Samsung launches social enterprises

Samsung Group, Korea’s top business conglomerate, will establish seven social enterprises over the next three years to support the underprivileged as part of itscorporate social responsibility campaign, the company said Wednesday.

The social enterprises will support multicultural families in rural areas, education and child care and the employment of people with disabilities. The firm will launch a youth training center for those who want to set up their own business. 

Samsung is planning to invest 20 billion won ($17.9 million) in the project, which it expects to create about 400 jobs.

“Samsung will actively commit to corporate social responsibility to communicate and grow with the neighbor society,” said Lee Chang-Ryeol, president of Samsung Corporate Citizenship, the company’s volunteer group, in a press conference.

The plan includes establishing social enterprises in Eumseong County, North Chungcheong Province as a base, where a large number of immigrant women formed families through marriage to Korean men. 

Samsung president of corporate citizenship Lee Chang-ryeol Yonhap News

‘Currency disputes won’t mar G20 Summit’

SaKong expects G20 nations to reach common ground before Seoul meeting
The chief organizer of the Group of 20 summit on Wednesday dismissed concerns that an escalating global battle over currencies will dampen world leaders’ efforts to promote balanced growth and make the world financially safer. 

SaKong Il, the chairman of the Presidential Committee for the G20 Summit, told The Korea Herald that countries are expected to get closer to solving the dispute through a series of discussions before the Nov. 11-12 meeting.

“It is in every (G20) nation’s best interest to settle the issue. I am hopeful that G20 nations will be able to reach common ground on the exchange rate policies by the Seoul summit,” he said.

The issue of monetary reform is currently being discussed as part of G20’s mutual assessment process ― a peer review system led by the International Monetary Fund to come up with policy recommendations for G20 nations, he and aides said.

Korean firms look to up Japan share

Armed with a new line of savvy products, major South Korean electronics makers are increasingly launching campaigns to stab a bigger slice of the neighboring Japanese market. 

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday announced that it would be introducing its smartphones and tablet PCs in Japan, while LG Electronics last month unveiledLED-backlit LCD televisions to be sold there.

Market watchers watched the latest development with interest, especially as it comes against the backdrop of lackluster performances by Japanese electronics manufacturers. 

The companies were no doubt affected by a powerful currency, coupled with still-sluggish global economic conditions, but structural deficiencies are also being cited.

“The Japanese electronics market was unable to conduct successful reforms,” Samsung Economic Research Institute said in a recent report.

Figures from last year show that Samsung products surpassed their Japanese peers, such as Sony and Toshiba, in terms of operating profit.

Possibly encouraged by such success, Samsung will now be showcasing its popular smartphone Galaxy S in Japan later this month.

Single nation: What women want

Korean women shun marriage in favor of career and single life

Attractive, assertive and financially secure, Park Min-kyoung seems like the kind of woman many men would want for a wife. But marriage isn’t a priority for the 41-year-old singleton. She is single by choice and has no plans to get married any time soon.

“If I can find someone who really loves me, I can. If not, I don’t need to get married. I don’t want to get married for money or because I’m lonely,” she said. 

Park is not alone she is just one of an increasing number of South Korean women who are shunning marriage in favor of their career and the single life. 

According to Statistics Korea, last year there were about 310,000 marriages in Korea, down 18,000 from 2008. More significantly, 2009 recorded Korea’s lowest marriage rate since records began in 1970, with 6.2 marriages per 1,000 people. This figure is a reflection of a continuing trend: In 2000, the marriage rate was 7.0; in 1990 it was 9.3.

Korea, EU sign free trade pact

Europe’s first FTA with an Asian nation expected to take effect next July

BRUSSELS Korea and the European Union on Wednesday inked a free trade pact and agreed to upgrade bilateral relations to a “strategic partnership.” 

Under the free trade deal, Korea and the 27-member economic bloc will eliminate or phase out tariffs on almost all goods within three years after it comes into effect.

President Lee Myung-bak, EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso attended the signing ceremony before holding Korea-EU summit talks. 

The deal, due to take effect next July, is expected to help speed up the stalled process to get the Korea-U.S. FTA ratified by their parliaments and to forge similar accords between Korea and China as well as Japan. 

“Amid concerns of the rise of trade protectionism as the world overrides the economic crisis, I am confident the Korea-EU FTA would serve as an example of expanding free trade and promoting sustainable economic growth,” Lee said during a joint press conference after the Korea-EU summit.

“Our government will actively cooperate with the EU to allow the Korea-EU FTA to take effect by July 1 next year.” 

Samsung Electronics puts Q3 operating profit at 4.8 tln won

 Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest maker of memory chips and flat-screen TVs, estimated Thursday that it had posted an operating profit of 4.8 trillion won (US$4.3 billion) for the July-September period, Yonhap News reported.

   The preliminary estimate represents a 13.7 percent increase from a profit of 4.22 trillion won a year earlier, Samsung said in a regulatory filing. It represents a decline from the company's record operating profit of 5.01 trillion won in the previous three months.