On July 6, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced that its minister, Lee Young, held a meeting with Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE Minister of Economy, in the 63 Building in Yeouido, Seoul, to discuss strengthening the cooperation between small and medium-sized venture businesses.The minis
“China’s OLEDs for smartphones have strong price competitiveness,” said Lee Chung-hun, CEO of UBI Research, at the 2023 OLED & Micro Display Seminar at the Federation of Korean Industry Tower in Seoul on July 5. “China will hog the market for organic light-emitting diode displays for smartphones.”Ac
Plans to provide incentives for foreign workers who have worked in one workplace for a year after their first entry into the country are being pursued. This is due to the many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) struggling with labor shortages caused by frequent job changes by foreign workers.
The Korean government will grant tax benefits to investments in video content production equivalent to investments in the nation’s strategic technologies such as semiconductors. This is aims to grow Korean content as an export-oriented industry and help Korea take off to become one of the world’s fo
With regard to batteries, the mood is changing in Europe, which has been pushing for battery self-sufficiency to lower its dependence on Korea for batteries. With the proliferation of startup battery companies in Europe, demand for battery materials is expected to surge there. Faced with technologic
It has been 30 years since Korea began hiring foreign workers in earnest with the introduction of the Industrial Trainee System in 1993, which was replaced by the employment permit system in 2004. But chaos is still lingering in the field.According to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on Jul
The author is an analyst for NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at minjae.lee@nhqv.com -- Ed.With the number of apartment units up for pre-sale in 1H23 arriving at the lowest level since 2010, unsold apartment number has slid. In terms of undersubscription ratio, however, the 1H23 figure
Hanwha has successfully conducted a demonstration test of the world's first medium-to-large scale gas turbine capable of generating more than 50% of its power from hydrogen, developed in partnership with Korea Western Power.Hanwha Impact successfully demonstrated a 59.5% hydrogen mixture in a me
The Korean Ministry of Employment and Labor has decided to increase the number of foreign workers in Korea to 110,000 in 2023, up from 50,000 to 60,000 a year for the past five years. This is the largest number since the introduction of the Employment Permit System for foreign workers in Korea.The E
Last year, companies’ debt-to-equity ratio hit an eight-year high of about 102 percent. The rising interest rate increased interest burdens and toughened business conditions. The number of zombie companies unable to cover interest expenses with operating income reached 35 percent.The interest covera
On June 13, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) rejected a voluntary consent resolution plan proposed by Broadcom, a U.S. telecommunications semiconductor company, after being accused of abusing Samsung Electronics. This is because the KFTC judged that the amount of compensation for the damage wa
In 2022, the operating incomes of more than 1,600 listed companies in Korea fell by one-third year over year, while interest expenses shot up by one-third, indicating a general deterioration in their profitability and stability, according to an analysis.The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KC
The income gap between workers at large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) widens from 1.4 times when they are in their early 20s to 2.5 times when in their early 50s.According to job administrative statistics by the Korean Statistical Information Service (KOSIS) on June 11, the
Foreign workers who enter the country on non-specialist (E-9) visas should be prohibited from changing their assigned workplaces for a certain period of time, said Noh Min-sun, a researcher at the Korea Small and Medium Enterprise Institute, at a policy discussion on foreign workers for Korean SMEs
The author is an analyst for NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at ys.jung@nhqv.com -- Ed.We lower our TP on HMD by 8% to W103,000, as we temper our expectations for the firm’s pace of profit improvement to reflect sustained impacts from low-margin shipbuilding this year. However, the dir
Small and medium-sized Korean cosmetics companies are making a splash in the Japanese market.According to industry sources on May 23, small and medium-sized Korean beauty brands are making great achievements in the Japanese market as they are targeting online and offline simultaneously based on thei
HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) announced on May 19 that it has signed a contract on the construction of two petrochemical carriers (PCs) with an African shipping company. The order is 117.3 billion won (US$88.51 million). The ships will be built by Hyundai Mipo Shipbuilding and
Huawei, which has been hit hard by the U.S. ban on semiconductor equipment exports to China, made a winning move by entering the digital transformation (DX) business in the industrial field.The Chinese IT giant held the Huawei Asia-Pacific Partner Conference 2023 in Shenzhen, China, on May 17 (local
Samsung Electronics will establish a semiconductor research and development (R&D) center in Japan. The move is seen as a strategy to shorten R&D time through close cooperation with Japan’s leading material, parts, and equipment companies.Samsung Electronics is considering investing 30 billion yen (a
KB Kookmin Bank announced that KB Bukopin, a subsidiary of KB Kookmin Bank in Indonesia, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with local energy company Indika Energy Group to rev up electric vehicle ecosystems in Indonesia.Established in 1970, KB Bukopin has a history of more than 50 years and