Canada, India begin free trade talks

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in June. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press)

In Seoul, South Korea, for the G20 summit, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that negotiations for an agreement that could be worth as much as $6 billion a year to both countries has begun.

"Our government is committed to opening new markets for Canadian goods and services," Harper said in a statement. "Today, I am pleased to announce that we have taken another step on that path by launching trade negotiations with India."

The two countries have flirted with a trade agreement for years, before stepping up efforts of late. No timetable has been set for negotiations, however.

In recent months, Canada has been active in trade negotiations, as it seeks to diversify away from the increasingly wobbly U.S. economy. Negotiators are in the midst of a trade pact with the European Union that they hope to complete next year.

As it stands, trade between Canada and India is fairly low (two-way trade hit a modest record of $4.2 billion in 2009) but India is one of the world's largest and fastest growing economies. The two countries also signed a nuclear pact in June.

"This is a key milestone in our relationship. It demonstrates our increasing co-operation," Harper said.

Canada's free trade history with Asia has been rocky. Free trade talks with South Korea have quietly died because of irreconcilable differences over cars and Canadian beef. Talks announced years ago with Singapore have gone nowhere.

CBC News

Korea IMF quota set to rise to 1.8%

Korea will have a bigger voice at the International Monetary Fund, as the organization is expected to increase the country’s quota share from the current 1.41 percent to 1.8 percent as part of an adjustment that gives a greater say to emerging countries. The quota change will result in Korea becoming the 16th biggest voting power among the IMF’s 187 member nations, up two notches from 18th. Korea will increase its contribution to the IMF from $5.3 billion to $13.5 billion. The IMF executive board met on Friday, Washington time, to approve the readjustment of the quota system based on an agreement reached by the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Gyeongju last month. The IMF will transfer 6 percentage points of the quota from developed nations to emerging countries, including China, India and Turkey. This was a bigger allotment than that proposed at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh in September 2009, when it was decided that a quota shift would amount to 5 percentage points. This is the first change in the IMF quota structure in 12 years. “This historic agreement is the most fundamental governance overhaul in the Fund’s 65-year history,” Dominique Strauss-Kahn, IMF managing director said in a statement on Friday. The proposal will be voted upon by the 187 member nations by Dec. 15 and will be implemented once it receives by 85 percent of the IMF board. The proposal also needs to be approved by national legislatures. Along with Korea, quota shares for other emerging nations will increase, including China, which will see its quota raised from 4 percent to 6.39 percent, allowing the country to rank as the third-biggest power after the United States with 17.41 percent and Japan with 6.46 percent. The quota for Brazil, Russia and India were increased by 0.53, 0.21, and 0.31 percentage points, respectively. This means the so-called BRIC countries will have combined total of a 14.17 percent quota, allowing them to veto proposals with the aid of other emerging nations. The quotas for other nations, including Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Germany and Canada will fall. source:joongang daily

Asian economy in focus

Korean Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, left, and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner talk during the APEC finance ministers’ meeting on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. The finance ministers gathered to discuss the economic health of the Asian region.
source:joonganag daily

Building a company from a simple idea

[The faces inside KOREA’S CONGLOMERATES:94] The firm’s industrial paints have colored many buildings

Often some of the world’s greatest inventions start with the simplest idea. That was the case for Noroo Group, a major chemical conglomerate. 

During the period of Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945), Koreans were stripped of their own language and alphabet - crucial elements of national identity.

When the country regained independence in 1945, Korea lacked the paper and ink needed to spread its language again.

Han Chung-dae (1920-1998), a native of Hamheung, South Hamgyeong Province in North Korea, and a graduate of the Osaka Institute of Technology, started an ink business in 1945 to supply publishers.

“The motive was naive. We were created under a sense of responsibility, ‘rebuilding our country,’” the company said.

Such intentions are reflected in the company’s name.

Noroo means deer in Korean, after Han saw a pair of deer while on a trip to Europe. He said he wanted his company to be like a deer, which causes no harm to others and lives in peace.

In 1957, the company registered the Noroo brand, which many Koreans associate with a can of paint that features a big-eyed deer. 

In 1963, the company built its headquarters in Euljiro, central Seoul, which has become a major area for publishers, paint and other construction materials.

In 1968, the company’s paint was the first to be awarded a KS mark by the government, which denotes a product made with the highest industry standards.

In 1973, Noroo was listed on the stock exchange and in 1980 Han became chairman.

In 1991, the company became the first local paint manufacturer to have more than 100 billion won ($90.1 million) in sales.

Noroo Group has since grown into a major conglomerate with 12 affiliates that make ink, paint, resin and plastic. Noroo Paint is the group’s flagship company that manufactures some 10,000 paint products for buildings, consumer electronics and automobiles. It ranks second in this sector after KCC.

The group’s other subsidiaries include IPK that makes paints for vessels and industrial purposes; Noroo Chemicals that produces specialized paint; and Seda, a producer of printing ink, resins and chemical products.

Celebrating its 65th anniversary, the group expects around one trillion won in sales this year. 

The group’s sales rose to 928 billion won last year from 713 billion in 2007. 

The group has a target of achieving two trillion won in sales by 2015 by boosting research and development and expanding overseas.

Early this year, Noroo Group restructured its R&D facilities by setting up an R&D center for the group and another seven R&D operations linked to different affiliates. 

The R&D center will focus on the long-term development of new business areas, while the R&D affiliates are devoted to product development.

Noroo will spend around 20 billion won in R&D investment this year, up from 17.5 billion won last year.

One focus of its R&D efforts concerns the environment.

The company recently introduced a paint used for buildings that is expected to last 20 years, tripling the lifespan of the paint that is normally used.

It also introduced eco-friendly and child-friendly paint that reduces the content of such harmful ingredients as formaldehyde.

Also under development is paint containing hydrophile properties, which means that it becomes clean when it comes in contact with water.

The product, which eliminates the need for cleaning detergents, will likely be commercialized in three years’ time.

Another growing sector is that related to paints for mobile phones. Noroo supplies paint to major mobile phone makers like Nokia and Research in Motion.

It aims to increase its sales in this sector from 5 billion won to the 20 billion won level in the near future.

“We believe this segment will expand rapidly in coming years,” a Noroo official said.

The expansion of its international business is also important.

The local paint industry is valued at around 2.7 trillion won, while the global paint industry is worth around 50 trillion won.

Choi Gwang-kyun, the group’s vice president, has said the group wants to get 50 percent of its total sales from overseas business by 2015, up from its current ratio of approximately 20 percent.

The group has been expanding its presence overseas through mergers and acquisitions in several foreign markets, including China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. 

The group has had its eye on China since the 1990s.

“It’s important to succeed in the Chinese market to become a global company,” Choi has said. 

The company has supplied paint to some major construction and building projects, including the restoration of the Forbidden City in 1995 and again in 2005.

The man in charge of Noroo Group today is Han Young-jae, 55. The eldest son of the group’s founder, he holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Yonsei University and an MBA from Boston University. He joined the group in 1980.

Choi Gwang-kyun, the group’s vice president, joined the group in 1982 and has a bachelor’s degree in business from Korea University.

At the helm of Noroo Paint is Ahn Kyung-soo, who was appointed chairman in July.

He previously worked as an executive at major Korean conglomerates, including Daewoo and Samsung, as well as Japanese electronics giants Sony and Fujitsu.

Kim Soo-kyung is the company’s CEO and president. Kim is a university alumni with Han, having obtained his MBA from Boston University.

He joined the group the same year as Choi.
source:Joongang Daily

A ‘green’ summit

Preparations for the G-20 Summit over the weekend at COEX, southern Seoul, where global leaders will meet later this week. The backdrop of the meeting room shows an image of a rice paddy, symbolizing “Green growth,” one of the Lee Myung-bak administration’s key initiatives.
photo:yonhap

Korea’s first newspapers published in late 19th century

The Independent (Dongnip Sinmun in Korean), the first independently owned newspaper in the nation, began operations in 1896 and published a four-page edition (three pages in Korean and one page in English) three times a week. It became a daily newspaper later and the English section was published separately. / Korea Times file

By Robert Neff

One of the first newspapers in Korea was the Hanseong Sunbo, which began printing on Oct. 31, 1883. It wasn’t the first newspaper in Korea ― that honor belongs to the Chosen Shinpo, a Japanese-owned newspaper first published in Busan on December 10, 1881 ― but it was the first newspaper published in Seoul.

Pak Yong-hyo, a young Korean reformist, is given credit as establishing the paper but much of managing the daily operations and editing of the newspaper was performed by Inoue Kakugoro. Inoue was a 23-year-old Japanese who, in addition to his role in the newspaper, worked as an advisor for the Korean Foreign Affairs Office. The Hanseong Sunbo, which was printed every ten days and was written in classical Chinese, was almost immediately in political trouble.

Prof. Lankov describes the Hanseong Sunbo as having “informed its readers of the political life of the country and the world as well as ran educational articles on modern science and philosophy.” But it did more than that. Inoue wrote scathing articles about the Chinese including one entitled “The savagery of the Chinese” which quickly gained the ire of the dominant faction of Korea. These articles were answered with a pamphlet, printed in Chinese, calling for Inoue’s death. The Chinese government also weighed in by sending a strong protest to the Korean government chiding it for allowing “very impolite” material to be published. The pressure from the Chinese government was too much and in May 1884 Inoue resigned his positions with both the newspaper and the Korean government and returned to Japan.



In August, Inoue returned to Korea but in what official capacity is unclear. It is clear, however, that he was a key member in a plot to overthrow the Korean government. On Dec. 4, 1884, a group of young Korean reformists – including Kim Ok-kuin, Pak Yong-ho and So Chae-p’il, aided by members of the Japanese embassy – including Inoue, tried to seize the government, but failed and were forced to flee to Japan.

Unsurprisingly, the office and equipment of the Hanseong Sunbo, which was deemed the “embodiment of dangerous ideas”, were destroyed in the subsequent unrest.

But Inoue and the newspaper could not be stopped. He returned to Korea in March 1885 and was soon afterwards implicated in interfering in Korean politics. The Japanese government wanted to arrest him but, surreally, Inoue sought and received protection from the Korean Foreign Affairs. The Korean government refused to extradite him and in 1886 he helped revive the Hanseong Sunbo as a weekly (Hanseong Jubo). Prof. Lankov notes that the Hanseong Jubo “was in some respects more radical than its predecessor” but was also responsible for several firsts including publishing some articles in vernacular Korean and the printing the first business advertisement in Korea. But like its predecessor, it was short-lived and closed its office in 1888.

But Seoul was not without other newspapers. Throughout the 1890s there were several small papers published by Japanese, including a paper that published some of its articles in hanguel. These papers, however, were correctly seen as Japanese sponsored endeavors and were tainted by the roles some of their members played in Japanese-Korean affairs including the savage murder of Queen Min.

In late 1895, Yun Chi-ho, who had studied abroad and had served as the interpreter for the American legation in Seoul during the early 1880s, tried to establish his own newspaper but failed. His diary entry of Dec. 2, 1895, describes some of the reasons why:

“Dr. [Horace] Allen and Mr. [John] Sill (American Minister to Korea) have fits of fear on them. Mr. [Homer] Hulbert and I wanted to start a paper. But Dr. Allen and Mr. Sill told Hulbert that the Legation would at once come down on anything of the sort. They could not allow any refugee to start a paper opposed to the government under the American auspices direct or indirect. The representatives of Uncle Sam went so far as to say that the present government is the government de facto, because all the decrees are in the name of the King! Funny! Were not the decrees which appeared soon after the murder of Her Majesty all in the name of the King? How is it then that the American Legation which maintained the illegality of the Cabinet soon after the murder, because the King's decrees were issued under coercion, now turns round and says that the decrees now issued are legal? This inconsistency and weakness of the Legations have wronged many a people.”

Although Yun was disheartened, he didn’t have long to wait. So Chae-p’il, now an American citizen, returned to Korea in 1895 and established what has been heralded as the first independently owned newspaper in Korea, aptly named Dongnip Sinmun or the Independent.

The Independent began operations in April 1896 and published a four-page (three pages in Korean and one page in English) edition three times a week. As the paper gained popularity, the English section was published separately and it became a daily. Naturally, Yun Chi-ho also became involved in the newspaper and eventually came to run it after So was forced to leave Korea in April 1898.

By its nature the Independent tended to clash with the Korean government. It published articles that strongly attacked the increasing Russian influence in Korean politics and uncovered and reported the wrong-doings of government officials. It may have inspired other Koreans to establish their own papers, such as Nam Kung-ok, who founded the Hwangseong Sinmun in 1898. Nam was decidedly anti-Japanese and was later (1900) the first Korean journalist to be charged with meddling in the affairs of the government when he reported that Russia and Japan had concluded a secret treaty to divide Korea. Nam was eventually acquitted.

At the end of 1898, Yun was given a government position and The Independent was turned over to Henry Gerhart Appenzeller, an American missionary, and H. Emberly, an Englishman. The paper under their leadership was far from a success. Horace Allen, who at this time was the American ambassador to Korea, wrote:

“The paper was continued in a deviatory fashion by an illiterate man named Emberly for a portion of the year 1899. At first he had some help from H.G. Appenzeller, but that soon failed him and his papers began to come out once in a few weeks and finally stopped in the autumn.”

Allen’s description of Emberly seems rather caustic considering Emberly was the foreman of the Trilingual Press in Seoul in 1898.

But there is more to the story of the Independent. Alarmed by the increasing power of the press, the Korean government wanted to have an English-language newspaper that would print the news the way it wanted. In December 1899, the Independent, its press and office were sold to the Korean government for 4,000 yen (roughly $2,000).

The Korean government then hired John O’Shea, a young Irish reporter working in Shanghai, to publish a semiweekly English edition of The Independent. Unbeknownst to the Korean government, O’Shea was truly the stereotypical “drunk fighting Irishman.”

When he arrived in Seoul in early January 1900, he allegedly began recruiting Koreans and foreigners to begin publication as soon as possible but the feigned enthusiasm that he displayed was soon disproved by his actions.

O’Shea began drinking every day and was a violent drunk. One modern Korean historian describes him as “a ruffian with no thought of producing newspapers. Drunk every day, whenever he saw a passerby he went wild, to the extent of beating them up as he liked ― sometimes firing his pistol at random.”

The Korean government appealed to the British Minister, Jordan, to intervene and help it remove O’Shea from Korea and to collect the wages that he owed to his staff, but Jordan refused. He claimed that the Korean government had hired O’Shea and it was the government’s responsibility to ensure that he was a man of good virtues. Fortunately for Korea, the 31-year-old O'Shea fled to Shanghai where, with the luck of the Irish, he was able to land a position as editor of the Shanghai Times in 1902.
SOURCE:Korea Times

Firms to highlight IT skills during G20

The country’s telecom and technology firms are preparing well-ahead for the G20 Seoul summit, which is only two weeks away.

The government and many local firms are making last-minute preparations to use the global event as a way to present their advanced technologies to the leaders coming from all over the world.

G20 Summit Preparation Committee is planning to set up an IT experience hall that introduces 60 years’ worth of the nation’s cultural assets at the COEX Convention Center in southern Seoul, which is where G20 will take place.

Through the use of multi-touch screen technology, visitors will be able to touch and feel Korean traditional clothes and houses as well as other images.

“We will enable other nation’s representatives to walk around Seoul and naturally find the merits of the advanced technologies of Korea,” said Kim Yoon-kyeong, a spokesperson for the G20 preparation committee.

It will also feature the must-see places in Seoul, designated by UNESCO, on a large screen, supported with virtualization technology.

The 3-D broadcasting hall, which will be first in airing real-time Internet protocol television (IPTV) programs in 3-D, will be located next to the IT experience hall. The effort will be carried forward jointly with the Korea Communications Commission and KT Corp.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government also announced a comprehensive G20 support plan earlier last week, claiming it will operate a 4-D image room from Nov. 8-13, near the main event hall.

Samsung Electronics unveiled its high-tech 4G total solution at an event called the “4G World 2010” in Chicago earlier this month. (Samsung Electronics)

The images of Mount Nam, Cheonggye Stream, Gwanghwamun, Digital Media City in Sangam, Yongsan and the renovated City Hall will be shown on the LED screen using 4-D technology.

It will arrange a Seoul IT Tour for the foreign press and make use of the 12 high-tech bus stations around the hotels where the global leaders will be staying to show-off the country’s advanced technologies.

KT Corp., the main telecom service provider for the G20 summit slated for Nov. 11-12, plans to provide mobile IPTV services so the global teams can watch news in their native languages even while they are on-the-go.

The country’s biggest fixed-line service operator will give out electronic pads that are equipped with wireless broadband networks for the teams to enjoy mobile IPTV service.

It is currently working with the embassies of the G20 nations to air their national television network programs using its technology.

The 3W network wideband code division multiple access (WCDMA), Wi-Fi, WiBro will be available for wireless connection and a telecommunication support center will be established within the convention center, said KT officials.

It will continue to publicize the event using its micro-blogging site Twitter account.

“KT is not only supporting IT telecommunication services (for G20), but also putting emphasis on getting the word out about Korean traditional culture,” said a KT official.

LG Uplus, the smallest local mobile carrier, will participate in the G20 Communication Exhibition, scheduled from Nov. 5-13, together with Seoul City and the state telecom regulator KCC.

They plan to present the high-tech broadband convergence skills ahead of the summit.

Global electronics giant Samsung Electronics will create booths where the company’s strategies on green memory and green growth will be explained to summit participants.

The firm’s executive vice president Lee Yoon-woo is expected to take part in the G20 Business Summit’s green growth session.

LG Electronics is considering putting up 3D televisions and LED displays around the press center and the main meeting rooms of the COEX Convention Center. 

In a related move, the Federation of Korean Information Industries, together with the G20 ICT Policy Network, are planning to hold a forum on information and communication technologies called the G20 ICT Innovation Forum in the nation’s capital a few days before the summit on Nov. 9-10.

The event is scheduled to be attended by many prominent CEOs of local and global IT firms such as AT&T, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, KT and LG CNS as well as the OECD and World Bank.

The discussions are projected to be focused on ICT for smart and sustainable growth, achieving development goals in ICT, generating IT green growth and how to form global ICT infrastructure, said its officials.

According to a report released earlier by the FKII, countries are now making moves to achieve economic growth and improve quality of life by investing in IT, rather than proceeding with large-scale construction projects, in the global economy.

“It was found that the G20 members are putting in sums worth about $2 trillion to boost their economy in 2010-2011 and $100 billion was planned to be spent on IT,” it said. “Most of the IT funds will be used to provide tax incentives and give regulation relief or as direct investments.”

The report further elaborated that the G20 members are most likely to put in sums on establishing broadband networks, e-Health, intelligent transportation system, smart grid and e-government.

“ICT investments are necessary for it encourages high productivity and enhances economic competitiveness,” said Ahn Ah-won of FKII. “ICT allows us to adopt new skills, change the organization and add innovation to new businesses, which ultimately contributes to improving labor productivity.”