million), company data filed with the Financial Supervisory Service showed Thursday.Shin Jong-kyun and Yoon Boo-keun, who are respectively in charge of Samsung's IT and mobile communication and consumer electronics divisions, earned 4.8 billion won and 3.7 billion won, respectively, according to th

Oil’s plunge has reordered the pecking order among China’s biggest explorers. China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.’s move to close some high-cost fields has caused it to slip to number three in oil and gas production as rival Cnooc Ltd. got a boost from new domestic offshore projects.Sinopec, as China Petroleum is known, produced almost 472 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2015, down 1.7 percent. Cnooc overtook it by pumping about 496 million, jumping nearly 15 percent. PetroChina Co. remained t

South Korea's No. 1 tech firm Samsung Electronics Co. was named the third-most reputable company in the United States, an industry tracker said Wednesday, while its top rival Apple Inc. remained out of the top 100.According to research conducted by U.S.-based Reputation Institute, the South Korean tech giant came in behind Amazon.com Inc. and Hallmark Cards Inc. in terms of reputation in the country. Samsung Group headquarters in Seoul (Yonhap)Foodstuffs maker Kellogg Company, Japanese tech gian

China will end its state corn stockpiling program this year, replacing it with other subsidies, amid surging reserves in the world’s second-biggest grower, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.The government will encourage state and private firms to buy corn at market prices and offer credit support to farmers, Xinhua reported late Monday, citing a press briefing by the National Development and Reform Commission. It will also promote changes in crop cultivation and move to reduce existing st

Japan's factory output plummeted in February at its sharpest pace since the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster, government data showed Wednesday, the latest setback to efforts to rejuvenate the world's third-largest economy.Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been trying for more than three years to pull Japan out of years of deflation, stagnant wages and weak consumer spending.Unorthodox measures including a massive bond-buying programme by the Bank of Japan have brought the yen do

If Britain exits the European Union it will have a negative impact on the British, European and world economies, US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew warned Tuesday.Britons are set to vote in a crucial referendum on June 23 to decide whether to back a so-called Brexit -- or exit from the European Union.The consequences of a Brexit -- in terms of the flow of trade and economic relationships -- would have far-reaching repercussions, Lew told Charlie Rose on public television PBS."I don't think it's goo

Global smartphone giant Samsung Electronics Co. is anticipated to post better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter following the better-than-expected performance of the Galaxy S7 series, industry analysts forecast Wednesday.South Korean analysts and industry watchers expect the first-quarter operating profit of the tech giant to reach 6 trillion won (US$5.14 billion), in line with 5.98 trillion won posted a year earlier. Samsung Electronics headquarters in Seoul (Yonhap)Analysts earlier