By Nam Sung-hyun Minister of the Korea Forest Service The United Nations General Assembly designated June 17 as "World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought" in December 1994. The annual UN observance day aims to raise awareness of global efforts to combat desertification, land degradation and drought. In 2023, the UN day holds special significance for Korea, as this year commemorates the 50th anniversary of Korea's national reforestation plan launched in 1973. Land and fore

By Nam Sung-hyun Today is the International Day of Forests. Forests account for 31 percent of the land surface area of the Earth. They play a crucial role in responding to climate change as they absorb 2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide yearly as a major terrestrial carbon sink. Forests also provide habitats to 80 percent of terrestrial species, proving to be the cornucopia of biodiversity. In other aspects, approximately 1 billion people worldwide obtain essential nutrients from forests

HANOI, Vietnam - Provincial governments of Korea and Vietnam boasted their abundant infrastructure, key industries, and investor incentives during the Korea-Vietnam Economic Cooperation Forum held on Friday in Hanoi, Vietnam, pinning high hopes on elevated ties between the two countries. Kim Young-hwan, governor of North Chungcheong Province, suggested Korea and Vietnam work together to diversify global supply chains that are heavily reliant on China amid the escalating US-China rivalry. North C

HANOI, Vietnam - South Korea’s Myongji Hospital and Vietnam’s Thai Binh Province on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding to boost the healthcare partnership between the two parties, on the sidelines of the Korea-Vietnam Economic Cooperation Forum 2022 held at InterContinental Hanoi Landmark72. The agreement, signed by Lee Wang-jun, chairman of Myongji Medical Foundation, and Pham Quang Hoa, director of Thai Binh Department of Health, aims to develop the Vietnamese provincial g

HANOI, Vietnam - Jeong Man-ki, vice chairman of the Korea International Trade Association, stressed now is the time for South Korea and Vietnam to seek the next level of economic ties as the two nations face structural and geopolitical challenges in his keynote speech during the Korea-Vietnam Economic Cooperation Forum held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Friday. Under the title “Great Together, Next Prosperity 100,” Herald Corp., publisher of The Korea Herald and Herald Business, held the for

SK Group said Sunday it is ramping up efforts to bolster the role of outside board members in a way to help its board of directors play a more active role as the top decision-making body and elevate corporate value ultimately. After giving them more authority like evaluating CEO performance, the chip-to-energy giant said it is launching new measures to boost the board’s expertise and prowess across affiliates. Currently, SK Inc., the holding unit, has a nine-member board consisting of four

KT Corp. said Thursday it is making a strategic investment worth $2 million in Sonde Health, a US voice biomarker tech startup that analyzes people’s voice to recognize depression, anxiety and respiratory problems. The Boston-based firm, equipped with the world’s largest amount of data on voice health, has already secured partnerships with global tech companies like Qualcomm and GN Group. Vocal biomarkers are gaining renewed attention recently, with voice-related services from smartp

Foldable phones may have prompted the demand for devices with an expandable screen, but Samsung Electronics seems not interested in slidable phones due to lukewarm marketability, an analyst said Wednesday. “The market for foldable phones overlaps with that for slidable phones. It will be difficult for slidable phones to create its own market,” said Yi Choong-hoon, CEO and top analyst of Seoul-based display market tracker UBI Research at a conference. “Samsung seems uninterested

LG Display said Tuesday that it has developed the world’s first high-resolution stretchable display that can be elongated by 20 percent, a technological breakthrough with numerous potential industrial uses. According to the company, the full-color 12-inch display can be extended to a size of 14 inches. Despite the heightened flexibility, the display supports 100 pixels per inch, a similar resolution to other monitors on the market. Stretchable displays are also called “free-form disp

Dutch chip equipment giant ASML Holding’s CEO Peter Wennink will visit South Korea next week to attend the groundbreaking ceremony of the company’s new Korean headquarters, located in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, that aims to bolster responsiveness to local client demands. Korea is home to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the world’s top two memory chipmakers, which take up more than 30 percent of ASML’s total sales. For the new facilities, the Dutch firm will spend a to

Chinese electric vehicle battery makers are quickly gobbling up market share from their South Korean rivals, largely buoyed by a surging demand at home, data showed Thursday. According to Seoul-based market tracker SNE Research, China’s CATL retained its top spot in global sales in the January-September period as it supplied 119.9 gigawatt-hours of batteries, more than doubling from a year ago. Its market share increased from 30.7 percent to 35.1 percent, widening the gap with Korea’

Samsung Electronics on Thursday held an extraordinary shareholders meeting – the first in six years – to appoint two outside directors – Yoo Myung-hee, a former trade minister, and Heo Eun-nyeong, an economics professor. Yoo served as the nation’s top negotiator for free trade talks during the Moon Jae-in administration. She was also one of the final candidates to run for the director-general of the World Trade Organization in 2020. Yoo, a trade specialist, is expected to

Lee Jae-yong’s formal ascension to the top seat at Samsung Electronics, the crown jewel of the nation’s largest conglomerate, is fueling speculation about potential changes in the founding family’s governance structure across Samsung companies. His promotion to chairman has long been considered a crucial step for Lee to wield more power at Samsung. With the new title, Lee’s vision for a “New Samsung” will take a clearer shape, while stalled talks on mega deals

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday marked the 53rd anniversary of its foundation in a toned-down event, out of respect for the victims of the recent deadly Itaewon crowd crush. The annual event, held at a convention center in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, is typically one of the Korean tech giant’s biggest celebrations. This year in particular, speculation was running high that recently promoted Chairman Lee Jae-yong would unveil concrete plans for his “New Samsung” vision. But the moo

SK C&C, the operator of the fire-hit Kakao Corp.’s data center, on Thursday denied a report that it had ignored two fire alerts made hours before the servers went down last week due to a fire in batteries. The company said its battery management system worked properly until the fire broke out at the SK facility in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, on Saturday, revealing the actual graph showing a stable movement both in electricity and voltage. A BMS monitors the temperatures across the batte

In a surprising move, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won has recently stepped up as an evangelist for hansik, or Korean food, even though his sprawling energy-to-chip business has no food subsidiary. Last month, he hosted a banquet at a fancy hansik restaurant in New York to invite a dozen UN ambassadors and introduced them Korean cuisine and its unique ingredients. He even appeared in a TV show as a main host to discuss ways to nurture K-food as a potent industry that appeals to the global audience

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chip maker, has denied any plans to reduce production of memory chips, amid widespread fear of an economic slowdown and falling chip prices. “We have no plan to do so for now,” Han Jin-man, senior vice president of Samsung’s memory chip business division, told reporters at a tech forum on Wednesday in San Jose, California, in response to a question about potential production reduction plans. Han’s remarks come as Sam

LG Energy Solution said Wednesday it has launched two in-house ventures, called KooRoo and AVEL, allowing its employees more independence and flexibility to spur innovation in its battery business ecosystem. KooRoo is a battery as a service (BaaS) company that offers services based on data generated throughout the whole life cycle of batteries. Their first project is a battery pack replacement service for two-wheeled vehicles like an electric bicycle. AVEL is an energy as a service (EaaS) compan

Samsung Electronics unveiled a five-year road map for its contract chipmaking business Monday, saying it would start producing chips using the 2-nanometer technology in 2025 and the 1.4-nanometer technology in 2027. The new plan came after the South Korean tech giant became the first chipmaker to produce chips on the 3nm production process, the most sophisticated chipmaking technology in the market, in June. Chips with smaller nanometer ratings are more powerful, as they can fit in more transist