South Korea’s Agriculture Ministry will sign a cooperation pact with retail giant CJ to broaden the China-based distribution channel of Korean agricultural products, the ministry said Monday.Lee Ju-myeung, director general of the Food Industry Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, will sign a memorandum of understanding with CJ China chief Park Keun-tae on Tuesday in Beijing, over sorting out Korean food products with high sales potentials in China and marketing t

Hammered over lax quarantine, the Health Ministry’s Middle East respiratory syndrome control tower belatedly released the details of must-know facts to prevent the spread of the dangerous disease on Sunday.The disease had claimed the lives of five by Sunday since the first carrier was diagnosed on April 20, according to the government report. The Health Ministry also reported 14 fresh cases of the disease, raising the toll of carriers to 64. For the past three weeks, online communities and socia

South Korea’s gasoline prices have been rising for 44 days amid rising oil prices and consumption, the state-run Korea National Oil Corp. said Wednesday. The nation’s average price of regular gasoline hit 1,572.40 won ($1.40) per liter on Tuesday, up 0.85 won from the previous day, according to Opinet, an online service provider of fuel prices run by KNOC. Market experts estimate that the price may reach a new record, replacing the Jan. 1 record, 1587.31 won.The average price of premium gasoline

Japan Tobacco International Korea has launched Camel Evolution Super Slims, the first low-tar super slim brand of its Camel lineup, the tobacco maker said Wednesday. On sale from Thursday, Camel Evolution Super Slims is a locally customized blend for the Korean market. The product delivers smooth Camel taste in a stylish urban packaging design largely targeting smokers in the 25-35 age group, according to JTI Korea. The April sales of the Camel brand showed a dramatic increase, quintupling from

Korea Financial Investment Association chairman Hwang Young-key (fifth from left) and Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia CEO Pauline Vamos (fourth from left) pose after signing a memorandum of understanding for mutual data sharing and cooperation on pensions in Seoul on Monday. KFIA

Brokerage firms’ collective loans to investors, which are stock investment-oriented credit, reached the highest level this month on the KOSDAQ market amid the bullish secondary bourse and record-low bank interest rates.In a report released by Korea Financial Investment Association on Tuesday, the credit-based investments reached the risky amount of 3.97 trillion won ($3.64 billion) as of May 20. This accounts for about 3.5 percent of the entire capitalization of freely traded stocks on the tech-

The Korea-China free trade agreement to be formally signed later this year, provides an opportunity for Korean food products to expand into the world’s second largest economy, said the head of the state-run agency to promote agro-food products.“I am confident that food can form a market as huge as electronic devices and automobiles, not to mention its scope for speedy growth,” Kim Jae-soo, president and chief executive of Korea Agro-Fisheries and Food Trade Corp., or aT, said in an interview wit

Seoul Food 2015, one of the four largest food fairs in Asia, drew about 627 foreign food and related businesses and 3,300 foreign spectators, shedding a new light on South Korea’s exporters.Sponsored by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, the expo ended its four-day run from May 12-15 at KINTEX in Ilsan, boasting record-high attendance, export consultations worth $560 million and initial export installments worth $7.8 million.For Korean businesses that are not export-oriented, however,

Financial Services Commission chairman Yim Jong-yong said on Thursday that the sell-off method for the state-run Woori Bank should be more diverse.“The sell-off method must be diversified, unlike the old system that merely involves bridging the buyer and Woori for a certain amount of premium ― this is not desirable,” Yim said at a press luncheon in central Seoul. After diversifying the sell-off option on market-based research, the agenda should be put to public discussion, Yim added. The regulat

The revised income tax law is confusing taxpayers, stirring them up. The National Tax Service said Friday that the income tax revision, which passed the National Assembly three days ago requires the readjustment of last year’s year-end tax return for about 15 million taxpayers. This accounts for more than half of the country’s entire economically active population.On the same day, the Korea Taxpayers Association, the country’s largest nongovernment organization on tax studies, said in a press re

South Korea’s central bank should keep the key rate unchanged and turn to alternative means of injecting liquidity in the near future, a U.N. economic institution reported Thursday. In its Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2015, the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific warned that further rate cuts by the Bank of Korea may be difficult to execute due to the already high level of household debt.“The central bank may have to consider alternative means of in

Seoul Food 2015, Asia’s third-largest food industry exhibition, kicked off on Tuesday, welcoming the largest number of Chinese participants since the event’s launch in 1983, thanks to the imminent sealing of the Korea-China free trade agreement. Theming “Wave on the Table,” the four-day convention attracted global buyers to KINTEX in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul, for cost-saving and healthy products, machinery and solutions in food technology, food packaging, hotel restaurant and catering technolog

The nation’s tax revenue from tobacco sales has increased in the first four months of this year, despite a fall in cigarette sales following a tax hike on tobacco products, government officials said Sunday. In the January-April period, the tax revenue from cigarette sales jumped 600 billion won ($550 million) from a year ago, officials said. However, sales fell to 180 million packs in January from 400 million packs in December of last year. In April alone, the tax revenue from tobacco sales grew

Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan called for swift parliamentary passage of the controversial year-end tax bill so that millions of taxpayers would be able to receive redemption on time. The bill, having failed once to pass the April plenary session, addresses reduction of tax imposed on the taxpayers whose annual income is 55 million won or under. “If the bill misses the May 11 deadline (to pass the National Assembly) 6,880,000 taxpayers will be unable to get their year-end tax work processed,”

In such a conglomerate-dominated Korean economy, small and medium-sized subcontractors and ventures cannot thrive without a healthy business-to-business payment system. Without one, the Asian financial crisis and the global financial crisis doomed countless SMEs to bankruptcy.“Most unfair practices in business come from inappropriate payment systems,” said Rha Moon-soo, president and chief executive of the Korea Electronic Finance Clearing Institute, in an interview with The Korea Herald last we

Korea will kick off Seoul Food 2015, Asia’s third-largest food industry exhibition, next month at KINTEX, in Ilsan, northwest of Seoul, trade promotion officials said Wednesday. The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said the four-day convention, themed “Wave on the Table,” aims at sharing the latest innovations to the healthy, modern diet.“The exhibition itself is like a huge table, featuring the latest wave of changing consumer trends,” said an official at KOTRA, the event organizer.The e

A top Malaysian official expressed hope that South Korea would import more palm oil products from the Southeast Asian country.“Korea is a very strategic trade partner and an important market for Malaysian palm oil,” said Dato’ Ar. Wan Khair-il Anuar, Malaysian Palm Oil Board chairman in an interview with The Korea Herald in Seoul on Monday.  Dato’ Ar. Wan Khair-il Anuar, chairman of Malaysian (Palm Oil Board)The high-level official, who is also a member of parliament representing Kuala Kangsar,

Like many Korean nine-to-fivers, Kim, an official at a big name conglomerate, had trouble sparing time in his day to visit banks for a loan. He was afraid to give the wrong impression to his boss by leaving his desk unattended, but taking a whole day off for a banking service did not make sense either. After days of delay, Kim signed up for the “business consultant service” on Standard Chartered Bank Korea’s website to have the bank visit him instead. The next day, Kim and SC Bank consultants, e

The government is pushing for stricter legal restrictions on the sale of electronic cigarettes, which is officially classified as a cigarette product, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. Finance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, who concurrently serves as deputy prime minister, told lawmakers in the National Assembly that he would “shortly come up with a comprehensive proposal” on electronic cigarettes, which would ban the products’ explicit advertisement and random blend of nicotine. Choi stressed tha

YANGSAN, South Gyeongsang Province ― Philip Morris International Korea expects its cumulative cigarette exports to reach 20 billion sticks this year, after securing larger markets in Japan and Australia.Like its competitors KT&G, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International, PMIK chose to expand its export of cigarettes manufactured in the local factory in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province. “Increasing exports is a key alternative to make up for the domestic losses,” Kim Byung-cheol