One of the ideas to surface in the run-up to the Korean elections was that chaebols should once more be permitted to invest in banks. The proposed revision in policy prompted KBS to try to do a brief survey of practices in various markets in relation to rules regarding ownership of banks by non-bank companies. … [Read More]
Category: Business & economy (page 10)
Contemporary Korean class struggles: a marxist analysis
Those Koreanists who looked at the timing of the talk by Loren Goldner and decided to give it a miss were probably well advised. 6pm on a Saturday night is not the best time to pull in the punters. But inside the rather pokey Kings Cross bookshop it was standing room only. Those who turned … [Read More]
LKL 2007 Quiz of the Year – the answers
Question 1: Corporate crooks and corruption Match the alleged quote with the appropriate chaebol The conglomorate had run a vast network that bribed government officials, prosecutors, tax collectors, journalists and scholars I don’t want to take a gamble on causing a crisis in the country’s economy The sentence of one year and six months is … [Read More]
Now comes the hard part: the task facing the Lee Myung-bak presidency
The easy bit was to capitalise on disaffection with the Roh regime. Now President-elect Lee has to figure out how to deliver on his election slogan: the 747 economy. So now Lee has to set South Korea on a course where annual GDP growth is 7%, GDP per head is $40,000 per annum, and South … [Read More]
Thank goodness for that
I’m not sure what audience BBC World TV is aimed at, and I’m not sure that the BBC know either, which is why it is so bland. And because the channel is done on a budget, the programmes are in part funded by advertisements, and the content is padded out by trailers and is endlessly … [Read More]
A Chuseok-themed marketing campaign
US retail banking giant Chase have been aiming to show their cultural awareness. They missed the golden opportunity to launch this marketing campaign at the turn of the lunar Year of the Golden Pig, but have made up for it by running it to coincide with Chuseok. The deal is this. You have to go … [Read More]
Busan, hub city?
OK, so I didn’t make it to PIFF this year. I don’t think I’m ever likely to: time away from work is precious, and to be spent with one’s beloved. If one’s beloved isn’t in to sitting in a darkened movie theatre straining to read the subtitles for days on end (and I’m not sure … [Read More]
Another industry in which Korea leads the world
We all knew Korea had some world-beating industries: ships, chips, LCD screens. Add to that the manufacture of condoms, where three Korean companies – Unidus, Dongkuk Trading and Hankook Latex – account for 30% of the global market, according to the Chosun. Maybe there’s a big domestic demand – for example for high school field … [Read More]
Richard Stubbs: Rethinking Asia’s Economic Miracle
(Palgrave MacMillan, 2005) Stubbs’s thesis is simple: that one of the key drivers of Asia’s economic growth has been not free market economics, not Confucian values, not the developmental state, not Japanese or American hegemony, but war, both hot and cold. Stubbs takes seven countries – South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and … [Read More]
Where next for Samsung and Chelsea?
The departure of Jose Mourinho from Chelsea is not good news from the perspective of Samsung’s multi-million, multi-year sponsorship deal (which still has a couple of years to run). I don’t pretend to be able to judge new manager Avram Grant’s ability to keep the team’s performance up — though an obvious comment would be … [Read More]
Korea still an emerging market
More than 10 years after joining the OECD, South Korea is still an emerging market. FTSE (the company owned by the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange) has recently been reviewing the constituent countries in its various global equity indices. In drawing up the indices, they categorise countries into three lists: Developed, Advanced Emerging, … [Read More]
Jackie Choi London at 100% Design and Somerset House
Jackie Choi London, the Korean designers whose “Eye” chair was featured on Graham Norton’s show, are showing new designs at 100% Design 2007 (Earls Court, 20-24 September). The sideboard above was inspired by Lucio Fontana and his “Slash” series of works, (example right). The Choi sisters will also be launching a pewter candelabra (left) in … [Read More]
British designer boosted by degree faker
Alexander McQueen’s tops have been flying off the shelves of a trendy Apgujeong department store (at $200 a time) ever since Shin Jeong-ah was papped in JFK wearing this: McQ can be bought at HANDSOME-SPACE MUE, 93-6 Chungdam-dong, Kangnam, if you’re quick. Source: Chosun Ilbo Links: Alexander McQueen website [Read More]
Spot the difference: Starburst and June Bum Park
Watch the two videos below and tell me if you think one was influenced by the other. The top video is a new TV commercial for a new variant of the chewy sweet formerly known as Opal Fruits. The commercial (known as Starburst Choozers – Licking Policeman) is produced by London advertising agency TBWA according … [Read More]
KEB blow by blow
Reports of HSBC’s renewed interest in KEB have given me the impetus to resurrect a post which has been work-in-progress for a while. I’ve been periodically trying to google back in time to reconstruct the whole KEB saga, and yesterday’s FT coverage gave a very useful framework on which to build. So here is another … [Read More]
The Grand Culture Project
At the SOAS / AKS conference on 26 June, the talk by Kim Hyeon, Associate Professor of Cultural Informatics at the Academy of Korean Studies, had the title “the Korean Wave, Cultural Content and Cultural Informatics”. “What on earth is Cultural Informatics?” I hear you ask. You would not be alone. But read on. The … [Read More]