Lee of STX to head employers’ group

Lee Hee-bum, chairman of STX Energy and STX Heavy Industries, has been tapped to head the Korea Employers Federation, the business lobby said on Tuesday. 

The former commerce minister and industrialist faces the challenges of leading the corporate enforcement of tougher labor union regulations and meeting the growing calls for large businesses to make greater contributions to society. 

The KEF asked the 61-year-old Lee to head the group in May but he has been declining the offer. 

“Lee, who has been constantly refusing to take the chairman post, finally decided to accept it,” a KEF spokesperson said. 

Smartphone war set to rage in Korea

Competition in the domestic smartphone sector is poised to heat up in the second half as handset makers are rolling out new models to take the leadership position in one of the world’s fastest growing markets. 

Apple’s iPhone 4 is scheduled to be launched in September with pre-orders starting Wednesday. Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics plan to release their latest gadgets to challenge Apple’s dominance in their home turf.

The iPhone, which brought the smartphone boom to Korea last year, faces increasing competition from devices based on Google’s Android. 

Apple has sold more than 850,000 units through KT Corp., Korean No. 1 telecom carrier, since its debut here in November.

Its new iPhone 4 was initially scheduled to be released last month. But the plan has been delayed, providing room for its domestic rivals to catch up by revamping their product lineup.

Apple obtained the Korean government’s approval early this month for its domestic release.

KT expects the new iPhone to regain ground as soon as it’s the latest version goes on sale, though many in the industry are not sure that the iPhone 4 will repeat the stellar sales of its predecessor.

Park Chan-kyung makes feature film debut

Director Park Chan-kyong looks somehow familiar ― the round features, the sharp light in his eyes and the way he talks about films. 

Yes, the 2004 Hermes Missulsang Prize winning media artist and short film director Park is the younger brother of Park Chan-wook, the famed director of “Thirst” and “Oldboy.” The two brothers both show exquisite talent in making films, one for the short and one for the long. 

“I can’t speak for my brother but I think I was probably influenced by him in many ways although I don’t know exactly what it is. Ever since we were young, he read a lot and knew lot about art and music. We don’t see each other that often because he is so busy but we do enjoy talking about films when we sometimes get together on family occasions. We mostly agree on what is a good film and what is not,” said the younger Park. 

He may be less known to the public but Park Chan-kyung is no less famous than his brother in the art field for his unique and profound short films, media art and photography. This summer, however, he has been trying something new, advancing into his brother’s genre ― making a feature film. 

Tucked away in the basement of a small building in Cheongun-dong, central Seoul, the younger Park’s crew ― although some work for both Parks ― were busy glaring at monitors. Park’s first feature film titled “We wish to Reincarnate in Paradise” was just going through some final polishes. 

The film, a 90-minute-long documentary/fiction about the city of Anyang, is part of the Anyang Public Art Project 2010. It is about research a movie production team conducts before the crank in of a movie in Anyang. Eight different episodes ― some nonfiction and some fiction ― that represent the research are interwoven throughout the movie. 

“It is not just about Anyang but also about Korea’s small and medium cities and women in Anyang,” said Park.

“There used to be many factories in Anyang in the 1970s and 1980s. The film includes historical episodes like the 1988 fire in Greenhill factory in which 22 female workers, who were always locked up in the dorm at night, all burned to death.” 

Family of U.K. journalist traces his legacy

Descendants of Bethell proud of his crusade against Japanese occupation
HERALD INTERVIEW

The descendants of a British journalist turned Korean independence activist said they had come to understand his reasons for fighting the Japanese annexation of Korea over their weeklong stay here. 

The granddaughter and great granddaughters of Ernest Thomas Bethell, a British journalist who established the Daehan Maeil Shinbo and the Korea Daily News and criticized the Japanese colonization of Korea, arrived in Korea last Thursday after being invited by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs.

Susan Black and her two daughters were given the chance to pay their respects to their grandfather at the Yanghwajin Foreign Missionary Cemetery. Bethell died in 1909, shortly after serving a prison sentence in Shanghai.

“We’ve been to see his grave for the first time,” said Nicola Black. 

“Which was obviously quite moving for them because they’ve seen photographs of it, but it’s not the same as when you’re actually there,” her mother Susan interjected. “The fact that it is so well tended is also moving. It’s in the middle of Seoul but it’s so peaceful, so green and so nicely kept.”

When Bethell was first laid to rest and a headstone was placed at his grave, the Japanese had not forgotten his critical articles of their annexation of Korea.

“The fact that the Japanese even went to the point of actually defacing some of his headstone, I think, is really disgusting,” said the granddaughter.

Japanese soldiers vandalized some of the headstone that was thought to be critical of the Japanese. In 1964 the original epitaph was restored by the Korean people. 

The Blacks, after touring Korea and learning about the treatment of Koreans by the Japanese, understood why their grandfather had chosen to stay.

Incentives, hurdles for foreign entrepreneurs

Deciding on what form of business to choose and how to secure foreign direct investment incentives were among the topics discussed at a recent two-part seminar for foreigners planning to start a business in Korea.

Young Ham, managing partner and head of the Global Services Division at Hanmi Accounting Corp. in Seoul, presented “The Nuts and Bolts of Setting up and Running a Company” to a crowd of some 90 budding entrepreneurs at Seoul Global Business Support Center.

Over the course of an hour, Ham explained the differences between a liaison office, branch and subsidiary, the three types of business entity entrepreneurs with businesses outside Korea already can set up.

A liaison office performs preliminary or auxiliary activities for its head office such as advertising or market research and is not subject to corporate income tax. A branch of a foreign company is subject to tax only on its earnings in Korea, whereas a subsidiary is subject to tax on income generated within Korea and outside the country.

Ham said that one advantage of a subsidiary is that it demonstrates a greater commitment to the Korean market to customers in the country. A foreign branch of a business, however, has the advantage of having no minimum capitalization requirements.

Ham also spoke about the two forms of business open to entrepreneurs who don’t already have a business outside of Korea, a sole proprietor and a corporation. 

Ham recommended that a corporation is the preferable option for a business likely to turn over more than $50,000 profit in a year as it appears more solid to potential customers.

“If you present a card saying I’m the CEO of a company it’s different from just being a salesman,” he said.

For smaller operations, he said, being the sole proprietor is preferable because it is easier to set up.

Ham also devoted part of the seminar to tax matters, noting, in an echo of Benjamin Franklin’s famous phrase, “tax is something you cannot avoid in your life, like death.”

Doubt cast on Mahindra’s Ssangyong bid

The process of finding a new majority shareholder for the ailing sport utility vehicle specialist Ssangyong Motor Co. picked up pace last week when the Indian carmaker Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. was selected as the preferred bidder.

However, the Indian firm’s bid prompted worries among local media and activists over a repeat of an ill-fated takeover of Ssangyong by China’s Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.

SAIC bought majority stakes in Ssangyong in 2004, but the Korean firm once again ended up under bankruptcy protection early last year, for which lack of investment from the Chinese firm has been widely blamed.

SAIC is also accused of stealing hybrid electric vehicle technologies from Ssangyong. 

Ssangyong is hoping for a preliminary agreement with Mahindra by the end of the month and sign a contract for the sale in November. 

Mahindra’s bid is unknown but Ssangyong has a market capitalization of about 365 billion won ($310 million) and about 743 billion won in debt, and Mahindra group’s chief financial officer Bharat Doshi was quoted by Indian media as saying that its bid will cover most of Ssanyong’s debts, allowing Mahindra to acquire a “a debt-free company.” 

In addition, news of the company’s executive vice president for finance V.S. Parthasarathy visiting Korea to confer with local financial institutions raised concerns that Mahindra may be looking to rely on borrowed funds to pay for its stakes in Ssangyong, as did SAIC, despite having sufficient cash reserves, a factor which is said to have played an important role in tilting the balance for the Indian firm in its selection as the preferred bidder.

According to Mahindra’s financial statement for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, the company’s cash and bank balances came in at 174.3 billion rupees ($3.7 billion) for the period.

Nominees have their ethics questioned

The confirmation hearings of President Lee Myung-bak’s new picks for Cabinet members and other key government posts are expected to provide a litmus test for the ethical standards of the country’s top public officials. 

More than ever, doubts about the nominees focus on their ethics, rather than their capability to do the job or their views on key policy agendas. Many are suspected of a variety of wrongdoings, including breaches of the resident registration law and evasion of taxes. 

Tension is rising between rival political forces ahead of the hearings, with opposition lawmakers vowing to stop those with problematic records from taking the job. 

“Under the current administration, the ethical standards for top public officials have been seriously undermined, as those with records of phony address registration, dodging of military duties, evasion of taxes and speculative real-estate investments were appointed to the key posts,” Rep. Park Jie-won, the floor leader of the main opposition Grand National Party, said during a meeting Tuesday morning with his counterparts from three other opposition parties. 

Kim Tae-ho                        Shin Jae-min                  Lee Jae-hoon                   Jo Hyun-oh