With the United States putting pressure on South Korea to revise the free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries, South Korea’s trade surplus with the U.S. for the first seven months of this year plunged 35 percent. The country’s trade surplus with the U.S. in July alone also fell 9.8 perce
The Moon Jae-in administration will start raising the rate of taxation for large businesses next year. Going against the latest trend that many countries are scrambling to lower corporate taxes, the government will increase the top marginal corporate income tax rate by 3 percent points and reduce th
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) exported submarines for the first time in Korea. In 1988, this rare feat was accomplished in 30 years since Korea has made a lot of efforts to develop its own submarine after receiving technology from Germany.On July 2, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Eng
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy announced on August 1 that South Korea’s total exports reached US$48.85 billion last month, up 19.5% from a year ago. The total exports showed a double-digit growth for the seventh consecutive month.Ship exports showed a year-on-year increase of no less than
Porsche Korea also suspended its local sales of the “Cayenne Diesel” model recalled in Europe after its environmental certificates were revoked due to an exhaust gas emission rigging deviceOn July 31, Porsche Korea sent an official letter to the dealership to discontinue Cayenne Diesel deliveries to
The Ministry of SMEs & Startups and the Korea Venture Investment Corporation announced on July 26 that they add a total of 870 billion won (US$783 million) in a new fund of funds. This has to do with the Moon Jae-in administration’s policy to concentrate on the growth of SMEs, venture firms and star
The Korean government begins working-level consultation to give US$10 billion in financial package support for infrastructure development in India.The Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance announced on July 26 that the ministry will hold a working-level consultation with India's Ministry of Financ
With an investment fever about virtual currencies such as bit coins showing no sign of cooling off, it is pointed out that virtual currency exchanges are rather encouraging speculation. This is because virtual currency exchanges allow investors to short-buy or short-sell foreign currencies up to fou
In the first half of this year, foreign investment in Korean free economic zones reached US$1.7 billion, the second highest in history.According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy on July 25, foreign investment in these zones in the first half of the year grew 167% to US$1.7 billion fr
The Korean government predicted the nation’s GDP growth of 3.0 percent this year in the new government’s economic policy direction announced on July 25.In December of last year, the government forecast that Korea’s GDP would only grow 2.6 percent from the previous year in its "2017 economic policy d
In response to the USTR’s proposal to hold a meeting for revision of the Korea-US FTA in Washington, DC within one month, the Korean government made a counterproposal, saying, “Let’s have a meeting in Seoul after a new Korean trade minister is appointed.” The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Ene
The South Korean government is planning to reach US$200 billion in terms of the total value of overseas construction orders obtained from 2017 to 2021. For reference, the annual total of the value has been on average about US$100 billion for years.The government’s rather humble goal has to do with a
As Mercedes-Benz’s parent firm Daimler is now being investigated for alleged emission cheating overseas, it has stirred up some controversy in South Korea as well. Customers are asking questions if they should cancel their orders and some consumers are preparing for filing a civil action against the
If Solid sells off Pantech’s Internet (IoT) business after pulling out of Pantech's smartphone business and selling its smartphone patents, Pantech will be virtually broken up. When Solid sells off the company in July as planned, Pantech, which is a synonym for a myth of a venture start-up’s success
The “VR Shopping Mall” where people can buy goods in a virtual reality world, will open for the first time during the Korea Sales Festa at the end of September.The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE) announced on July 24 that the ministry held a business agreement ceremony for the prom
A mass production technology of micro LEDs, which are attracting attention as a next generation display after organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), was developed by Korean researchers.The Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) under the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announ
The size of assets under management by South Korea's state pension fund surpassed the 600 trillion won (US$536.19 billion) mark for the first time.According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) and National Pension Service (NPS) on July 23, the total value of funds managed by the NPS reached
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy of South Korea announced on July 23 that the 19th round of negotiations for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) takes place from July 24 to 28 in Hyderabad, India.The negotiations are scheduled to be attended by director general for FTA neg
The new ministry’s core business of is to bring out an innovative economy centered on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and venture start-ups by correcting the nation’s economic structure which favored big business over small ones so that the structure has been called “an unlevel playing fie
Major Korean corporations are beginning to build overseas production bases one after another not only to reduce costs, but also to promptly respond to overseas demand. Building overseas production bases is also effective in avoiding trade restrictions because trade barriers of protectionism are incr