Constitutional amendment waits for after G20 summit

The issue of revising the Constitution, for the first time since 1987, has been on top of the political reform agenda for years, but never took shape and is still widely seen as unworkable.

Nevertheless, it is brewing to appear on the table next month after the Seoul G20summit.

Ruling Grand National Party floor leader Kim Moo-sung said Sunday that a special parliamentary panel for the revision must be launched by the year end. He disclosed an agreement made in 2007 by floor leaders of all parties to tackle the amendment at the beginning of the 18th National Assembly which was elected in 2008.

Kim said that the discussion on the amendment should be led by the party’s existing legislators’ study society and a special panel which should consist of the same numbers of ruling and opposition lawmakers.

In the 18th National Assembly, about 140 legislators from both ruling and opposition parties took part in a study club to discuss future constitution and an advisory panel organized under control of the National Assembly speakerpresented ideas for the amendment.

“I was not given any word from the president regarding the revision,” Kim told reporters Sunday.

“The issue will be discussed within the GNP after the G20 summit, and we will hold a congress to determine our stance.“

G20 looks to global financial safety net

Korea’s initiative to forge a global financial safety net is gaining momentum among Group of 20 members as the latest crisis has highlighted emerging-market countries’ vulnerability to a liquidity crunch.

The system, officially proposed by President Lee Myung-bak in November 2009, would pull global and regional funds together to safeguard those countries from risky outflows of capital.

This would make it less necessary for China, Korea and other emerging markets to accumulate huge foreign exchange reserves, which could be used more productively in their economies. 

Though the 2008 financial crisis broke out in the U.S. with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the financial distress that emerging economies underwent was just as severe, if not worse. 

The push for a global financial safety net is a response to an emerging consensus that a mechanism stronger than the limited loan opportunities at the International Monetary Fund is needed. 

It has won the endorsement of most emerging economies, and has been engraved on the G20 Seoul Summit agenda by the chair nation Korea, along with the issue of development.

At the 2010 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Lee stressed the need for the global mechanism, saying the cost of building up a large amount of foreign currency reserves is growing too high. 

The idea was included as an official item for the summit in April during a meetingof G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Busan. In June, it was included in the communiqu for the G20 summit in Toronto.

Local companies brace for G20 summit

Local firms are gearing up for the upcoming G20 summit in the country’s capitalnext month.

Telecom service operators, electronic manufacturers, carmakers and air carriers are making efforts to be better prepared for the global event, which would also become an opportunity to publicize themselves to the G20 members.

KT, the main telecom service provider for the G20 summit slated for Nov. 11-12 inSeoul, plans to provide Internet and telephone services as well as service required for broadcasting, according to KT officials.

“KT will give its utmost effort to boost the national image of Korea, famous for its strong information and technology skills, which is hosting the G20 summit this year,” said KT’s chairman Lee Suk-chae.

It signed an agreement with the Presidential Committee for the G20 Seoul summit earlier in August to take charge of telecom service operations for the global event.

A total of 100 IT professionals will be dispatched throughout the G20 event halls to offer full support and KT will also enable G20 members to watch their localchannels on their mobiles so that they can stay connected, according to its officials.

LG executives declare a new chapter

The new top executives at LG Electronics declared a new chapter for the electronics giant which has recently faced sluggish sales.

Havis Kwon, chief executive officer of the home entertainment company, and Park Jong-seok, head of the mobile communications company, said the current most important task currently is to increase the competitiveness and quality of the company’s products.

G20 accord on currency elusive, BOK official says

A high-ranking central banker in Korea predicted Friday that an accord to resolve the global currency disputes among G20 members will at best remain ambiguous, mostly helping prevent an inflow of speculative investors.

It would be impossible for the G20 members to make public a “specified” agreement, even though it is reached,  on the currency issue during their summitmeeting in Seoul on Nov. 11-12, said Kim Sung-min, chief of the G20 affairs office of the Bank of Korea.

“Some watchers seem to speculate that there will be an announcement on a certain (definite-level) accord in Seoul. But  I think it is impossible (to produce such an agreement),” he told The Korea Herald. 

Kim forecast a stereotypical accord, at least on their joint declaration ― also known as communique ― as the more feasible outcome even if the leaders reach a certain level of consensus for taming the latest currency war. 

“The foreign exchange market is very speculative,” he said. “If they reach a detailed agreement in their joint declaration, there is no doubt that it will invite a wave of speculative funds.”

More specifically, he said, it is very difficult for them to agree on the Chineserenminbi’s appreciation to a specified level against the U.S. dollar. “This could indicate directions of future foreign exchange rates and produce speculators in the market.”

Indian billionaire moves into world’s most luxurious building

This is the most luxurious complex building in Mumbai, India, where the world’s fourth richest multi-billionaire Mukesh Ambani lives, the British Telegraph reported Friday. The £630 million ($ 10,111,485.84) building stands in the heartland of the city.

Mr. Ambani, along with his wife and three children, recently moved into the 27-floor building, which contains a fitness center, dance studio, ballroom, guestroom andhouse cinema, which can accommodate up to 50 viewers. 

There are three helicopter pads on the top floor and a huge parking lot on its lower flower. The 173-meter high skyscraper has fine views of Mumbai, as well as views of the Arabian Sea. The family lives on the top floor of the complex, the Telegraph said.

The 53-year-old business tycoon is said to possess more than £18 billion in assets, which include much of India’s oil, retail and biotechnological industries.　

‘Don’t give up,’ Paul Potts tells Superstar K2 semifinalist Jang Jae-in

‘Don’t give up,’ Paul Potts tells Superstar K2 semifinalist 

Over the weekend, online debates raged here on whether it was fair to eliminate talented singer-songwriter Jang Jae-in in the Friday semifinal of “Superstar K2,” cable channel Mnet’s version of “American Idol.

Electronic anklet system shows loopholes

Two years have passed since the traceable electronic anklet system was introduced but many convicted sex offenders have repeatedly been caught committing second offenses despite the device, hinting at a loophole in the watch system.

The Busan police last week apprehended a convicted offender who had cut off his electronic anklet and escaped the authorities’ surveillance.

The 27-year-old convict, surnamed Park, cut his anklet last Monday with a pair of scissors, left it in a public bathroom trash bin and fled from Busan but was caught Thursday near his girlfriend’s house in Daegu, said officials.

It was his second escape, having earlier broken free from the anklet in August shortly after he was released from prison. He had served a three-year jail term for raping a woman he met through online chatting.

Park attempted the escape to hide his criminal record from his girlfriend, officials said.

Rain sued for failing to pay gambling debt in U.S.: report

Rain, a South Korean pop star, has been sued in a U.S. court on the charge of failing to pay back gambling debt of $150,000 he owed to a Korean-American named Andrew Kim, a local sports daily reported on Monday.  

According to the report, Rain often placed bets at a casino of Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, and Kim lent Rain $150,000 as a gambling money in June 2007, but the Korean Wave star has not paid back Kim yet.