Daewoo Engineering and Construction, the nation’s third-largest builder, won its first construction contract in Indonesia in 12 years. The company will share a $82 million project to develop a business district in its capital city of Jakarta last week. Daewoo E&C said it won the mixed-use complex development deal named as “District8 Mixed Complex Project” from Agung Sedayu Group, a leading Indonesian developer, last Friday. Under the deal, the Korean company will build two office buildings of 41

The number of global patent disputes involving Korean companies has soared amid intensifying trade protectionism around the world, a report suggested on Wednesday. The number of international patent lawsuits between Korean companies and foreign firms skyrocketed to 210 in the first half of this year, a 130.8 percent rise from the same period last year, according to combined data from the Korean Intellectual Property Office and the Korea Intellectual Property Protection Association. The data was

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Tuesday it would investigate a Korean Air flight’s overrun of a runway while it was landing at a Japanese airport. According to the ministry, a Boeing 737 passenger plane operated by the nation’s flagship carrier overran the runway when it landed in Niigata Airport at around 8 p.m. on Monday. There were no injuries reported among the passengers or crew. It is not yet known what caused the landing problem. To prevent a repeat of the incident

Kim Dong-kwan, 31, the heir apparent of Hanwha Group, is expanding his leadership role in the solar energy business, the group’s future growth engine, as the group suffers a leadership vacuum. The group, which is the nation’s 10th-largest conglomerate by assets, has been run by the “emergency management committee” composed of experienced executives from across the group since last August when group owner and chairman Kim Seung-youn received a four-year jail term for embezzlement.Last week, Hanwh

Hyundai Heavy Industries bolstered its presence as a global power plant builder in Saudi Arabia as it clinched its fourth mega-power plant construction deal with state-run Saudi Electricity Company. According to the company, HHI CEO Lee Jae-seong and SEC chairman Saleh bin Hussein Al Awaji signed a $3.3 billion power plant construction deal for the Shuqaiq steam power project in Riyadh on Sunday. In the deal, Hyundai Heavy will build a thermal power plant with a 2,640-megawatt capacity near the

The government’s move to raise the ceiling for loans exclusively for “jeonse” is facing criticism for its potential negative effect on mounting household debt. Jeonse is a rental system under which tenants put up a lump-sum deposit for rent, instead of monthly rental fee. Property owners either invest the jeonse deposit or collect interest on the sum through their bank. Jeonse rental costs have soared particularly in Seoul due to a supply shortage as people delay making home purchases due to fal

The Busan-Jinhae Free Economic Zone Authority said on Sunday it would launch the first photo contest under the theme of the BJFEZ as part its promotion efforts. To join the photo competition, applicants should send one or two photos with the BJFEZ theme in both hard copy and digital format to the Authority between Oct. 1 and 31. The Authority will offer cash prizes of 9.2 million won ($8,200) for 24 photos. The top award winner will receive 2 million won as a cash prize. The gold medal winner an

As the number of foreign nationals in Korea ― including Asian workers, tourists and multicultural families ― soars to some 1.5 million, the Korea Forest Service, the nation’s forest policy maker, is preparing to open the first foreigner-friendly national recreational forest in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, next year as part of its forest-based welfare policy for citizens, a senior KFS official said.“The first-of-its-kind national recreational forest, to be named ‘ASEAN Recreational Forest,’ will of

The nation’s Foreign Economic Zones are expected to lure more private developers and real estate investment immigrants as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy revised qualifications for land development and foreign real estate investment. The revised bill on the special law for FEZs, specially designated regions to attract foreign investment, will be sent to the regular session of the National Assembly this fall, the ministry said in a press release on Wednesday. “To step up land developme

Representatives from more than 100 South Korean companies running factories in the Gaeseong industrial complex Tuesday urged the South and North Korean governments to resume talks for an early normalization of the factory park.At the end of a hurriedly-convened meeting in Yeouido, central Seoul, the companies also called on South and North Korea to allow them to dispatch their factory managers to the industrial park to check on the production facilities.The statement came a day after the South K

Following is an excerpt of an interview between brand marketing guru Kevin Lane Keller and SERI Quarterly. Q: Korean global brands like Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor have become globalized and more interested in brand marketing. There are many definitions of brand marketing. What is yours?A: Brand marketing is not very different from marketing. The reality is brands are often the focus of what marketing is for, whether it is a corporate brand or product brand. Marketing is about satisfyi

Korea Midland Power Co., one of six power generation subsidiaries of state-run Korea Electric Power Corp., is speeding up its overseas business expansion, backed by the success of its Cirebon power plant project in Indonesia. In April this year, KOMIPO inked a memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian government to construct and operate a large-scale hydroelectric power plant with a capacity of 284 megawatts in the Murung Raya region of Kalimantan Island, Indonesia. The Muara Juloi hydropo

The Korea Herald is publishing a series of articles on infrastructure as part of its second installment of Power Korea. Korea’s success story is a 60-year-old tale written by not one, but many who worked to build one of the world’s most powerful nations from the ashes of war. This series features the development and global competitiveness of Korea’s infrastructure. The special articles were made in cooperation with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. This is the seventh and last

The agricultural industry, which has long slumped under a heavy dependency on labor-intensive and low-margin production processes, faces structural reform as the government seeks to cultivate areas such as food processing and tourism. The plan forms a vision for a “sixth industrialization” of the agricultural industry over the next five years. “To realize the vision, the government set a goal of cultivating about 1,000 non-agro companies by 2017 whose sales exceed more 10 billion won ($9 million

The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries unveiled on Thursday a master plan to tap economic opportunities in the Arctic, which includes developing a shipping route and natural resources in Greenland.The ministry has pushed for development of the plan since last May when Korea won permanent observer status at the Arctic Council, the international body in charge of not only environmental protection but also economic development projects in the North Pole region.  The melting of ice in the Arctic is a

“Healing” has become a buzzword in Korea following the “well-being” trend. Despite Korea’s economic success in a short period of time, many people are reluctant to say they are happy. Korea’s suicide rate has remained the highest among the nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development for eight years in a row from 2005 to 2012. Experts said too much competition is a main factor for Koreans’ poor mental health. All age groups say they feel stressed in daily life, for differ

Doosan Group chairman Park Yong-maan, 58, is actively engaging in socializing activities, not only at home but also overseas in a bid to strengthen brand image of Doosan as a global infrastructure giant. Doosan boasts the longest corporate history in Korea, but it is a new player in infrastructure, as it transformed from a food and beverage giant into a heavy industry player through a number of merger-and-acquisition deals in the 2000s. The Doosan Business Forum is one of such networking events

A long-sought policy project to allow duty-free shops in the arrivals area of Incheon International Airport is likely to be delayed again as the ministries involved remain at odds over the plan.The Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport ― the two main ministries with an interest in the plan ― have failed to reach an agreement for more than six months. The Office for Government Policy Coordination under the Prime Minister’s Office intervened to put

In response to rising global demand for cruise vacations, the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries unveiled a road map for the cultivation of the cruise industry on Wednesday. According to the Cruise Lines International Association, the prolonged global economic downturn has had little impact on the double-digit growth of the global cruise industry. The industry has grown on average 10.3 percent annually between 2000 and 2012. Last year alone, 20 million cruise vacationers worldwide spent $36.2 billi

S-Oil Science Prodigy and Culture Foundation, a non-profit foundation established by S-Oil, the nation’s third-largest oil refiner, presented professor Kim Vic-narry of the School of Biological Sciences at Seoul National University with the scientist of the year award Wednesday.The award, established in 2012, is given each year to an exemplary Korea-based researcher in the basic sciences and is designed to help encourage the development of Nobel Prize winners from Korea in the near future. Profe