It has been found that the Bank of Korea entrusted the management of US$5 billion to Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), the sovereign wealth fund of South Korea, last year after a hiatus of five years. Back in 2007, the central bank had entrusted a record high of US$11.1 billion.KIC began to provid
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on January 17, the number of electric vehicles (EVs) registered in South Korea last year amounted to 10,855. The figure is about 31 times higher than 344 in 2011.Most EV owners reside in Jeju Island so a half of EVs, totaling 5,629 unit
The Ministry of Strategy & Finance of South Korea announced on January 17 that the currency swap agreement between South Korea and China might be expired without extension in October this year although the two countries agreed with each other about its extension in March last year. This has to do wi
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy announced on January 16 that South Korea’s component and material exports fell 4.8% from a year ago to US$251.9 billion last year while its imports of the same items fell 4.5% to US$152.5 billion during the same period. The surplus, US$99.4 billion, decreased
The signing of a contract between the Ministry of National Defense and Lotte Group to secure the location of a US missile defense system in South Korea is expected to be delayed.The Ministry of National Defense plans to complete the acquisition of a golf course owned by the Lotte Group conglomerate
The National Pension Service (NPS) whose fund management was hindered by the Special Prosecution Team’s extensive investigation into a merger between Samsung C&T and Cheil Industries, will open a fund management committee meeting at the end of this month to normalize fund management. In particular,
The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy of South Korea decided to initiate restructuring with regard to oversupply petrochemical items such as terephthalic acid, polystyrene, butadiene rubber, styrene butadiene rubber and polyvinyl chloride.In addition, it is going to work on functional and high va
Volkswagen will begin the first recall in South Korea in a year and four months after the carmaker's scandal that installed emissions-defeating software on its cars to fabricate results broke out.The Ministry of Environment announced on January 12 that it has approved Audi Volkswagen Korea’s recall
The Ministry of Strategy & Finance of South Korea decided on January 11 to issue a foreign exchange stabilization bond of US$1 billion. The announcement was made immediately after Strategy & Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho’s meeting with entrepreneurs on the current state of the South Korean economy in N
The Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office indicted one Audi Volkswagen Korea (AVK) director in charge of vehicle certification and charged without detention AVK CEO Johannes Thammer, former AVK CEO Trevor Hill, former Volkswagen Korea president Park Dong-hoon and five other AVK executive and st
It has been found that the South Korean smart healthcare industry is mired in excessive regulations. Last year, no more than three mobile healthcare apps obtained the local medical device authorization and one out of the three was the National Health Insurance Service’s to boot. Each of the three ap
The Korea Financial Investment Association announced on January 10 that bond issuance in South Korea totaled 580.5 trillion won (US$481.8 billion) last year, down 13.91% from a year ago to show a negative growth for the first time since 2010.The issuance of special bonds by public institutions and t
It was found that Korea's exports of automobiles contracted 11.8 percent last year. They were affected by the recession and the expansion of overseas production.According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy (MOCIE), the output of automobile industry in 2016 slid 7.2 percent, domestic sa
The Ministry of Environment of South Korea announced on January 9 that it would provide fine dust forecast based on a supercomputer from April this year onwards and increase the accuracy of high-concentration fine dust forecast from 63% to 70%.In addition, the ministry is planning to increase the nu
The South Korean government will set up “Korea Shipping Company” worth 1 trillion won (US$835.77 million) by the end of this month in order to strengthen the international competitiveness of the shipping and port logistics industry.The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries reported the “2017 major projec
The Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning of South Korea is examining various plans in order to boost the efficiency of frequency use.These plans can be roughly divided into prices different from region to region that are applied to the use of radio frequency for certain purposes and the lendin
South Korea’s Finance Ministry expressed regrets over Japan’s decision to suspend bilateral talks on a currency swap deal owing to rising diplomatic tensions.“We regret that the talks on the Korea-Japan currency swap deal was suspended due to political and diplomatic issues,” the Ministry of Strateg
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure & Transport announced on January 5 that a self-driving electric shuttle bus will be put into service late this year in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province. The bus is scheduled to carry up to 12 passengers along a 2.5 kilometer-long one-way route between Pangyo Station and
The Chinese government is showing a two-faced attitude with regard to THAAD system deployment in the Korean Peninsula. Specifically, it is trying to control public opinions by discussing the issue with South Korean lawmakers while making no response at all to the South Korean government’s official l
The Small & Medium Business Administration and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy announced the launching of their Hidden Champion Project for this year on January 4. The project is divided into the World Class 300 & Global Industry Leader Project and the Global Hidden Champion Project.The gov