The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries is analyzing Russia’s North Pole Route development plan approved in August last year. The Russian government is planning to invest 1.8 trillion rubles (US$24 billion) for 12 years to come so that Europe and Asia can become more closely connected via the route.The
The South Korean government has decided to open the Gadeokdo Airport in December 2029, 66 months ahead of the previous schedule.Previously, the airport was scheduled to be opened in June 2035 after 116 months of construction. According to the government’s announcement on March 14, the construction p
South Korea’s nominal GDP per capita is expected to exceed Japan’s this year. In 2021, the GDPs of the country were US$35,003 and US$39,301, respectively. The figures are estimated to have changed to US$33,591 and US$34,357 in 2022.According to experts, the former is likely to exceed the latter this
Korea National Railway announced that its Chairman Kim Han-young attended the 11th UIC High-Speed Congress held in Morocco from July 7 to 10. UIC stands for Union Internationale des Chemins de fer in French and the International Union of Railways in English.At the opening event on March 7, Kim gave
Kumho Tire announced on March 10 that the governor of the state of Louisiana in the United States visited its headquarters.An Asian trade delegation led by Governor John Bel Edwards visited Kumho Tire’s headquarters in Seoul and met with Kumho Tire’s management. Kumho Tire CEO Jeong Il-taek, Vice Pr
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio tabled a bill on March 9 so that subsidies based on the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act cannot be provided in the case of technology introduction based on a license contract with a certain country.The bill targets CATL, which is planning to build a plant in the United States to
The heads of the top five South Korean business groups are scheduled to visit Japan on March 16 together with President Yoon Suk-yeol. There, a round table of the Federation of Korean Industries and the Japan Business Federation is scheduled for March 17.The South Korean and Japanese governments rec
The European Union (EU) has extended the deadline for announcing the result of its review of a merger between Korean Air and Asiana Airlines.On March 8, the European Commission (EC) announced that it would put off making a decision on whether to approve the merger scheduled for July 6 for another 20
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) released its Women in Work Index on March 8, which is related to the employment of women in 33 OECD member states.According to the index, the male-female wage gap of South Korea is 31.1 percent, the highest in the group. The opposite is Luxembourg with 0.5 percent. The g
Insurance companies are supposed to submit their tenth preparedness assessment reports to the Financial Supervisory Service by this month regarding the Korea Insurance Capital Standard (K-ICS) based on IFRS 17 introduced this year.According to industry sources, major insurers are well prepared for t
Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun is scheduled to stay in Washington, D.C. from March 8 to 10 to discuss the CHIPS and Science Act.The act became effective in August last year so that financial and tax incentives can be given to companies investing in the U.S. semiconductor industry. The act stipulates US
HMM announced on March 6 that it will provide free shipping services for Korean relief goods and residential container boxes to Türkiye, which has suffered from recent massive earthquakes.HMM, the only Korean shipping company providing regular European services, started transporting relief supplies
With bilateral relations between South Korea and Japan expected to improve, the number of South Koreans visiting Japan is increasing along with Japanese automakers’ sales volumes in South Korea.In January this year, the number of such people was 683,038, the largest since the outbreak of COVID-19. T
The New York Times reported that South Korea’s defense industry is benefiting greatly from the war in Ukraine.According to the report, arms exports from South Korea hit an all-time high of US$17.3 billion last year, up 140 percent from a year ago, and those include US$12.4 billion of contracts concl
Chey Tae-won, chairman of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry and SK Group, met with the prime ministers of Spain, Denmark, and Portugal in his role as a presidential envoy to ask for the three nations’ support for Busan’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo.The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Indu
The Center for Strategic and International Studies said in its report on March 3 that the United States needs to include South Korea and Germany in its semiconductor manufacturing equipment export ban targeting China.“South Korea is a leading chip manufacturer and Germany is a main supplier of key p
The Japanese government is considering lifting its export ban in return for the South Korean government stopping its WTO litigation. The former implemented the ban targeting South Korea in July 2019 to block the export of key semiconductor and display materials. The latter brought the case to the WT
The South Korean and Japanese governments are pushing ahead with third-party payment to wrap up their forced wartime labor issue. The plan is to set up a foundation so that South Korean enterprises that benefited from a 1965 agreement can raise financial resources and pay victims via the foundation.
Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) announced that the standard design of KHNP’s APR1000, a nuclear reactor exported to Europe, a design certification (EUR Certificate) from the European Utility Requirements Organization on Feb. 2 (local time).As a result, the APR1000 has secured additional competiti
As the US government announced conditions on payment of production subsidies under the CHIPS Act, Korean semiconductor companies have been brooding over how to respond to the conditions. This is because the United States put forward strict conditions difficult for private companies to accept such as