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 ConventionCenter 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.

Companies seek to take advantage of G20 summit

The upcoming Group of 20 leaders’ summit is expected to offer a crucial opportunity for Korean firms to boost their image and promote products abroad.

The leaders of the 20 biggest economies will attend the Nov. 11-12 summit and more than 100 corporate chief executives will participate in a forum of global corporate CEOs scheduled for Nov. 10-11. 

The events are expected to draw more than 1,000 government officials, businesspeople, academics and journalists from across the globe.

Korean companies in various sectors including telecom, electronics, automobile and retail are waging promotion campaigns to take advantage of the premier forum of global economic cooperation.

The G20 summit is forecast to contribute 31.2 trillion won ($27.7 billion) to the national economy, according to the Korea International Trade Association. 

They estimate that the summit will help lift Korea’s exports by 3.9 percent, worth over 20 trillion won, in the medium and long term. Its spin-off effect will reach 10.6 trillion won, feeding through 166,000 new jobs, KITA says.

The economy will earn nearly 97 billion won from summit participants’ spending and 170 billion won from corporate advertisers, the report 

According to a survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, nearly 70 percent of its 310 member companies think the upcoming summit will have a positive impact on local economy. 

Nearly 54 percent of respondents said the summit would boost trade by improving the nation’s image, while 23 percent pointed out investment growth and new business opportunities as the advantages of the two-day event.

Marketing campaigns for the G20 summit are in full swing at automobile manufacturers such as Hyundai Motor Group and local units of BMW, Audi and Chrysler, as they will be riding the delegates and their company from all around the world.

Hyundai Motor’s flagship luxury sedan Equus Limousine is chosen as official vehicles for the G20 leaders. BMW’s 750 Li, Audi’s A8 and Chrysler’s 300c will be carrying their spouses and international organization chiefs, the organizing committee said.

Shanghai Expo to give Korea W7tr boost

Korea is expected to see increases in exports and tourism worth 7 trillion won ($6.22 billion) over the next three years following its participation in the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, a report showed Sunday.

The $44 billion World Expo closed Sunday after China’s richest city hosted arecord number of visitors during the six-month event. 

By running a three-story national pavilion during the biennial event, Korea’s exports to China are expected to increase by 6.37 trillion won over the next three years, according to a report by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency. This is equal to 6.6 percent of Korea’s exports to China registered in 2009.

The number of Chinese who will visit Korea over the next three years is expected to grow by 450,000, benefiting the local industry by 631.9 billion won, it added.

The report said mobile phones topped the list of wish-to-buy products, followed bycosmetics and clothing.

KOTRA said the Korean pavilion has attracted a record 7.25 million visitors during the fair, exceeding the agency’s target of 6 million. The previous record number of visitors that Korea has attracted through fairs was 3.5 million during the 2005 Expo held in the Japanese city of Aichi.

Korea built the 7,680-square-meter pavilion at a cost of about $24 million, equipped with various facilities to host cultural events and sideshows.

The report came as the Shanghai World Expo comes to an end on Sunday after a six-month run under the theme of “Better City, Better Life,” with Korea and 190 other countries and 50 international organizations participating.

A ceremony was held in the evening along the city’s Huangpu river, with leaders including Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and United Nations Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon in attendance. 

The Expo has attracted almost 73 million visitors since it opened to the public on May 1, according to its website, surpassing the 64 million people that attended the 1970 expo in Osaka, Japan. 

Authorities in Shanghai campaigned against spitting and littering, expanded the subway system and built two new airport terminals to prepare for the biggest event to be held in the city. The exhibition, with pavilions from about 190 nations from the U.S. to North Korea, may lift Shanghai’s economic growth to more than 8.5 percent this year from 8.2 percent in 2009, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences estimates. 

“The Expo was a turning point for Shanghai as the city now moves up the ranks of the world’s metropolises,” said Tu Qiyu, head of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences’s urban research center. “The Expo has been a huge education for Shanghai and many Chinese in modernization.” 

After winning hosting rights in 2002, Shanghai allotted 28.6 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) for construction and operating costs and 270 billion yuan for infrastructure, including the airport terminals and a three-year renovation of The Bund waterfront area. Shanghai’s growth last year was at the slowest pace in 18 years.

Lady Gaga appeared in anti-sexual harassment video

Lady Gaga, a 24-year-old pop icon known for wearing as little as possible once appeared on an educational video, the Daily Mail reported on Oct. 27. 

Before gaining world fame, during her teenage years Gaga, Stefani Joanna Angelina Germanotta, as she was known then, took part in the short film which aimed to teach students about dealing with sexual harassment.

Rousseff is elected as Brazil's next president

SAO PAULO (AP) _ A former Marxist guerrilla who was tortured and imprisoned during Brazil's long dictatorship was elected Sunday as president of Latin America's biggest nation, a country in the midst of an economic and political rise.

A statement from the Supreme Electoral Court, which oversees elections, said governing party candidate Dilma Rousseff won the election. When she takes office Jan. 1, she will be Brazil's first female leader.

With nearly 95 percent of the ballots counted, Rousseff had 55.6 percent compared to 44.4 percent for her centrist rival, Jose Serra, the electoral court said.

Rousseff, the hand-chosen candidate of wildly popular President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won by cementing her image to Silva's, whose policies she promised to continue.

Separated families enjoy second day of reunion

MOUNT GEUMGANG, North Korea  -- Swallowing the sorrow of having to part again in less than a day, Korean families reunited after 60 years of separation sang together, posed for photos and eventually broke down in tears on Sunday as they promised to meet again.

Exchanging the addresses of their homes on either side of the heavily armed border, some families prayed for a chance to be reunited again while others plunged into doldrums over fears that the two Koreas may never be one again.

"Their stress will peak tomorrow when they have to say goodbye to each other," said Lee Jae-pil, a medical doctor assigned to the reunions of 100 families from both Koreas from Saturday to Monday.