G20 SEOUL BUSINESS SUMMIT

Governments have taken the lead in the current global recovery; however, the
private sector has to take the lead if future growth is to be assured. With this in
mind, Korea is organizing a Business Summit, gathering Chairmen and CEOs
from around the world just prior to the G20 Summit, on November 10-11, 2010.

During a series of roundtable discussions, the business leaders
will exchange views on how to bolster the recovery and put the global
economy back on the path to high growth. Thus far, the agenda
includes four main topics: trade and investment, finance, green growth,
and corporate social responsibility. Business leaders, who have
been asked to do some work on the issues in the months leading up
to the Summit, will have an opportunity to discuss their views with
some of the G20 leaders before the Summit.

G20 MEMBERS

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

The Asia 21 Conference Held with Great Success

Co-organized by the IMF and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Asia 21 Conference was held at the Daejeon Convention Center on July 12th and 13th.

In an address given live remote video feed, President Lee Myung-bak talked about the importance of the upcoming G20 Seoul Summit which will take place in November of this year.

President Lee said "when we meet, G20 members should make strong and concerted efforts to achieve substantial progress in several important areas. In particular, members should work together to develop ways to narrow the development gap between developed and developing countries and build a global financial safety net".

Unemployment rate climbs to 3.5% in June

The unemployment rate grew for the first time in five months in June, especially highly among youth, a government report said Wednesday.　

The pace of job market growth was slow for five months, adding to growing fears about Korea’s capacity for employment with rising interest rates. The Bank of Korea last week joined its Asian peers in raising the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percentage point to 2.25 percent a year. 

The jobless rate rose to 3.5 percent from May’s 3.2 percent, the lowest level since October 2008, Statistics Korea said. 

The number of employed in June was up 314,000 from a year ago, reaching 24.28 million. Expanded recruitment in manufacturing and construction continued, where more than 100,000 jobs were created each month for the past quarter. 

“The private sector is leading the job market recovery,” Finance Minister Yoon Jeung Hyun said at a ministerial meeting. Korea in 2009 lost 72,000 jobs but the government expects to add 300,000 jobs this year.

Job openings in the public sector fell by 141,000 in June from a year earlier with the scale back of employment programs led by the government. 

“We attribute the rise of jobless rate to part-time job losses at education, wholesale and public administrations,” said an official at the Finance Ministry.

Korea exiting from crisis action

It’s official: Korea is moving away from crisis steps.

The Bank of Korea delivered a surprise interest rate hike on Friday, judging that inflation poses a bigger threat to the economy than fallout from Europe’s debt crisis. 

Hiking the benchmark rate by 0.25 percentage point from a record-low 2 percent, the BOK joined some of its peers in Asia in normalizing interest rates, as the region leads economic recovery out of the global financial crisis. 

“Domestic economic activity is expected to continue on an upward track, even with the presence of overseas risk factors,” the BOK said in a statement released after the rate decision. 

Bank of Korea Governor Kim Choong-soo chairs a monetary policy meeting at the BOK’s headquarters in Seoul on Friday. Park Hyun-koo/ The Korea Herald

N.K. proposes military talks with U.S. over Cheonan

North Korea has offered to hold　working-level military talks with the United States next week to set up a higher-level meeting over the sinking of the Cheonan, Pyongyang’s state media said on Friday. 

The North, via its Korean Central News Agency, said it sent a proposal to the U.S. military Friday requesting that colonel-level officers from the two sides meet July 13 to discuss setting up general-grade talks on the March sinking of the South Korean warship. 

The North said it decided to hold talks with the U.S. military over the issue because South Korea had turned down its dialogue offer. The North said it “still regards the opening of the North-South military talks as the best way for settling the issue,”according to the news agency.

The U.S. military had offered to hold military talks with the North in June to explain the outcome of a multinational investigation that found the communist regime responsible for the attack that killed 46 sailors.

Friday’s offer from the North was a counteroffer to the June proposal, the KCNA said.

North Korea claims it was not involved in the sinking of the Cheonan.

After Seoul, along with a team of multinational investigators, fingered Pyongyang as the culprit, the reclusive regime had called for the South to accept a team of North Korean inspectors to verify the results of the probe.

South Korea has rejected the North’s demand, saying Pyongyang should first come clean on the disaster, issue an apology and punish those responsible.

The North’s dialogue proposal came ahead of the U.N. Security Council adopting of a presidential statement denouncing the attack on the Cheonan. 

The statement, however, did not explicitly name the North as the culprit.

China, Japan welcome U.N. response towards Pyongyang

Key members of the multinational talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea welcomed the United Nations earlier response to the sinking of a South Korean warship.

The U.N. Security Council adopted a president’s statement condemning the deadly torpedo attack which killed 46 South Korean sailors, but did not explicitly blame the communist North Korea. 
 

Japan's U.N. Ambassador Yukio Takasu expressed hope that North Korea listens and responds to the council's message “that this kind of attack is not acceptable, should not be repeated, and any further action ... should not be tolerated.”

 

China's U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong said, “The situation is moving in the right direction. I can see the feeling from the Security Council is to safeguard peace and stability in the region and to encourage that the parties concerned to exercise restraint from escalating the tension.”
 

The U.N. statement came after Seoul sent a letter to the council on June 4, asking it to formerly respond to the sinking in a manner matching the gravity of North Korea’s military provocation. Five permanent council members, the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France –- as well asSouth Korea and Japan – agreed on the text.

 

North Korea continues to deny its role in the March 26 sinking of the South Korean warship near their tense sea border, spurning the investigation results by a multinational team of experts.

 

The incident came at a delicate timing as members of the six-party denuclearization talks -– including the U.S., Japan, China, Russia andSouth Korea –- are striving to bring the North back to the negotiation table. 

LG Chem nabs Ford’s lithium battery deal

LG Chem announced Wednesday that its U.S. subsidiary Compact Power was chosen by Ford Motor Co. to supply lithium ion battery packs for the carmaker’s upcoming electric car.

Under the new deal LG Chem and Compact Power will produce lithium ion battery packs for the Ford Focus Electric, which will hit the U.S. market next year.

LG Chem said that the battery packs will initially be produced and assembled at the plant currently under construction in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province. LG Chem’s Ochang plant, which is designed specifically for producing batteries for electric automobiles, will be completed during the second half of the year. 

Once Compact Power’s plant in Holland, Michigan is operational, the battery cells will be produced at the Ochang plant and assembled into battery packs in the United States.

Compact Power will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for its plant in Holland, Michigan on Thursday, whose attendants will include President Barack Obama.

According to LG Chem officials, Compact Power’s plant is scheduled to begin operations in 2012, before being fully completed in 2013.

“The contract proves LG Chem’s technological capacity to produce batteries for all electric vehicles from electric hybrid cars to full electric vehicles,” vice chairman Kim Bahn-suk of LG Chem said in an e-mailed statement.

Lee's ally Ahn elected ruling party chief

Ahn Sang-soo, a veteran legislator loyal to President Lee Myung-bak, was elected the new leader of the ruling Grand National Party on Wednesday, tasked with rebuilding trust in the president and winning back voter support ahead of the critical nationwide elections in two years’ time. 

Ahn, a former prosecutor, pledged  to make the utmost effort to achieve internal unity and create a party that serves its role as “a reliable friend to the people.”

“We do not know the meaning of factions and disunity today. Let’s all together work on becoming a party that supports the goal of creating a society that has no rich and poor,” the 64-year-old four-term lawmaker said in an acceptance speech addressing some 5,000 party members.

The incoming ruling party chief will look to drive the embattled party out of a lingering crisis following its recent election defeat by first achieving unity among different factions, including one led by President Lee himself.