Korea aims to draw 10m foreign visitors 2010-2012

Visit Korea Year 2010-2012, a campaign designed to provide diverse benefits to overseas tourists, aims to attract 10 million foreign visitors and generate $13 billion.

The campaign’s main goal is to increase tourist numbers in Korea and provide them with better hospitality and a warm reception.

Tourists who visit Korea during this time can enjoy many benefits such as a tourist coupon service, welcome plan, free shuttle bus service and discount programs for long stays.

Along with the incentives, special events and festivals have been held across the country as part of the campaign. In July, Seoul Grand Sale 2010, one of the biggest shopping festivals in Korea, was held for 54 days. Last month, the Visit Korea Committee organized “Hallyu Dream Festival” in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, Sept. 10-12. The performance event featured leading Korean entertainers including Kara, 2AM, Super Junior and 2NE1. 

Busan International Fireworks Festival has been designated as one of the special events for Visit Korea Years 2010-2012, a campaign designed to increase overseas tourist numbers in Korea.  (Courtesy of the Organizing Committee for Busan Culture & Tourism Festival)

Paraguayan soccer diva hopes to find romance in Korea

Paraguay’s No. 1 soccer fan is now giving Korean men a chance to send meetingrequests, said a marriage consulting firm Sunday.

Larissa Riquelme, a famous 2010 World Cup fan, will sign up for Couple.net with the hope of finding herself a man that fits her criteria, said the firm.

Riquelme and Couple.net will give hopeful Korean single men a chance to woo her during a one-month period.

Then Riquelme plans to come to Korea and enjoy a romantic date with the lucky man she chooses.

According to the consulting firm, Riquelme was always interested in Asia, and got the idea from a Korean friend.

The 25-year-old lingerie model became a worldwide name after photos of her in a low cut tank top with a phone in her cleavage circulated on the Web.

                                                                                (AP-Yonhap)

Riquelme teased the hearts of men once more after promising to streak through the streets of Asuncion with her bare body painted in the colors of the Paraguayan flag if her team advanced to the semifinals.

 It has been speculated that Riquelme was paid by Nokia to conveniently place the phone in her cleavage. The deodorant company, Axe, followed suit, paying the model to have the words “axe” painted across the top of her chest during the games.

Since then, Riquelme has continued to receive media attention worldwide.

She was featured nude in Playboy magazine, and is expected to star in a Mexican drama with Mexican soccer player Cuauhtemoc Blanco.

G-20 must forge deal on currencies before summit: Prodi

Former European Commission President Romano Prodi said Group of 20 leaders must reach an agreement on currencies before meeting in Seoul next month to ensure the summit succeeds, according to an op-ed in Il Messaggero.

"Representatives from Europe, the U.S. and China should lock themselves in a room and remain there until they find an agreement to submit to the G-20,"Prodi wrote in the op-ed published on Tuesday.

Not having a prior accord "could mean again allowing competitive devaluations and throw the whole global economy into even more catastrophic chaos."

LS Cable completes full-speed electric car charging network

LS Cable completed the country’s first recharging network for full-speed electric vehicles on Tuesday.

The completion of the project was marked with a ceremony at the General Environmental Research Complex in Incheon, attended by 200 dignitaries including Environment Minister Lee Maan-ee, the primary contractor for the project said.

The network consist of 13 charging systems six rapid-charging, one semi-rapid-charging and six slow-charging systems which are located at the research complex, and at several public-access areas, including gas stations and supermarkets.

Of the 13 charging systems, three chargers installed at the research facility are solar-powered, and will be used as part of the research on next-generation electric car recharging infrastructure, the company said. 

As the primary contractor, LS Cable was contracted to install the rapid and semi-rapid charging systems, while the co-contractor LS Industrial Systems installed the slow-charging system and the solar power generation system and developed the operating system. 

The rapid system can charge Hyundai Motor Co.’s electric car BlueOn in 30 minutes. The semi-rapid system requires 1 hour, while the slow charger requires 6-8 hours to charge the vehicle sufficiently for between 135 kilometers and 140 kilometers of travel. 

Drop in sales, rise in production costs reduce POSCO profits

Rising raw materials costs coupled with falling output and sales dealt a significant blow to POSCO’s profits for the third quarter of the year.

POSCO’s operating profits for the quarter that ended Sept. 30 came in at 1.11 trillion won ($982 million), down 39.5 percent compared to the second quarter of the year, the company said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.

Third-quarter net profits of the world’s fourth-largest steelmaker came in at 1.04 trillion won, a drop of 12.7 percent from the second quarter.

POSCO’s revenues for the third quarter, however, increased by 7.5 percent from the second quarter to 8.52 trillion won as the increased raw materials costs were reflected in products sold during the period, the company said. 

Over the same period, the company’s crude steel output decreased by 1.8 percent to 8.2 million metric tons, while sales declined by 1.2 percent to 7.74 million tons. 

The company attributed the drop in sales to the temporary decrease in its production capacity brought on by maintenance work on the Pohang facility’s fourth blast furnace and related facilities carried out during the third quarter.

POSCO also said that it is altering its targets for sales to 32.9 trillion won and for operating profits to 5.2 trillion won in light of developments such as a slower than expected recovery of exports. 

Microsoft struggling in smartphone battle

Software giant releases Windows Phone 7 amid questions of whether users are prepared to make switch

Global software giant Microsoft is striving to gain ground in the vastly expanding market of smartphone operating system, currently dominated by Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.

Microsoft rolled out the first series of its new Windows Phone 7 coming in nine different kinds on a completely new operating system at a press event held in New York on Monday.

“Microsoft and its partners have worked together closely to create a different kind of phone and experience one that makes everyday tasks faster by doing them in fewer steps and providing timely information in a ‘glance and go’ format,” said Microsoft’s chief executive officer Steve Ballmer.

This comes after Samsung’s Windows-powered Omnia series, initially introduced in late 2008, missed an opportunity in Korea to win over smartphone users.
 
The number of local smartphone users has escalated since then, with the debut of Apple’s iPhone and Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy series.

Equipped with a new user interface, people owning a Windows Phone 7 could spend less time trying to find the information they want.

Apple executive to attend parliamentary hearing

An executive of Apple Inc. is expected to attend a parliamentary committee hearing later this month on the after-sales service policies of the U.S.-based electronics behemoth.

Farrel Farhoudi, senior director of iPhone service operations, was scheduled to attend the hearing of the national policy committee of the National Assembly as a witness on Oct. 21.

It is considered extremely rare for an executive from the company’s headquarters to pay a visit to a legislative branch overseas.

“There’s nothing to comment on this matter,” said Steve Park, spokesman for Apple Korea.

Industry insiders, however, say that the measure was most likely put in place by Apple for it is difficult for its officials working at its overseas branch office to respond to the lawmakers’ questions.

Park, representing Apple Korea, had attended the parliamentary national policy committee’s session as a witness earlier this month, but the committee filed a request for the attendance of a higher ranking official for its next hearing to get the details.

Industry sources have recently claimed that Apple planned to offer improved after-sales services for Korean iPhone owners, following mounting complaints about the company’s repair policies.

Up until the introduction of the iPhone 4, users had to exchange their phones with “refurbished phones” at high costs, instead of repairing the malfunctioning parts.

Apple then began fixing iPhone parts for the latest iPhone 4 at about 60 centers across the nation authorized for the company’s after-services. It is now expected to provide similar services for the iPhone 3GS as well.

Earlier this month, mobile after-service guidelines, devised by the state regulatorKorea Communications Commission, were applied to force stricter measures on after-sales policies for mobile phones.

According to the guidelines, mobile device manufacturers will have to explain and provide in print the main contents of the guaranteed after-sales service such as the quality guarantee period, the standards of free and paid services and the repair charges.

After-sales information also has to be posted on the Internet, and the mobile service operators and handset manufacturers have to permit paying the after-service fees with the telecom costs, it said.

G20 leaders urged to address structural demand imbalance

Group of 20 leaders should try to address the global imbalance by fixing structural demand problems, not through currency revaluation, Morgan Stanley Asia chairman Stephen Roach said Tuesday.

The renowned economist said the G20 Summit slated for Nov. 11-12 should give both China and the U.S. an equal pressure to address their portion of imbalance. 

Although Korea, the chair of the forum, should not feel it needs to be responsible to hammer out an outcome, it could successfully mediate the discussion by suggesting to participants that there may be other measures that can reach the same place.

“Currency fixes should be viewed as only one way to resolve the trade imbalance and addressing savings imbalances through structural demand policies is an alternative policymakers should turn to,” Roach said at the 11th World Knowledge Forum in Seoul.

Stephen Roach Stephen Roach

KT&G launches Esse Edge Menthol

KT&G launches its new Esse Edge Menthol, which contains premium natural menthol, menthe piperita, on Oct. 15, the company said on Tuesday.

The product is intended to offer a greater sense of refreshment for smokers, while its package is in black with green highlights to appeal to the taste of younger consumers.

Politicians turn to blogs, Twitter

The No. 1 way to reach out to the public in this online networking era may be through blogs and Twitter, a tip which many top officials and politicians here have quickly grasped.

Education Minister Lee Ju-ho has recently started his personal blog titled “positive change” (http://positive-change.tistory.com), according to officials Monday.

The minister will use the blog to post his off-the-record episodes, introduce significant emails which he receives from netizens, or leave replies in the guestbook.

Another avid blogger in officialdom is Agriculture Minister Chang Tae-pyung.

Chang’s blog (http://taepyong.tistory.com), started last year in an attempt to resolve the lack of communication between the public and the government, is frequented especially by citizens in the agricultural industry.

The contents of his blog have recently been compiled in a book and distributed to major farmers’ associations and governmental offices, according to ministry officials.

Speculations rise over Samsung’s delay of Galaxy Tab release

Samsung Electronics abruptly canceled a press event to unveil its tablet PC, the Galaxy Tab, stirring speculation about technical problems or price discords with its distributor SK Telecom.

The conference was originally scheduled for Thursday.

A Samsung Galaxy Tab, a 7-inch touchscreen mobile tablet, with the Android 2.2 operating system, is displayed at a news conference in New York, U.S., Sept. 16. (Bloomberg)

“We decided to defer the press meeting and the domestic release in a bid to offer contents and applications which are more customized for local users and to provide the most optimized product for them,” Samsung said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Samsung had been expected to release the device within this month. A new date has yet to be set for both the press event and the release, they said.

The notice came only a day after the global electronics manufacturer notified reporters that it will be holding a launching event, attended by its mobile businesschief Shin Jong-kyun.