CCEF en Corée

Korean Economy, Beyong the Crisis, Ready for the future

2010-03-27T01:53:00.000-07:00

Please check the presentation enclosed
Also enclosed an interesting article about Why south Korea matters ?

Extrait de la Réunion de la section Corée des Conseillers du Commerce Exterieur de la France du 24 Fevrier 2010

2010-03-27T00:49:00.000-07:00

Les points suivants ont été discutés :

1. Evénements / visites

- Visite de Bernard Kouchner – Ministre des Affaires étrangères le 19 Mars – cette visite est couplée avec une visite au Japan
- Visite de Madame Lagarde – Ministre des Finances les 3 et 5 Juin a Pusan dans le cadre de la preparation du G 20
- Visite de Madame Lagarde, là encore dans le cadre de la preparation du G 20 en Octobre à Gyeongju

G20 : sommet des chefs d’Etat les 11 et 12 Novembre - qui sera suivi par le sommet de l’Apec le 13 Novembre a Yokohama – Enfin la réunion du G 20 sera en principe précédée le 10 Novembre par une réunion des patrons d’entreprises a raison de 20 patrons par pays dont l’objectif sera de remettre un rapport au G 20 – les coréens seront maitres des invitations

Cérémonie du 60ième anniversaire de la guerre de Corée le 25 Juin : des evenements commémoratifs auront lieu en France et en Corée – les Corens y attachent beaucoup d’importance et ont invite les anciens combattants et leurs familles en Septembre – M Falco, le Secretaire d’Etat aux Anciens Combattants devrait venir en Coree
Thierry de Montbrial, president fondateur de l’IFRI est de passage a Séoul a l’occasion du Global Forum

Mr Gies, le President du Musee Guimet sera en Corée en Mars
Visite du Directeur General d’UbiFrance mi-Avril
Sommet Europe Asie en Octobre a Bruxelles auquel le President MB Lee participera

2 : Chiffres du Commerce Exterieur

- le commerce exterieur de la France avec la Coree [ total imports + exports ] a baisse d’environ 15 % en 2009 par rapport a 2008 ce qui est en ligne avec le recul du commerce francais et du commerce coreen – cependant notre part de marche a legeremment progresse passant de 1.15 % a 1.25 % - notre deficit a recule de Euro 1.3 milliard en 2007 a Euro 0.8 milliard en 08 et a Euro 0.5 milliard en 09 en raison de la chute des exportations coreennes sur la France

- le commerce exterieur coreen a quant a lui augmente de $ 100 milliards entre 2004 et 2009 dont + $ 80 milliards avec les pays emergents dont $ 35 milliards avec la grande Chine et $ 45 milliards avec les pays suivants : Bresil , Inde , Russie , Vietnam, EAU , Algerie …]

3 : FTA Coree-EU :

L’approbation du FTA sera le premier cas de passage au Parlement Europen depuis le traite de Lisbonne alors que cet accord de libre echange est le plus ambitieux que l’Europe ait signe jusqu'à present d’où un certain degree d’incertitude sur le processus de ratification meme si l’issue finale n’est a priori pas en doute – par contre il est tres possible que le demantelement du système tarifaire soit reporte d’un an – a voir

4- « Green Economy »

Il y a certainement des opportunites dans plusieurs domaines pour les entreprises françaises, par contre a ce stade il n’a pas été identifie de perspectives de contrats d’importance a part peut être dans les transports collectifs.

5- Les grands secteurs :

5-1 Industrie Automobile :

Le niveau de confiance des menages reste tres haut – Même si le marché domestique devrait reculer de -10 % en 2010 avec la fin des aides , le niveau de production devrait rester stable a KRW 3.7 trio tiré par la reprise des exports de + 7 % – la tendance sur Janvier reste robuste, tirée par le portefeuille de commandes en cours sur les nouveaux modeles – optimisme sur la premiere moitie de l’année, plus incertain sur la seconde moitie par manque de visibilite quant a la demande
Le niveau du KRW reste acceptable malgre l’appreciation constatée depuis quelques mois

Les équipementiers français s’interessent de plus en plus a la Corée mais le marché est déjà saturé – par contre des pays comme l’Inde offrent des opportunités – par ailleurs les equipementiers coreens s’exteriorisent de plus en plus Inde , RFA…et regardent des investissement en France - Enfin d’autres groupes automobiles s’intéressent aux equipementiers coreens

La France devrait regarder ce qui est en train de se faire au Japon comme en Coree en termes de déploiement d’un réseau de distribution de charges electriques ou ces deux pays sont en train de se positionner comme leaders .

5-2 Construction

Le batiment ne se porte pas bien en raison d’un hiver particulierement rigoureux et du contre coup de la crise – mais plus profondément il y a trop d’acteurs, les programmes sont moins profitables en raison de la reduction de la taille des appartements alors que les vieilles recettes pour relancer le batiment s’essoufflent
Par contre les projets touristiques marchent bien et les nouveaux projets se tournent vers l’international [Chine, Moyen Orient …] – les projets de tres grandes tours restent a la mode ainsi que les urban entertainment centers et autres casinos sur Seoul mais il n’est pas toujours évident de savoir lesquels de tous ces projets verront le jour

Dans ce contexte ou les travaux d’infrastructure et de logements ralentissent et ou seuls les investissement par les entreprises sont soutenus, le secteur ciment a des previsions entre 0% et moins 5 % sur 2010 avec un debut d’annee plat – le ciment est a moins 10 % en volume en raison de l’hiver et les prix ont baisse de 10 % en raison du trop grand nombre d’acteurs et des importations meme si elles ne representent qu’une faible part de la consommation [ 10 % ] –

5-3 Chimie :

Apres une année 2009 en hausse de 10 % par rapport a 2008, le secteur des produits intermediaires connait un tres bon debut d’annee 2010 soutenu par l’export - ceci est essentiellement lie au marche automobile – par contre le deuxieme semestre s’annonce plus incertain

5-4 Marche des Carbon Certificates

Les coreens travaillent activement ce sujet et pourraient prendre des initiatives vers la fin 2010

5-5 Nucléaire :

La Corée a pour projet de se doter de 12 centrales nucleaires de plus d’ici 2030 pour atteindre 40 centrales

Le recent succes rencontre par la Coree avec le contrat d’Abu- Dhabi illustre les ambitions de la Coree a l’export en ce domaine – d’autres contrats export sont possibles
Dans ce contexte les coreens veulent inciter les pmes coreennes sur les composants nucleaires et ont besoin de formation

5-6 Transport :

Les perspectives restent bonnes compte tenu des projets de transport urbain et de grandes lignes – de même l’export offre des perspectives en coopération avec les coréens

5-7 Defense :

Les perspectives sont faibles pour diverses raisons : budget en croissance reduite, incertitude quant aux programmes et tendance a la localisation, etc.…

5-8 Luxe :

2009 a été un tres bon cru grace dans un premier temps a la clientèle japonaise et au taux de change et dans un deuxieme temps grace a la reprise de la consommation locale et a l’apparition de la clientele chinoise – un phenomene nouveau mais qui devrait aller en s’accentuant compte tenu de l’accroissement du nombre de vols entre la Chine et la Coree a raison de 780 vols par semaine reliant 23 villes de Chine plus l’allegement en cours des procedures de visas pour les chinois et la multiplication des casinos en Coree

2010 s’annonce tres bon egalement – la clientele japonaise devrait etre moins présente, par contre la reprise de la consommation locale se poursuit et les coreens se sont remis a voyager d’où les achats en Duty Free – enfin l’effet clientele chinoise

Par ailleurs de nouveaux entrants en milieu de gamme

5-9 : Hôtellerie :

2009 comme 2008 a été une bonne annee
Le debut 2010 est superieur aux attentes et 2010 devrait etre superieure a 2009 grace a un retour general de la demande – par contre il faut s’attendre a des revendications sociales

5-10 Situation financière :

La forte baisse du CDS Coree est le reflet de l’amélioration de la situation coreenne et de sa perception par les marches
A surveiller : l’endettement des societes d’Etat qui se traduirait par un endettement total de l’etat coreen de l’ordre de 65 % du PNB ce qui n’est pas encore catastrophique mais il n’est pas certain qu’on ait encore une vue exhaustive de la situation
Mouvements importants dans l’industrie financière coreenne avec les projets de privatisations / concentrations dans l’industrie bancaire et les IPOS dans le secteur de l’assurance

Suicide rate soars to put Korea at top of OECD list

2010-03-25T01:20:00.000-07:00

March 25, 2010, JoongAng Daily

Korea has the highest suicide rate among all the 30 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development member countries, according to a report by the Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday.

An average 24.3 people per 100,000 die every year from suicide in Korea, followed by an average of 21 in Hungary, 19.4 in Japan and 16.7 in Finland. France and the United States saw an average of 14.2 and 10.1 people die respectively from suicide annually.

The ministry report was based on the latest data from Statistics Korea, which compared suicide rates in Korea in 2008 to other countries.

Korea’s suicide rate has risen drastically in the last 10 years, the study found. In 2008, 12,858 Koreans committed suicide - up 49 percent from the 1998 figure which was 8,622. The data showed suicide as the fourth most common cause of death in Korea in 2008, accounting for 5.2 percent of all deaths. This follows the No.1 cause of death, cancer, with 28 percent, as well as brain and heart illnesses.

Suicide was the leading cause of death for people in their 20s and 30s, accounting for 40.7 percent and 28.7 percent of deaths in the respective age brackets.

Seo Chong-hee, a managing director at the Center for Suicide Prevention in Suwan, Gyeonggi, said the elderly may be swelling the rising number of suicides.

“As society changes rapidly, many senior citizens here find it hard to cope. Also, they are oftentimes financially unstable,” Seo said. “In addition, in recent years the suicides of famous people, including late actress Choi Jin-sil and former President Roh Moo-hyun, have spurred similar cases.”

The health ministry, together with the Korean Council of Religious Leaders, said yesterday they will wage a public campaign against suicide. In a joint statement, they said “The idea that suicide can never be a solution to a problem or a form of escape from pain, must be spread throughout society.”

The ministry said that it plans to implement educational programs so that one can spot signs of depression and/or suicidal tendencies.

By Cho Jae-eun [jainnie@joongang.co.kr]

Marriage rate plunges to a record low

2010-03-25T01:16:00.000-07:00

March 25, 2010, JoongAng Daily

For Sunny Shin, a 32-year-old former ad agency manager, traveling is the biggest pleasure of her life that can’t be traded even for marriage - and so much “painful” baggage she says marriage brings.

“Dealing with in-laws and parenting and household chores are still considered women’s work,” said Shin, who just returned from a three-month-long trip to Spain and Britain and was recently offered a new job. “These don’t seem to be worth sacrificing my current lifestyle for at all.”

Thanks to a generous vacation policy at her previous employer, she has spent nearly a month each year vacationing in countries like Cuba and France.

“How many Korean men and in-laws out there will be liberal enough to deal with me? Very few, is my guess,” she said. “Plus, everyone knows the institution of marriage in this country can be a real battle for women, especially those with a career.”

Shin is hardly alone.

A growing number of Korean educated women, who have a career and fully know the typical difficulties faced by working married women in this country, are shunning tying the knot as long as they can, if they decide to tie the knot at all.

And that definitely showed in yesterday’s data from Statistics Korea.

The nation’s marriage rate - the number of marriages for every 1,000 people in Korea - has plunged to a record low of 6.2 for 2009, the lowest figure since the government started tracking the statistic in 1970.

Such a “marriage strike,” as it has been dubbed by many local media worrying about fewer wedding bells heard across the country, has become a source of big concern among local policy makers grappling with the ever-dropping birthrate.

Korea’s annual fertility rate, or the number of children an average woman has in her lifetime, stood at 1.15 as of last year, the lowest among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Women are also waiting later to get married and have children. The average age of women giving birth in Korea has constantly climbed, from 27.8 in 1994 to 29 in 2009 and to 31 as of last year.

The number of international marriages - mostly between men in rural areas and women brought from developing countries like Vietnam and China - amounted to 33,300, or about 10.8 percent of the 309,759 marriages that took place across Korea last year.

Among them, marriage between Korean men and foreign women amounted to 25,142, including 11,364 with Chinese women and 7,249 withVietnamese women. Indeed, 35.2 percent of the 5,640 Korean men in farming and fisheries professions who married last year did so with foreign women.

But the number of such marriages between Korean men and foreign brides has declined after hitting a record high of 30,719. The decline is thought to be due to Seoul’s making it easier for ethnic Koreans in foreign countries to come to Korea to find employment.

“Before then, some foreign women, including those from ethnic Korean communities in China, used marriage as a ruse to come to Korea to find work and send money to their families back home,” said one official at Statistics Korea who asked for customary anonymity.

“But we believe that after the rule took effect in 2005 some fake marriages have disappeared.”

Officials said part of the void is due to the shrinking number of Chinese brides, which has been nearly halved - from 20,582 in 2005 to 11,362 in 2009 - is now starting to be filled by Nepalese brides, whose number has surged from a mere 16 in 2005 to 316 in 2009, and some from the United States.

The recent data also revealed an interesting development concerning marriages between Korean women and foreign men. They slightly rose from 8,041 in 2008 to 8,158 last year.

The surge mostly came from the marriages between Korean women and Chinese men, as the number of such marriages rose from 2,101 in 2008 to 2,617 last year.

Officials said they suspect some of the Chinese brides who came to Korea during the height of international marriages five years ago may have divorced their Korean husbands and married Chinese men.

“We have data showing that about 500 Korean women who married Chinese men last year are actually former Chinese citizens who were naturalized by marriage to Korean citizens,” said the official.

By Jung Ha-won [hawon@joongang.co.kr]

S. Korea to be 5th fastest growing economies among G-20 this year

2010-03-12T00:53:00.000-08:00

Korea Herald – Mar. 12, 2010

SEOUL, March 11 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's economy is expected to grow at the fifth fastest pace among the Group of 20 advanced and emerging countries this year, continuing to rebound from the global downturn, a report said Thursday.

According to the report by the International Monetary Fund, South Korea's economy is expected to expand 4.5 percent this year, the fifth-highest growth rate among the G-20 member nations. The report was submitted to a G-20 meeting held late last month in South Korea.

Chile ranked first with a 10 percent growth for this year, followed by India with 7.7 percent. Indonesia and Brazil came next with 5.5 percent and 4.7 percent growth, respectively, the report showed.

South Korea's economy was feared to face what could have been the first contraction in more than a decade last year but grew 0.2 percent last year, the fifth fastest growth among the G-20 countries, the report added.

For 2011, however, the Washington-based organization expected that South Korea's economy will expand 5 percent, slightly lower than a 5.2 percent advance it predicted in October last year.

The growth outlook is still the fourth-highest among the G-20 countries, following Chile, India and Indonesia. It is also better than the G-20 average of a 4.4 percent expansion for next year, the report showed.

Korea’s population inches upward, aging intensifies

2010-03-05T08:42:00.000-08:00

Korea’s population aged last year as people tended to delay marriage while married couples had fewer babies, signaling a continued change in the demographic landscape here, data showed yesterday.

According to the data provided by Statistics Korea, Korea’s population totaled 48.7 million at the end of last year, up 0.29 per cent from a year earlier. Of the total, those aged 65 or older ac counted for a record 10.7 percent.

The figure puts Korea squarely into the category of an aging society where 7-14 percent of the population is aged 65 or older. Korea became an aging sod et in 2000 and is now rapidly moving toward becoming an aged country where the ratio exceeds 14 percent.

Challenges posed by the country’s aging population have drawn keen attention in recent years, as fears mount that the demographic shift could dent overall productivity and growth potential down the road due to a declining workforce and an increase in welfare and medical costs.
The statistics agency’s report, which compiled data ranging from total population to education spending and the number of mobile phone users, provides a glimpse into the current state of Korea’s social landscape.

According to the report, households in Korea totaled 16.91 million at the end of last year, up 1.5 percent from a year earlier. Of them, one-member households accounted for 20.2 percent, showing that a growing number of people are either delaying marriage or choosing to remain single.

Despite the declining birth rate and decreased marriages, parents in Korea continued to expand their spending on education for their children, the report showed.
Annual household education. spending amounted to an aver age 3.49 million won ($3,056) last year, accounting for a record high 13.5 percent of total expenditure, according to the report.

Another sign of the ongoing demographic change here was the rise in the number of registered foreigners, which stood at 871,0.00 last year, marking a 17.4-fold increase over the past two decades.

The ratio of foreigners to the total population was 1.8 percent.

Meanwhile, users of traditional fixed-line household telephones totaled around 20 million, down 9.2 percent from a year earlier, as more people shifted toward mobile phone services which commanded about 48 million subscribers of the end of last year, the report showed. (Yonhap News)

The Korea Herald on Mar. 5, 2010

South Korea works overtime to tackle vacation shortage

2010-03-02T02:36:00.000-08:00

Nation leads in refusing to take time off, but productivity lags; bosses set the pace
BY EVAN RAMSTAD AND JAEYEON WOO

SEOUL—The government here is cracking down on vacations: Workers, it seems,
aren’t taking enough of them.

South Koreans were told for decades to sacrifice everything to build the country’s economy. Now South Koreans are world-champion workaholics, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, logging more hours a year on the job than people in any other developed country.

The government is trying to change that. The ministry in charge of government personnel issued a directive in January requiring the country’s one million state workers to submit to their bosses a plan to take 16 days off this year.
The hitch : In a hierarchical society where superiors set the tone in business and politics, some of the very bosses behind the vacation push can’t be bothered to take them.

President Lee Myung-bak raised the national vacation deficit at a cabinet meeting last summer, pointing to a survey showing that the typical government worker took only six of the allotted 23 days. Mr. Lee’s personal tally since taking office in February 2008, according to media reports: four days.
One member of Mr. Lee’s cabinet, Unification Minister Hyun Jn-taek, told The Wall Street Journal he passed the government’s vacation directive throughout his agency, which is responsible for South Korea’s dealings with North Korea. But he has taken no vacation himself.

“I want them to take more time off,” Mr. Hyun says. “But as for me? I don’t know.”
To cajole reluctant holiday- makers, the government has brought in the heavy artillery: a guy from Germany, home to some of the world’s top vacationers.
Born there as Bernhard Quandt, he moved to South Korea in 1978 and became a naturalized citizen in 1986, changing his name to Lee Charm. Mr. Lee, who teaches language on TV, hosts radio shows, writes books and gives lectures about Korean culture, is one of the country’s most visible foreign faces.
In August, Mr. Lee was named the head of the government-owned Korea Tourism Organization, whose 550 employees develop tours, promote the country and should, theoretically, know a few things about taking time off. A few months later, he called a company-wide staff meeting where he announced he wanted everyone to take at least two weeks off in 2010.

“I didn’t take it very seriously,” says KTO employee Seo Dong-woo, who helps plan tourism promotions and figures he’s taken, at most, five days off in a year. “1 thought: ‘Is that really possible?’
It wasn’t. Mr. Lee’s staff told him it was too much to expect workers to miss two weeks in a row, so the bass scaled the plan back to seven days off in a row.
Mr. Seo still hasn’t finalized his own plans.
Many workers, and the country’s media, have cheered the government initiative.
There’s hope it will spill into the private sector, where vacation-shirking is also rampant. SK Telecom Co., a leader in tearing down old work place hierarchies, says its workers take five to 15 of their available 22 days off. At LG Electronics, the aver age is 10.

Hyundai Heavy Industries boasted last month that its top managers would work mid-February’s Lunar New Year’s holiday, visiting foreign plants. “Every year Hyundai Heavy’s top management carries out the MBWA (Management By Wandering Around) policy during national holidays an4 summer vacations to check project progress and to have meetings with owners,” it said in a news release.
Some workers say they don’t know what to do with the free time. Others are protesting the state’s vacation push, accusing leaders of trying to save money: In many government agencies, employees are rewarded with extra pay for unused vacation days.

“You should be able to take a vacation whenever you feel like,” says Yoon,Jin-won, sp for the Korean Government Employees’ Union, the biggest union of government workers. “When the government forces you to do it, I would say it violates human rights in a sense.”
South Koreans worked an average of 2,316 hours in 2007, the latest year for which data are available. That’s down from 2,592 a decade earlier but still well above the aver age of 1,768 for the 30 countries in the OECD and 1,794 in the U.S., ac cording to the OECD.

South Korea’s productivity, how ever, ranks below all but some former Soviet bloc countries among OECD members.
The KTO’s Mr. Lee says he’s trying to persuade South Koreans that vacation can recharge batteries and spur creativity. In interviews in the Korean media, ho preaches the “three joys” of vacation—the joy of planning one, of being on one and of remembering it later.

South Koreans often miss that formula, Mr. Lee says. “They go when the opportunity arises, usually very spontaneously. And because they didn’t prepare well, they have a lot of stress and usually have to pay more. And when they get back, instead of having nice memories, they feel tired and stressed out and think, ‘Never again.’
The government’s focus on the vacation problem began when President Lee Myung-bak brought up the survey to cabinet members last July. Later, the culture minister began urging people to use their full vacation time, and the president appointed Mr. Lee, the naturalized German, to head the KTO.

But noncompliance can be found even at the core of the government’s efforts. The official at the Ministry of Public Administration and Security who wrote and issued the 16- day vacation requirement last month was Kim Jin-soo, a director in the ministry’s personnel management office. Mr. Kim says he took no time off last year.
When he and his staff got together to organize vacation days after hi directive, others took time in January. Mr. Kim scheduled his day off for Feb. 1, a Monday, planning to use the three-day weekend to visit his hometown about three hours from Seoul. But then, Mr. Kim says, “Something came up so I couldn’t go.”
His sister, Kim Jung-ja, who planned to host him, says she wasn’t surprised.
“Our mother passed away three years ago, and he couldn’t visit of ten while she was alive, either,” she says. “I think he is like the busiest person in the whole world.”
So the author- of the government’s vacation policy deferred his planned time off to the big Lunar New Year holiday last month.
Contacted after the holiday, Mr. Kim said 43% of his ministry’s staff added two extra days to the long weekend. He wasn’t among them.
“There are so many things to take care of” at work, he said. “I am thinking about taking vacation in March.”

The Wall Street Journal, 2 March 2010

Korean Women Flock to Government

2010-03-01T02:33:00.000-08:00

SEOUL — When Kim Hyo-eun joined the South Korean Foreign Ministry in 1992, its personal data form listed “wife,” but not “husband,” in the section where new diplomats provided information about their spouses. That was hardly surprising: at the time, few women had ever taken, let alone passed, the foreign service examination.

“The year I took the exam, an unprecedentedly large number of women passed it — three — so it made news,” said Ms. Kim, who is now director of the ministry’s climate change team.

Fast forward to 2010. Kim Sang-jin, head of the ministry’s personnel management team, sees a literal change in the face of South Korean diplomacy. Over the past five years, 55 percent of the 151 people who passed the highly competitive test — the main passageway into the country’s diplomatic corps — were women.
The situation at the Foreign Ministry is emblematic of what is happening in other government departments. Last year, 47 percent of those who passed the state examination that selects midlevel officials to be groomed for senior posts in agencies other than the Foreign Ministry were women. In 1992 it was 3.2 percent.
So many women have entered public service in recent years that, in 2003, the government revised its quota system. In 1996 it had begun mandating that at least 30 percent of new hires in all government departments except the police and military be women. Now, because so many women have succeeded in competing for these jobs, it is applying the minimum 30 percent quota for men as well.
“Managers come to us asking for men, complaining that they have too many women in their office,” said Mr. Kim at the Foreign Ministry. “There aren’t enough men to go round. They’re in short supply.”
The recent surge of women in the public sector is an outcome of government efforts to expand democracy after decades of military rule, to combat economic stagnation by bringing more well-educated women into the paid work force and to check the country’s plummeting birthrate, attributed in part to the difficulties South Korean women face trying to combine careers and motherhood.

But it is also reflects the daunting obstacles women continue to face in the private sector.
In South Korea, the four largest conglomerates — Samsung, Hyundai, LG and SK — dominate the economy. Women hold less than 2 percent of seats on their boards. There are almost no female executives at South Korean banks.
Despite having the world’s 13th-largest economy, South Korea ranked 115th out of 134 countries in the World Economic Forum’s 2009 index of gender equality.
Compared with other industrialized countries, highly educated women are poorly represented in the paid work force in South Korea, where Confucian-influenced tradition continues to give married women overriding responsibility for managing the household and raising children.

In 2007, only 60.9 percent of women with college or graduate degrees were employed, the lowest rate among the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (The O.E.C.D. average was 79.9 percent.)
Women who do work outside the home tend to be clustered in low-level service and manufacturing jobs — a fact that had consequences in the recent recession. In the United States and Europe, more men than women lost their jobs. But in South Korea, a whopping 90 percent of those made jobless were women, partly because they made up so many of the part-time and contract workers who have proved easy targets when it comes to cutting costs.

In January, just over 45 percent of working-age women were employed, compared with almost 70 percent of men. Women bring in only 52 percent of what men get in wages, according to the U.N. Development Program’s gender empowerment measure, which last year ranked South Korea 62nd out of 109 countries in terms of income and of political and economic participation and decision-making.
Faced with all this, it has been the government that has led the way to expand women’s rights. Since the mid-1990s, it has enacted laws addressing issues like sexual and domestic violence.

It has also revised more than 300 existing laws to eliminate gender bias since 2005, the year the Constitutional Court threw out provisions in the Civil Code that said that only men could be the legal head of household and that children must take their father’s surname, thus toppling centuries-old tenets of Korean society. Women’s rights advocates still mention this ruling as one of their greatest coups.
“Our strategy has been to change the laws and institutions first so the rest of the society can catch up in changing attitudes and culture in favor of gender equality,” said Chung Bong-hyup, director general at the Ministry of Gender Equality, which was established in 2001.

Women now account for 10.8 percent of midlevel managerial posts in the government, although the percentage declines sharply in the upper echelons.
In Parliament, where the first female deputy took her seat in 1949, women still comprise a minority — 14 percent — but they include some of the most influential voices. President Lee Myung-bak’s biggest rival now is not the opposition parties but a woman in his own party: Park Geun-hye, who leads a band of male legislators who often rebut Mr. Lee’s policies on a cue from her.
“The biggest merit of government jobs for women is that we don’t face discrimination there,” said Park Ja-hye, a graduate of Seoul National University who has been preparing for the foreign service exam for the last couple of years. “Private companies don’t have great expectations from their female employees. They seem to hire them just for display, to show that they care about gender equality.”
Ms. Park, 27, said she had known no discrimination until she graduated in 2006 and began applying for jobs. At home, she was raised by a mother who was trained as a pianist in Germany and a father who worked at an American company. At school, she excelled in exams and classroom presentations, winning acceptance to Seoul National University’s prestigious business school.
Its diploma can open doors at nearly any top corporation — except for female graduates, some of whom say they were rejected as many as 20 times in job applications.

Some have responded by seeking positions abroad or cramming for the government exams.
Ms. Park’s own brief stint at a private company after graduation was a rude awakening to the reality that many highly educated, ambitious young women graduates confront here. Unlike their mothers, who usually remained homemakers even if they held university degrees, women of Ms. Park’s generation are expected to hold paid jobs to supplement their future husband’s income to meet rising living costs.
But male colleagues tend to sideline women who do not join late-night drinking sessions, a traditional way of building office camaraderie. Managers consider them unreliable, suspecting that they might quit or lose their focus on work once they marry. Maternity leave is seen as an impediment to becoming a senior manager.
“Women flock to government exams, not just because they want to, but also because they have no alternative,” said Ms. Park, who has returned to her university, but this time to its graduate program in international studies with an eye toward the Foreign Ministry or international organizations.
Of all the government agencies, women have made the greatest inroads in the Foreign Ministry, partly because of the perception that its international outlook makes it a more hospitable environment for women to advance.
“Working in the international field was a way out of the stifling male-dominated society” of South Korea, said Yoo Hye-ran, the only woman who passed the foreign service exam in 1989.

Two decades later, the young women who have followed in her path have bolder dreams.
Sun Ju-yearn, 25, was among the 23 women who passed the foreign service exam in 2008, when the passing rate of women outstripped that of men by two to one.
“By the time a diplomat of my age becomes a foreign minister, people will no longer call her a ‘female foreign minister,”’ said Ms. Sun, who works in the ministry’s European department. “She will just be ‘the foreign minister.”’

International Herald Tribune
March 1, 2010

SHUNMI acknowledged by ZAGAT the World’s best Restaurant Guide SHUNMI at Novotel Ambassador Gangnam

2010-02-19T20:52:00.000-08:00

(February 19, 2010) The Japanese Super Dining Restaurant ‘SHUNMI’ at Novotel Ambassador Gangnam has been selected as one of the best restaurants in Seoul by ZAGAT, the world’s most authoritative restaurant guide.

ZAGAT, based in New York, is a globally reputed publishing company on travel & leisure guidebook and online content. The ZAGAT review started in 1979 when the two Yale graduates Tim Zagat and Nina Zagat reviewed and scored on restaurants they visited. The ZAGAT survey is currently done by the public guests on restaurants in over 100 countries on various criteria including taste, atmosphere, service, etc. The survey also includes judgment from experts to make the total score of 30. Being guest-oriented survey rather than expert-oriented one, the ZAGAT survey is known as ‘the latest integrated and trustful guide’ by major media while providing global map of gourmet restaurants.

The Seoul version of survey, done in August, 2009, had 4,398 gourmets review 287 restaurants in Seoul and the result was published in ‘ZAGAT Seoul Restaurant 2010.’

The 31 luxury hotel restaurants were included in the review while SHUNMI was one of 8 Japanese restaurants. SHUNMI had scores of over 20 in taste, atmosphere and service.

Restaurants with scores of 20 or higher include Sushizo at Westin Chosun, ‘Ariake’ at Hotel Shilla, Akasaka at Grand Hyatt, ‘Momoyama’ at Lotte Hotel. Also, Kenji at Hilton Hotel, Tenkai at Grand Hyatt and Hanazona at Ritz Carlton were introduced as recommendable Japanese restaurants.

‘It is a great honor for us to be acknowledged by a world glass restaurant review. SHUNMI will continue to lead the culinary culture of Seoul with utmost services and tastes’ said Mr. Lee Wan-gi, F&B manager at Novotel Ambassador Gangnam.

SHUNMI, referred to ‘summit of taste’ in Japanese, is aiming to become the trendiest Japanese restaurant in Seoul with eco-friendly interior design combined with authentic Japanese cuisine touched with modern culinary sense. The restaurant will go under renovation from early March to offer a new Sushi and Sake corners.

Novotel Ambassador Gangnam ‘SHUNMI’ 02-531-6477

First Hotel in Korea with Green Globe Silver Mark - Novotel Ambassador Gangnam

2010-02-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

(February 12, 2010) As of February 2, 2010, Novotel Ambassador Gangnam officially acquired “Green Globe Silver Mark” certified by EC3 Global, a global environmental advisory organization.

Green Globe is a worldwide certification system for sustainable development to pursue low carbon growth in future. The certification is managed and operated by EC3 Global, headquartered in Brisbane in Australia. To acquire the certificate, worldwide business entities such as international tourist hotels and resorts or airlines are actively engaged in various environmental campaigns. The applied criteria of campaigns include eco-friendly products, saving water and energy, garbage recycle (referred to ‘Environmental Indicator’) and support for the community where their businesses are done (referred to ‘Social Indicator’). The Green Globe certificates begin from Bronze (benchmarking stage) and move up to Silver, Gold and Platinum. EC3 Global was established in 1994 by The World Travel and Tourism Council as agreement on the Agenda 21 at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992.
Novotel, an Accor chain hotel brand, operating over 400 hotels and resorts in 58 countries, has pursued sustainable development under the guidelines of Green Globe as part of brand policy, specifically engaged in ‘Accor Earth Guest Program’ embarked 10 years ago as part of environmental management.

As a Novotel chain hotel, Novotel Ambassador Gangnam has started its mission on the environmental management several years ago. Efforts of the hotel include environmental campaigns such as taking care of riverside flowerbeds, planting trees and cleaning rivers. Also the hotel has supported various charity events and implemented eco-friendly policies in its hotel operation. As a result of above efforts, Novotel Ambassador Gangnam became the first hotel in Korea to acquire Green Globe Silver Mark which followed it’s Bronze Mark in March 2009. Currently Grand Intercontinental and COEX Intercontinental Hotel are the only hotels with Bronze Mark.

“The perception on corporate social responsibility and environmental management is becoming common among worldwide leading corporations. It’s definitely an honor for our hotel to become the first hotel in the nation with the globally authorized certificate. We will continue our effort and systemize our environmental management to move to the next level up” firmly said the general manager of Novotel Ambassador Gangnam, Jerome Stubert.

Patents are a virtue

2010-02-11T17:53:00.001-08:00

Which countries file for most international patents?

Feb 8th 2010 | From The Economist online

THE number of applications for international patents fell by 4.5% in 2009 compared with the year before to 159,000 as companies in Western countries cut back on R&D spending during the recession. Yet applications from east Asian economies, including Japan and South Korea, increased slightly, while those from China soared by 30%. Since 2005 applications from China have grown by 210% as the country has developed a home-grown high-tech sector. But, reflecting America's economic power and corporate dynamism, the United States is still the country from which the most filings orginate, and it has a huge lead. However, the number of American applications has fallen substantially from a peak of 54,000 in 2007.

Women playing larger role on economic stage

2010-02-10T17:49:00.000-08:00

Source JoongAng Daily

As Korea’s economy has advanced, so has the role women play in this Confucian country.

Today, you’re likely to find just as many women venturing out into the workforce as those who decide to stay largely within the home.

They’re also gaining more clout on the economic stage, amassing wealth that goes far beyond the traditional paycheck and earning more than ever, according to the latest tax statistics.

In 2008, women accounted for more than 40 percent of all residents who filed their comprehensive income taxes, data from the National Tax Service show.

Aside from paychecks, comprehensive income tax includes various types of income including profits from investments and real estate rent. Residents file their comprehensive income tax in May every year.

Out of the 3.56 million people who filed their comprehensive income taxes in 2008, 1.43 million were women, according to the data.

The total income level reported by women in this group has been growing, too, from 9.9 trillion won in 2005 to 20.1 trillion won in 2008.

Women accounted for 23.9 percent of the total income value in 2008, up from 20.5 percent three years earlier, the data show.

At the same time, taxes levied on these women grew from 1.7 trillion won to 2.7 trillion won during the same period. Women accounted for 20 percent of the total tax levied on comprehensive income in 2008.

More women are apparently working their way into the upper echelon of earners. According to the data, the number of women in the top third in terms of income level surged 81.8 percent from 155,000 in 2005 to 282,000 in 2008.

The number of women in the top 10 percent shot up 83.8 percent, from 37,000 to 68,000, during the same period.

In 2008, the number of women who earned more than 100 million won a year totaled 20,218, up from 19,296 in 2007. Statistics before 2007 are unavailable.

“The rising figure, particularly in the top income class, indicates that there are more women today working in professional jobs with large paychecks such as doctors and lawyers,” said an official at the tax agency.

“Compared to the time before the 1980s, more women are getting advanced educations, including graduate degrees.”

The tax agency also attributed the trend to changes in social behavior that have played out in Korea in recent years, such as the growing number of women who prefer to remain single and pursue careers instead of having children.

By Lee Ho-jeong [ojlee82@joongang.co.kr]

Extrait du Compte rendu de la réunion de la section Corée des Conseillers du Commerce Extérieur de la France du 21 JANVIER 2010

2010-02-08T00:14:00.000-08:00

1. Evénements/ Visites

Forte activité diplomatique en préparation du G20. Deux voyages prevus cette annee de Mme la Ministre C.Lagarde et peut etre davantage . Les ministres des finances des pays du G20 auront deux réunions préparatoires en Corée et deux aux Etats-Unis. Les directeurs du Trésor se réuniront à Incheon fin février. Les chefs d’Etat du G20 se réuniront à Toronto le 20 juin .

Date du G20 : les 11 et 12 Novembre. On attend plus de 5000 personnes au titre des délégations officielles + les journalistes + …

Idée d’un B20 en marge du sommet : 20 grands patrons de chacun des 20 pays.
FTA : l’accord devrait être signé en Corée en mai-juin , voire avant mais a confirmer

Reunion des CCEFs Asie du Nord
Celle-ci se tiendra les 23 et 24 avril à Tokyo sur le thème de l’Asie comme laboratoire avancé d’innovations techniques, économiques et sociales.

2. Tour de table

Automobile
Le moral des ménages est toujours au plus haut. Le marché devrait revenir à son niveau normal avec la fin des packages fiscaux. Des problèmes de sur- capacité pourraient apparaître, une fois les back-orders éclusés.

Distribution –Luxe
Développement en 2010 de centres d’activités : Urban Entertainment Centers, intégrant department stores, cinémas, restaurants.etc, contrôlés par les grands groupes coréens. La consommation en 2010 est attendue à +7.7% avec une explosion du e-commerce (24 Trillion KRW +16%)

Hôtellerie
2010 s’annonce positif malgre la diminution de la clientèle japonaise.

Aérien
Reprise sensible du marché coréen, un des premiers dans le monde, après une année très difficile. Le niveau de l’euro ne permet pas encore aux destinations européennes d’être pleinement compétitives sur le segment touristique face aux destinations SE asiatique/Chine/Japon en très forte reprise.

Korea leads world in internet speed

2010-02-04T17:47:00.000-08:00

TOKYO (AFP) — East Asian countries led by Korea, Hong Kong and Japan are the best
wired in the world with the highest number of fast broad band connections to the Internet, a recent report has found.
Korea boasts the, world’s highest average connection speed at 14.6 Megabytes per second and also has six of Asia’s 10 cities with the fastest link-ups, all with average speeds above 15 Mbps.
Japan had the second highest average connection speed of 7.9 Mbps, followed by the Chinese territory of Hong Kong with 7.6 Mbps, said the report by U.S,-based network
provider Akamai Technologies.
The other countries in the top ten are Romania, followed by Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark and the Czech Republic, with the United States at 18th place, with an average speed of 3.9 Mbps.
The survey classifies “broad barnd” connections as those of two Mbps or more, and “high broadband” as five Mbps or over, while link-ups at 20 Mbps and better were categorized as “extremely high speed connectivity”,
In Korea, 74 percent of connections were “high broadband,” the world’s top rate, while the figure was 60 percent in Japan, followed by Hong Kong with 46 percent, said the report.
The United States came 12th, with just 24 percent of its connections at five Mbps or more. Worldwide, the high broadband percentage was 19 percent.
Growing demand for online high-definition video content is driving demand for faster connections, said Akamai’s ‘State of the Internet’ report for the third quarter of 2009.
“As the quantity of HD-quality media increases over time and the consumption of that media increases, end users are likely to require ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth,” the report said.

Korea Herald
Feb. 04, 2010

Design spotlight now shining on Seoul

2010-02-03T22:52:00.000-08:00

[IN-DEPTH INTERVIEW] ‘The juries unanimously selected Seoul not because it is a superior design city, but rather because it has a great chance to become one.’

Q. Many people are still unfamiliar with World Design Capital (WDC) and, specifically, World Design Capital Seoul 2010. Briefly explain to us what they’re all about.

A. The WDC is a biennial designation awarded by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) to cities either emerging in the area of design or already famous for it. Turin in Italy served as a test city for the project, and Seoul is now the first city in the world to receive the designation under the official program.

The ICSID is an international organization that pursues social, economic and cultural development through design. It now boasts 165 member entities in 48 countries as well as 150,000 design experts. The juries unanimously selected Seoul not because it is a superior design city, but rather because it has a great chance to become one in the future. Seoul’s design-led development and its vision to incorporate design across the city’s social, cultural and economic scene as well as in its high-tech products appealed to the juries.

With the designation, Seoul received the rights to hold World Design Capital events, which will raise its profile internationally in design. There will be various design parties, exhibitions and conferences this year.

What’s the significance of the designation?

World Design Capital Seoul 2010 enables not only international and local design experts to put their heads together to share their design policies and experience, but it also provides a crucial opportunity to build a consensus on the notion of design among the public. The event will also dispel the so-called “Korea discount” on Korean design. In the past, when Korean companies exported products, the overall quality of the items was good. But they were sold overseas below the market price compared to similar products manufactured by advanced countries such as Japan. The reason for this was that the national and economic status of Korea at that time wasn’t high. Though there are Korean corporations such as Samsung, LG and Hyundai that produce superior electronic products, Korea still has a lower profile in terms of international recognition in design. Take Apple’s iPhone. On the back of the iPhone, you can see the words “Designed by Apple in California.” What we’re trying to do is produce more “Designed in Seoul” products, which will raise the status of the country and lift its design competitiveness.

Seoul is hosting various design parties, exhibitions and conferences this year. Can you expand a little bit on some of these and give a few recommendations in terms of what to attend?

This year, 12 big design events related to World Design Capital Seoul will be held. One of them is the WDC World Design Cities Summit on Feb. 23 and 24, where world-renowned design experts and officials from 20 design cities will gather to share tips about design development.

The outcome of the summit will be reflected in Seoul’s urban development policies going forward.

To showcase Seoul’s old and new designs, there will be a Seoul Design Assets Exhibition from Jan. 8 to Mar. 7 and Sept. 17 to Oct. 7. This exhibit will showcase dozens of the most important designs in Seoul’s 600 years of history.

There will be Seoul Design Fair 2010 held from Sept. 17 to Oct. 7, which was formerly called the Seoul Design Olympiad. The fair gives people a glimpse into creative design products.

From Sept. 17 to Oct. 7, there will be a Seoul Design Market featuring various exhibitions and products made by domestic and international companies. For more information, visit wdc2010.seoul.go.kr.

There are expats who are deeply interested in design. How will Seoul help foreigners attend and understand these events?

Every design event related to World Design Capital Seoul 2010 will have explanations both in Korean and English. Due to the limited space on the explanation plates of each design, other foreign languages will not be included.

After years of preparation in terms of design, Seoul is producing tangible results, as it has received recognition from the mainstream and design media.

But some people are skeptical about Seoul’s design-focused policies. Many of them wonder why the city needs to focus on enhancing its design amid an economic downturn. The criticism revolves around the view that design is a luxury, not a necessity. Therefore, critics say it should take a backseat to more pressing issues.

Reports by the international media on Seoul’s value as a design city means a lot. But it seems that many people in Korea still don’t have a high understanding of the economic value of design.

As of 2008, Seoul GDP per capita was $32,171, which is comparable to France. Korea has progressed rapidly on the economic front, but we still have a long way to go in terms of design, which will play a decisive role in improving the quality of urban life.

The city’s design didn’t keep pace with its economic growth.

To narrow the disparity, we need to strategically use design as a tool to raise urban competitiveness globally. People need to see how design can boost the economic power of the country, and World Design Capital Seoul 2010 will help change perceptions here about design. If those perceptions are not changed, we will lag behind other cities.

What are some problems with urban design in Korea and specifically in Seoul?

There are three major factors at work. One is overpopulation. Hanyang, the capital of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), had a population of just 100,000. Today, there are millions of people in Seoul and many more when you include its surrounding areas.

The second factor involves Japanese colonization and the Korean War. After Korea exited the colonial period and moved past the Korean War, the country saw rapid economic development and become an economic power within a few decades. But many buildings, facilities and apartments were developed haphazardly, with little thought about design. Disorderly erected buildings and apartments were built in long rows and resemble matchboxes, damaging the urban landscape. The next factor is that the majority of the roads stretching across the country were constructed amid the country’s rapid economic climb. Many of them were designed to be convenient for drivers, but the country’s road network is unfriendly to pedestrians. Also, neon signs hang in a disorderly fashion from buildings. To solve the problem, Seoul should take the lead in improving the country’s urban design by focusing on it constantly and consistently.

By Kim Mi-ju [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]

3 February 2010, Joongang Daily

Seoul determined to be design capital

2010-02-03T22:51:00.000-08:00

Unlike predecessors, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said in his inaugural address in July 2006 that he would focus on transforming Seoul into a world-class landmark design capital to be on par with the world’s top design cities - New York, London, Milan and Sydney.

More than three years have passed since Oh took his post and the city appears to be off to a good start.

Seoul won the bid to become the first host city of World Design Capital 2010 to showcase its ongoing design policies and projects.

On New Year’s Eve, Mayor Oh rang a bell in the Bosingak Pavillion and marked the start of “WDC Seoul 2010.”

Several start-up events related to the World Design Capital Seoul 2010 began at the end of last year, and Seoul is busily preparing for the WDC World Design Cities Summit slated for Feb. 23 and 24.

Mayors of 20 cities and design experts will convene here to discuss and exchange ideas on design policies.

Under the policies mapped out by the aesthetically-oriented mayor and his design experts, the capital of the world’s 15th largest economy - little known for its design - surprised many after it was ranked No. 3 in The New York Times January article “The 31 Places to Go in 2010.”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t food, tourist attractions or cultural heritage assets that landed Seoul the No. 3 spot.

The Times said the primary reason for Seoul’s designation was design.

“Forget Tokyo,” the article said. “Design aficionados are now heading to Seoul.” The article then mentioned the 2010 World Design Capital that the city is hosting.

Seoul is the first city in the world to host the event after a pilot program in Turin, Italy.

In an interview with the JoongAng Daily, Chung Kyung-won, the chief design officer of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Design Seoul Headquarters, who suggested Mayor Oh make a bid to host the event, said design is not a luxury but a must-have policy that Seoul should pursue to generate economic, social and cultural benefits.

“Seoul had to follow design trends of other developed cities like Milan, Paris and New York, but hosting the WDC will be a cornerstone to transform the city into a ‘design trendsetter,’” Chung said.

“Shortly after The New York Times story about Seoul’s design-frenzy, Wallpaper, a renowned British design magazine, nominated Seoul as one of five candidate cities for its Design Awards Best City 2010 together with Berlin, Istanbul, New York and Rotterdam,” Chung said. “Though New York was selected as the best city winner, this is remarkable,” Chung continued. “Korea, the world’s most wired country, truly is a trendsetter in information technology but somehow its design was less known on the world stage. And look what has happened. Seoul is breaking its long-held perception on design by becoming a design flagship in line with other design-advanced cities. This is remarkable.”

By Kim Mi-ju [mijukim@joongang.co.kr]

Korea is all about connections

2010-02-03T22:49:00.000-08:00

Life is often all about having the right relationship with the right people from the right groups, some say, and this may be all the more true in Korea.

"Of course, people always have certain ties to the group to which they belong, but such an attachment or sense of belonging was, I felt, unbelievably strong in Korean culture," said Stephanie Coupe, a French student studying here.

"It is not just about the emotional ties, but also a certain order of rank based on the age of the person or the point in time at which the person has joined the corresponding group."
Even the relationship with her schoolmates is not just about friendship, she said.
"Some of the most frequently heard words in school are the title words such as "seonbae" (senior), "hoobae" (junior), or "donggi" (classmate)," the French student said.
"All the relationships seem to be defined by order of entrance to the group."

Another powerful emotional attachment which is inherent in Korean culture is the regional tie to one`s hometown.

"I had no friends, relatives, or ties of any sort in Seoul when I first came to the city to work in this company," said Lee Gyu-jin, a 30-year-old from Busan.
"However, I very soon joined the so-called `Busan homeboys` group, an unofficial social gathering of Busan-born people in the company."

These relationships continue to affect people`s lives way after they leave school or their hometown.

In a survey conducted last year on 3,003 workers, 41.7 percent of the respondents answered that, in order to succeed, personal connections such as school or regional ties were more important than working abilities.

Also in a separate job portal survey on 1,171 workers, 52.8 percent of the respondents said that their boss was overly concerned about extending his or her personal ties during the company personnel management seasons.

Such connections, when it comes to public servants` social or political circles, are feared to have a negative influence.

Prosecutor General Kim Joon-gyu, last August, ordered that the school and regional background information of the prosecutors be deleted from the official database, to prevent it from influencing fair work processes.

"The excessive school and regional ties should be abolished from Korean culture, especially from the prosecution," he said, requesting people to refrain from excessive alumni or hometown gatherings.

The group culture and the sense of rank of order may, nevertheless, be seen as a traditional Confucianist heritage which could be developed in a more positive direction, some say.
"Though the excessive attachment to the senior-junior ranks or to the regions may be one of the things that need to be changed, it also brings a sense of belonging and togetherness which otherwise would not exist," said Kim Yoo-jung, a Korean university student.
"It has its roots in the traditional Korean culture of valuing one`s family and neighbors and of respecting the elders."

(tellme@heraldm.com)
By Bae Hyun-jung

2010.02.03

Trade reliance on China tops 20%

2010-02-02T01:22:00.000-08:00

China now accounts for more than a fifth of Korea`s trade while the United States takes less than a tenth, data showed yesterday.
China`s share of Korea`s exports and imports stood at 20.53 percent last year, up 0.9 percentage point from a year ago, the Korea Customs Services said.
Korea`s trade activity has been shifting with the rise of China and emerging markets in Asia and the decline of such traditional partners as the United State and Japan.
China`s share of Korean trade rose from 2.9 percent in 1991 to 10.8 percent in 2001. By 2003, it surpassed Japan, which was at 14.38 percent, to account for 15.3 percent. The following year, China surmounted the United States, which accounted for 15.84 percent, to become the No. 1 trade partner of Korea with a 16.59 percent share.
The United State`s share, which stood at 24.42 percent in 1991, came down to 9.71 percent last year. Japan`s share went from 21.82 percent to 10.37 percent during the period.
Shipments to China in 2009 amounted to $86.7 billion, accounting for about 23.85 percent of Korea`s total exports. Imports totaled $54.2 billion, about 16.79 percent of the total.
The trade data comes as officials in Seoul study ways to mitigate any shock originating from China, such as the withdrawal of stimulus measures and monetary tightening.
"China is playing an increasingly bigger role in the Korean economy, so we need to pay close attention to any changes there," Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun said last week.
"The China risk" is among the key factors challenging Korea on its way to a full-fledged recovery, experts have said. They worry a slowdown in the Chinese economy could hurt trade and dampen a budding recovery in Korea and elsewhere.
China reported growth at a pace of 10.7 percent in the fourth quarter last year. It grew 8.7 percent for the whole of 2009, higher than the Chinese government`s forecast of 8 percent.
(milaya@heraldm.com)
By Lee Sun-young

2010.02.02

Korean men discover makeup

2010-02-02T01:20:00.000-08:00

Nam Won-chul, a 24-year-old university student, was shocked when he spotted hair wax, a tube of foaming cleanser, powder compact and a hand mirror in his friend's bag.
"He just nonchalantly said that now men need to take care of their own looks too," Nam said.
Though it might yet come as a surprise to some people, more and more men are using makeup. They enjoy not only basic skin care like skin lotion and lip balm but full makeup from creamy foundation bases to smoky eyeliners.
Following the trend, makeup salons for men are gaining popularity.
Loft:D, a makeup studio in Seogyo-dong, western Seoul, which opened last year, is a pioneer in the domain.
"Men are interested in looking good, too. I thought men also had the right to enjoy their life, looking good with cool makeup on," said Kim Doo-ha, director of Loft:D.
For men who are not yet familiar with makeup, the shop prepared a menu which customers can select from, as if choosing a drink at a cafe. The menu, which will continuously be updated, currently has three types of makeup for men - "Basic," "Soft Smoky" and "Real Smoky."
"Basic" simply covers up the blemishes, while "Soft Smoky" adds some accent to the eyes with brown underlines. To get an idea of "Real Smoky," well, think of Big Bang member T.O.P.'s eyes.
Typical male customers to the salons include performers, lecturers, salesmen, those who have important interviews or even blind dates coming up.
"They have specific demands, like 'I want to cover up these blemishes' or 'please lighten up the dark circles under my eyes,'" said Kim.
"Wearing makeup must add confidence to men, like it does to women. A lecturer told me that he gave a far better speech when he wore makeup," Kim added.
Now the shop has expanded its services to women, who get to choose from nine different options.
Women make up about 60 to 70 percent of Loft:D's customers but there are some who bring - or drag - their boyfriends with them. They receive a unique service named the "Couple Makeup Event."
The service includes makeup service for the couple, drinks, snacks and two hours in a private photo studio. A professional photographer takes pictures of the couple once the makeover is finished and the couple can take home a small album.
"Your skin looks so smooth!" a couple exclaimed to each other after getting the makeover. They had stopped by on their way to enjoy some wine at a classic bar nearby.
"He used to look like this back in high school. It would be weird if he says he wants to wear makeup like this everyday, but looking at him now, I'm thinking some more skin treatment on him would be nice," said one satisfied girlfriend, 24-year-old Kim Jwa-young.
Goups of girlfriends often visit the salon to celebrate or commemorate something. Nine 29-year-old women had recently visited to capture the final days of their gorgeous 20s.
"We would like our shop to become a comfortable place where men and women can freely get makeup and hangout. We have lots of customers who became our friends or who became friends with each other. We throw parties every now and then," said Cho Kang-hoon, also director of the studio.
Price for makeup for men ranges from 12,000 won to 17,000 won, for women it ranges from 20,000 won to 30,000 won. Couple makeup event costs 70,000 won. For more information, visit www.loft-d.co.kr.
(claire@heraldm.com)
By Park Min-young
The Korea Herald-2 Feb 2010

Compte rendu de la réunion de la section Corée des Conseillers du Commerce Extérieur de la France du 11 DECEMBRE 2009

2010-02-02T01:15:00.000-08:00

1. Evénements/ Visites:
- 15 décembre : En marge du sommet de Copenhague, le MEDEF reçoit à Paris le Ministre Coréen de l’Environnement pour un petit déjeuner de travail.
- 27-28 février : Séminaire préparatoire au G20 à Séoul avec rencontre des Directeurs du trésor.
- La réunion Asie du Nord des CCE aura lieu à Tokyo les 23 -24 Avril . Le thème retenu est l’Innovation. A noter la participation pour la première fois de la section Mongolie.

2. Green Economy
Parmi les secteurs d’interet possible pour les societes francaises , ont été listés :

-Production d’énergie
-Récupération de CO2
-Nucléaire
-Hydraulique
-Eolien : dans ce domaine comme dans beaucoup d’autres, les Coréens étant avant tout des assembleurs , les opportunités résident principalement dans les composants.
-Solaire
-Bâtiment – Habitat : mais problème de norme. Une démarche actuellement fondée sur le volontariat donc peu porteuse. Le gouvernement a dans ce domaine la volonté de garder une position économiquement neutre. Un besoin pourrait être celui d’expertise et d’ingénierie.
-Efficience énergétique dans le domaine industriel : il y a sûrement plus d’opportunités dans ce domaine où le côut d’exploitation prédomine, à la différence de l’habitat.
-Alimentaire – Pêche - pisciculture
-Tourisme vert
-Eau – traitement des boues.
-Transports publics [ tramways , VAL …]
-A noter que de très nombreuses opportunités concernent en Corée les fourniseurs de biens intermédiaires, par exemple les résines pour peintures sans solvants , les techniques de séquestration , les silices pour pneus verts . Ces sociétés BtoB sont difficiles à classer dans un secteur aval spécifique qu’elles ont vocation à fournir : Automobile, Métallurgie, Chimie, peintures etc… En revanche , elles répondent déjà à une demande du marché coréen et on peut se demander si le green growth agenda offrira de réelles opportunités supplémentaires.

Quelques remarques sur ce marché :
-Les Coréens s’y lancent lorsqu’ils y ont un intérèt à l’export
-la green economy est vue avant tout comme un moteur de croissance pour la Corée
-la coopération sur les marches export avec les grands groupes coréens est considérée comme un angle d’attaque pour les entreprises francaises
-L’économie coréenne est déjà mûre sur le secteur et tous les leaders y sont présents
-Les normes laissent une grande flexibilité
-Besoin d’expertise sur les analyses , bilans énergétiques etc..
-Le FTA peut donner des cartes à jouer sur les fourniture de produits intermédiaires (composants , solvants etc…)

En première conclusion : Il y a besoin d’un véritable lobbying sur les normes. Compte tenu des positions fortes prises par les grands acteurs , il y aura peu d’opportunités de grands projets clefs en main qui eux resteront coréens sauf peut-être dans les transports . En revanche , il y a à l’évidence de nombreux marchés de niches, en particulier sur les composants et produits intermédiaires qui peuvent représenter autant d’opportunités pour les entreprises françaises.

Growing household debt weighs on recovery

2010-01-22T15:58:00.000-08:00

This is the second of a two-part series on debt. This article looks into household debt. - Ed.
By Lee Sun-young
Korea's economic policymakers and private economists are debating over whether consumers are too heavily indebted, a key issue as the country strives to spur private spending.
Although divided over how much is too much, they agree that it is a matter to watch out for along the path of economic recovery, given that income gains are likely to be limited by tough job market conditions and interest rates are to go up.
"Korean households' indebtedness had grown in the past decade, approaching the levels of some advanced countries, and it has continued to do so until recently," Sohn Sang-ho, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Finance, said.
Multiple data show that the speed of Korean households' debt growth exceeds those of their disposable income and stock of wealth.
Household credit, which refers to loans extended by financial institutions and credit purchases, came in at 712 trillion won ($62 billion) at the end of September, according to the Bank of Korea. It grew 5.2 percent from a year earlier.
It is the first time that the credit volume surpassed the 700 trillion won mark.
The total disposable income of Korean households, meanwhile, increased only 1.5 percent during the same period, the slowest pace of growth since 1999.
The ratio of household credit to disposable income, as a result, rose by 2.5 percentage points to 68.3 percent, the highest on record.
Other data shows that household loans extended by banks and other lending institutions rose for the10th straight month in November. It grew by 4.7 trillion won from a month earlier to 546 trillion won, the largest increase in five months.
The gains in household credit come as economic policymakers, after having mobilized aggressive measures in order to pull the country out of a global recession last year, endeavor to make sure that the private sector - consumers and businesses - takes the lead of economic recovery.
Borrowing costs are record low, as the Bank of Korea has kept the benchmark rate unchanged at an all-time low of 2 percent since February last year in a bid to support economic recovery.
However, interest rates are widely expected to spiral upward, when Korea implements the so-called exit strategy, including the unwinding of emergency interest rate cuts.
Some experts worry that household debt could become problematic if allowed to grow at this pace and interest rates are hiked, affecting consumers' confidence to spend.
"When interest burden grows, it takes a toll on low-income families first," Sohn warned.
Such concerns were echoed by Bank of Korea Governor Lee Seong-tae and private experts attending the BOK's monthly meeting on economic and financial conditions Wednesday.
The participants agreed on "the need to monitor the rapid growth of household credit, as it may slow the recovery of private consumption," the central bank said in a statement.
However, the nation's financial watchdog says such worries are overblown. Credit expansion is one of the typical byproducts of economic growth and that Korean households' debt volume is at a manageable level, given its maturity structure, it asserts.
According to the analysis of the Financial Services Commission, of the total 260 trillion won outstanding mortgage loans in Korea, about 44.7 trillion won of loans with lump-sum redemption contracts are due this year. The amount is not big, compared to 44.3 trillion won in 2008 and 43.3 trillion won in 2007, it said.
The amount of mortgage loans with installment redemption contracts whose repayment starts this year is 22.3 trillion won, smaller than last year's 31.2 trillion won, the FSC said.
"Given stabilized home prices and high loan-to-value ratios applied in mortgage lending, the possibility of a mortgage crisis is low in Korea," said FSC official Choo Kyeong-ho.
The default rate of bank loans to households stood at 0.42 percent in December, 0.13 percentage point lower from a month earlier, the Financial Supervisory Service said yesterday. The ratio for mortgage loans dropped by 0.07 percentage point to 0.33 percent.
(milaya@heraldm.com)
The Korea Herald-22 Jan, 2010

Lettre économique et financière Japon-Corée Janvier 2010

2010-01-21T23:00:00.000-08:00

Source : Lettre économique et financière Japon-Corée

Le Japon tente de relever les défis de la croissance et de la natalité
1. Eviter à court terme une nouvelle récession de l’économie

1. La publication des derniers indicateurs économiques a révélé le caractère moins soutenu de la reprise.

La croissance du PIB du troisième trimestre 2009 est révisée à la baisse de +1,2% à +0,3%. Elle est en ralentissement par rapport à celle du deuxième trimestre de 0,7%. Il s’agit toutefois de la deuxième hausse consécutive, qui fait suite à quatre trimestres de croissance négative entre le deuxième trimestre 2008 et le premier trimestre 2009 et un recul cumulé de 8,6%.

Le taux de chômage japonais a augmenté de 0,1 point à 5,2% en novembre 2009 après trois mois de baisses successives et un plus haut historique à 5,7% en juillet. Les mesures gouvernementales de maintien de l’emploi contribuent à limiter la hausse du chômage et les détaxes et subventions accordées dans les secteurs automobile et électronique ont eu des effets positifs sur la demande et sur l’emploi. Leurs effets commencent cependant à s’estomper.

Selon une enquête du quotidien économique Nikkei, les entreprises diminueront les bonus versés fin 2009 de 15% en glissement annuel à 366 000 yens (2 800 euros), après un recul de 10% en été. Le déclin des profits dû à la situation économique est la principale cause de cette baisse, qui pourrait affecter le niveau de la consommation des ménages et entrete-nir la déflation.

En novembre, l’indice des prix à la consommation (sous-jacent) était de -1,7% en glissement annuel, un chiffre négatif pour le neuvième mois consécutif. L’inflation totale en glissement annuel était de -1,9%. En termes d’évolution mensuelle, la croissance de l’indice des prix a été en moyenne de -0,1% ces trois derniers mois (-0,2% s’agissant de l’inflation totale).

Les industriels prévoient une modération de la reprise industrielle en janvier 2010 (prévision de +1,3% en glissement mensuel, après +2,2% en novembre 2009 et une première estimation à +3,4% en décembre 2009). Il s’agirait toutefois du onzième mois consécutif de progression de l’indice. Le METI estime que cette hausse est due au retour de la demande externe notamment de Chine et des pays asiatiques. La production de véhicules pour particuliers avait ainsi été en augmentation de 8% en novembre. Les commandes d’équipement des entreprises ont diminué pour le deuxième mois consécutif en glissement mensuel, de 11,3% en novembre 2009 après un recul de 4,5% en octobre.

2. La priorité du nouveau gouvernement est d’éviter une nouvelle récession en relançant la demande des ménages.

Le gouvernement Hatoyama a annoncé fin 2009 son premier plan de relance, le cinquième du Japon depuis 2008, d’un montant de 1,5% du PIB. Près de la moitié des dépenses budgétaires supplémentaires de-vrait prendre la forme de transferts aux collectivités locales, l’autre moitié étant réalisée sous forme de soutien aux entreprises et d’extension et renforcement des mesures pour l’emploi (dispositif de chômage techni-que) et pour la consommation (détaxes et subventions pour l’automobile, l’électromé-nager et désormais le logement « vert »). Le montant total des plans de relance japonais s’élève à environ 6% du PIB.

Le premier budget du gouvernement Hatoyama pour 2010 reflète sa volonté de consacrer davantage de ressources pour la consommation des ménages. Les dépenses courantes de l’Etat pour l’exercice 2010 (17% du PIB) devraient être en recul de 13% par rapport au budget révisé de 2009 (qui prend en compte deux lois de finances rectificatives) mais en augmentation de 5% par rapport à celles du budget initial 2009. Les dépenses sociales (51% du montant total des dépenses générales) continueront de progresser en 2010, par rapport à celles initialement prévues en 2009, de 10% (après +14% en 2009 et +3% en 2008), en raison notamment du versement d’allocations familiales supplémentaires. Les dépenses d’éducation et de recherche (10% des dépenses courantes) seront en hausse de 5% (après avoir stagné en 2009 et augmenté de 0,5% en 2008). Cette augmentation est en grande partie imputable à l’introduction prévue en 2010 par le Parti démocrate du Japon (PDJ) de la gratuité des frais de scolarité dans les lycées publics et au versement d’une bourse d’études dans le secteur privé.

2. S’attaquer à la dénatalité

1. Le Japon face à un double choc démogra-phique

La population du Japon, qui a atteint un plus haut à 127,8 millions d’habitants en 2004, entre progressivement dans une phase de déclin. Le taux de fécondité, inférieur à 1,5 enfant par femme depuis 1992 et de 1,37 en 2008, est parmi les plus faibles enregistrés dans les pays de l’OCDE. Le Japon n’a en outre pas recours à l’immigration (les résidents étrangers ne représentent que 1,3% de la population).
Selon le scénario central du National Institute for Population and Social Security (NIPSS), basé sur un taux de fécondité compris entre 1,2 et 1,3 enfant par femme dans les années à venir, la population du Japon passera sous les 100 millions d’habitants en 2046. Les plus de 65 ans représenteront 38% de la population totale. Le taux de dépendance démographi-que, aujourd’hui de 35% (soit 1 retraité pour 3 actifs), s’établira à 73% (3 retraités pour 4 actifs). Le scénario haut, sur la base d’un taux de fécondité atteignant progressivement 1,5 enfant par femme, prévoit un passage sous les 100 millions d’habitants en 2053.

Le vieillissement au Japon est plus avancé et plus rapide que dans les autres pays dévelop-pés. L’espérance de vie à la naissance est de 86 ans chez les femmes et de 79 ans chez les hommes (85 et 78 ans en France). 13% des Japonais ont moins de 15 ans, 64% entre 15 et 64 ans et 22% plus de 65 ans (17% des Français). 24 ans ont été nécessaires au Japon pour que la part des plus de 65 ans passe de 7% à 14% entre 1970 et 1994 (115 ans en France entre 1864 et 1979), et 12 ans de 14% à 20% entre 1994 et 2006 (41 ans en France de 1979 à 2020, estimations).

2. Politique familiale quasi inexistante

Selon l’OCDE, les dépenses de l’Etat japonais en matière de politique familiale s’élèvent à 0,8% du PIB, contre 3% pour la France.
Les aides financières sont insuffisantes. Jusqu’à présent et hors mesures exceptionnel-les, les ménages peuvent prétendre à des allocations familiales d’un montant mensuel de 10 000 yens – 80 euros – par enfant âgé de moins de trois ans et 5 000 yens par enfant âgé de 3 à 12 ans (10 000 yens à partir du troisième enfant). Cette somme paraît peu élevée, et la période de versement relative-ment limitée, lorsqu’une famille résidente au Japon sait qu’elle devra dépenser entre 50 000 et 130 000 yens (400 et 1 000 euros) par mois selon les établissements choisis (publics ou privés) pour l’éducation d’un enfant de l’école maternelle jusqu’à la fin du cursus universi-taire.

Le système de garde est peu performant. Les familles sont confrontées à des infrastructures d’accueil en nombre insuffisant. Les Japonais ne faisant pas traditionnellement appel à d’autres types d’aide extérieure, il est encore convenu au Japon que la garde de l’enfant soit de la responsabilité des femmes, qui ont conscience, avant de s’engager dans une vie de couple, qu’elles seront amenées à choisir à terme entre leur vie familiale et leur carrière professionnelle.
Le célibat, incompatible avec le « désir d’en-fant », prend de l’importance. Confrontées à un environnement du travail peu compatible avec une vie familiale, les Japonaises sont de plus en plus nombreuses à privilégier leur carrière professionnelle : 59% des femmes âgées de 25 à 29 ans et 32% des femmes âgées de 30 à 34 ans étaient célibataires en 2005 (contre respectivement 18% et 7% en 1970), des chiffres plutôt inquiétants au Japon compte tenu des normes sociales qui n’acceptent pas d’autres formes de couple et parce que 2% seulement des naissances ont lieu hors mariage.

3. Engagements du nouveau gouvernement à prendre des mesures familiales concrètes

Le gouvernement envisage de doubler l’effort budgétaire de l’Etat en matière de politique familiale et d’éducation. Les dépenses supplé-mentaires prévues dans le programme économique sur quatre ans du PDJ seraient de l’ordre de 1% du PIB par an (19 200 Mds de yens sur quatre ans, ou 150 Mds d’euros).

Politique familiale : le PDJ propose de concen-trer la majorité des dépenses supplémentaires (équivalentes à 0,9% du PIB par an) aux trois mesures suivantes :
- hausse progressive des allocations familiales à 26 000 yens par mois (200 euros), jusqu’à ce que l’enfant soit âgé de 16 ans ;
- hausse de la prime à la naissance à 550 000 yens (4 230 euros) ;
- suppression des listes d’attente en crèche, en réaménageant des locaux vacants dans les écoles primaires et collèges et en augmentant le nombre de garderies et de prestataires à domicile accrédités.

Education : les dépenses supplémentaires allouées à l’éducation s’élèveraient à 0,1% du PIB par an (2 000 Mds de yens sur quatre ans, ou 15 Mds d’euros). L’objectif est de réduire sensiblement les frais de scolarité au niveau du lycée. Il existe a priori une certaine marge de manoeuvre car les dépenses publiques d’éducation du Japon ne représentaient que 3,3% du PIB en 2006, lorsque la moyenne OCDE s’établissait à 4,9% du PIB, ce qui classe l’Archipel au deuxième rang des pays de l’OCDE consacrant le moins de budget – proportionnellement au PIB – en faveur de l’éducation. Le PDJ envisage pour les quatre prochaines années de :
- verser des bourses d’études d’un montant par élève scolarisé dans un lycée privé de 120 000 yens à 240 000 yens (925 euros à 1850 euros) par an ;
- étendre la gratuité de la scolarité au lycée public.

La politique familiale du PDJ s’inscrit dans une stratégie globale de rééquilibrage du modèle de croissance japonais en faveur de la demande intérieure. Pourtant, une meilleure insertion des femmes sur le marché du travail – leur rôle traditionnel est de s’occuper des tâches domestiques – et un meilleur équilibre chez les hommes entre travail et vie familiale sont des points qui auraient mérité d’être davantage abordés pour faire face à un problème démographique qui s’amplifiera dans les années à venir. Le gouvernement japonais est très attentif à l’expérience française dans tous ces domaines comme en témoigne la visite à Paris au début de l’année de Madame Fukushima, Ministre en charge de la consommation, de la sécurité alimentaire, de la lutte contre la dénatalité et de l’égalité homme-femme.

Point sur les constructeurs automobiles et navals en Corée

1. Automobile, la Corée réglemente les émissions de CO2

Au cinquième rang des producteurs automo-biles en 2008 et treizième marché mondial, l’industrie automobile coréenne, dominée par un producteur de taille mondiale (Hyundai) est un des piliers de la croissance économique du pays depuis une dizaine d’années. Dans un pays où les trois quarts des déplacements s’effectuent par véhicule automobile, les ven-tes domestiques annuelles s’élèvent aux alentours de 1,2 million de véhicules depuis 2006. C’est cependant moins de la moitié du chiffre d’affaire des groupes automobiles co-réens, ceux-ci étant majoritairement tournés vers l’export (70% de leurs ventes ont été réalisées à l’étranger en 2008).
Une réglementation des émissions de CO2 a été annoncée par la Corée le 2 décembre et est incontournable compte tenu des mesures similaires déjà adoptées en Europe. Le dispositif coréen sera précisé dans un délai maximum de trois mois (fin mars 2010).

1. Une industrie automobile coréenne dyna-mique tournée vers les marchés étrangers
La Corée est le 13ème marché mondial pour les véhicules automobiles. Il y a aujourd’hui 17,3 millions de voitures en circulation en Corée (2009) contre 12,9 millions en 2001.

En 2008, 3,8 millions de véhicules ont été produits par l’industrie automobile coréenne (2,82 millions sur les 11 premiers mois de 2009) dont 1,15 million vendus sur le marché domestique.

L’industrie automobile locale est dominée par le seul constructeur 100% coréen, le groupe Hyundai-Kia, qui contribue aux trois quarts de la production locale et détient une part de marché de 80% en Corée.
Les autres acteurs locaux ont été en partie rachetés par des constructeurs étrangers, conséquence de la violente crise financière asiatique de 1997 : Renault a racheté Samsung Motor en 2000, pour créer Renault-Samsung Motors (RSM). Daewoo Motor a été repris par General Motors en 2002 (GM Daewoo), et Ssangyong Motor (actuellement en redresse-ment judiciaire) par le chinois SAIC en 2005.
A eux quatre, ces groupes représentent plus de 99% de la production locale de véhicules automobiles particuliers et leurs parts de marché respectives n’ont que très peu évolué durant ces 5 dernières années. Le groupe Hyundai-Kia se place largement en tête avec 80,5% des ventes de véhicules automobiles sur le marché domestique en 2009, suivi par RSM (9,6% en 2009), GM Daewoo (8,6% en 2009), et Ssangyong (1,6% en 2009).

L’industrie coréenne a par ailleurs opté pour une stratégie d’internationalisation qui en fait le 6ème exportateur mondial en 2008, avec 2,68 millions d’unités vendues à l’étranger (1,69 million sur les dix premiers mois 2009).
L’Amérique du Nord (30% des exports sur les 10 premiers mois de 2009), le Moyen-Orient (18%) et l’Union Européenne (15%) en sont les principaux débouchés. Le groupe Hyundai-Kia est par ailleurs directement implanté dans 7 pays pour y produire localement ses véhicules. Cette production « offshore » totali-se 1,5 million de véhicules en 2008.

2. Un nouveau sujet ; les normes relatives au contrôle des émissions de CO2 et à l’efficacité énergétique des véhicules

Les parcs automobiles européens et coréens sont assez différents. Un des éléments clés de la stratégie européenne est le succès du diesel, qui représente 55% du parc européen en 2008, contre 20% seulement du parc coréen. De même les véhicules à quatre roues motrices ne représentent que 8% du parc européen, contre 30% en Corée. Plus largement la Corée compte une plus grande part de grosses cylindrées que l’Union Européenne.

• La réglementation
Faisant suite aux premières annonces du gouvernement de juillet 2009 dans le cadre du « plan de croissance verte », un objectif de réduction des émissions de CO2 et d’efficacité énergétique (« fuel efficiency ») pour les véhi-cules automobiles a été officialisé par le MKE (ministère de l’économie) le 2 décembre 2009 via une notification ministérielle sur les écono-mies de carburant rattachée à la loi sur la rationalisation de l’énergie (promulguée le 13 janvier). Les objectifs annoncés par le MKE s’imposent aux constructeurs automobiles qui pourront choisir l’un des deux critères pour tester leurs véhicules : l’efficacité énergétique (« fuel efficiency ») ou les émissions de CO2. Dans la pratique les industriels coréens ont opté pour le système d’efficacité énergétique, comme les américains.
A partir de 2012, l’objectif fixé par le MKE est une moyenne d’émissions de CO2 par flotte de véhicules qui ne devra pas excéder 140g/km, et une efficacité énergétique qui devra être au minimum de 17 km/l. 100% des véhicules de chaque flotte devront atteindre ce seuil minimal en 2015 après une période de transi-tion à finaliser mais qui pourrait être de 4 ans : 30% de la flotte devrait répondre au critère des 140g de CO2/km en 2012, 60% en 2013, 80% en 2014 et enfin 100% en 2015.

• Les méthodes de test
Les modalités de calcul des tests d’émissions de CO2 et d’économie de carburant (Fuel Economy Test) constituent également un enjeu pour les industriels. Deux méthodes de tests existent actuellement, le test européen NEDC et celui américain « US Combine » (FTP75 + HWFET1). La norme coréenne en vigueur actuellement pour les tests sur les économies de carburants (Fuel Economy Test), CVS75, est similaire au standard américain FTP75 pour une conduite en ville exclusive-ment.
Elle pourrait évoluer vers un modèle améri-cain « ville + autoroute » (« US combine ») FTP75 + HWFET assurant ainsi la compétitivité des producteurs coréens à l’export, pour le GPL, le diesel et l’essence.

Les tests d’émissions de CO2 qui n’existent pas en Corée actuellement devraient être instaurés et pourraient se caler sur le système américain également FTP75 sans HWFET pour l’essence et le GPL et sur le NEDC européen pour le diesel.
La Commission européenne, saisie par les constructeurs allemands et européens, s’est impliquée dans ce dossier au niveau de son chef de délégation à Séoul et le classe en priorité n°1 de ses dossiers d’accès au marché, précisément parce qu’elle en craint les possi-bles retombées politiques d’ici la ratification de l’ALE.
Elle a effectué, au mois de décembre 2009, plusieurs démarches à Séoul afin de sensibili-ser les autorités coréennes aux demandes de l’industrie européenne et reste extrêmement mobilisée, jusqu’à la publication du décret d’application rédigé par le ministère qui sera déclaré compétent, et attendu à la fin du mois de mars.

Impact de la crise économique sur les constructeurs navals coréens

Leaders mondiaux avec 38% de part de marché mondial, les chantiers navals coréens n’ont pas été épargnés par l’effondrement de la demande de navires à partir d’août 2008, enregistrant une chute de 92,5% des comman-des les neufs premiers mois 2009 par rapport aux neufs premiers mois 2008.

Les gros constructeurs coréens, notamment Hyundai, Daewoo et Samsung, sont plutôt solides, avec pour les principaux des carnets de commandes couvrant encore trois ans de production et des activités assez diversifiées. Ils ne sont cependant pas à l’abri d’un certain nombre de difficultés, au premier lieu desquelles la fonte de leur trésorerie qui les oblige à s’endetter pour couvrir leur besoin de fonds de roulement.

1. Un déséquilibre offre-demande de trans-port durable suite à la surcapacité croissante de la flotte mondiale

La crise de 2008 a entraîné un arrêt brutal des commandes de navires. Tous les types sont touchés, notamment les méthaniers (aucune commande sur les trois premiers trimestres 2009) et les porte-conteneurs (-96,4% de commandes par rapport aux neuf premiers mois 2008). Toutefois le carnet de commande mondial total (backlog) « officiel » reste considérable à la date de septembre 2009, en diminution de « seulement » 20% par rapport au troisième trimestre 2008. Or, en janvier 2009, le nombre de navires en commandes représentait de 40 à 70% de la flotte existante selon les types. L’absorption d’une telle croissance de la flotte mondiale nécessiterait une reprise formidable du commerce interna-tional à un horizon très court, largement su-périeure aux meilleures estimations actuelles.

La réduction de la capacité ainsi que la renégociation des commandes, passées à un moment où les prix avaient atteint un sommet historique, sont devenues des enjeux majeurs pour les armateurs. La plupart des analystes estiment également que l’annulation d’une partie du carnet de commande mondial est indispensable à la stabilisation du secteur, dans un contexte de secteur financier frileux. Des annulations vont et même ont probable-ment déjà eu lieu, toutefois les acteurs du secteur sont réticents à communiquer sur le sujet. Les chiffres qui circulent sur la taille du backlog sont donc à prendre avec précaution.

2. Les principaux chantiers navals coréens ; diversification et haute valeur ajoutée sont les atouts-clés

Hyundai, Samsung et Daewoo (un quart du marché mondial en 2008) sont particulière-ment présents sur les marchés de la construction offshore et des navires à très haute technologie, et sont les mieux armés pour résister à la crise actuelle. DSME est leader dans la construction de méthaniers GNL, de VLCC (Very Large Crude Carrier, des superpétroliers) et de super porte-conteneurs. L’activité de Hyundai est très diversifiée, avec 40% de son chiffre d’affaires 2008 lié à son activité de construction et d’équipementier (45% pour les navires et 15% pour les installa-tions offshore), tandis que Samsung domine le marché des installations offshore (50% du marché mondial). Hors annulations, la taille considérable2 du carnet de commandes de Hyundai, DSME et Samsung devrait dans une certaine mesure leur permettre de ne pas trop souffrir de l’effondrement de la demande, d’autant plus que, afin de garder un taux d’activité constant le plus longtemps possible, les chantiers navals coréens ralentissent la production et résilient les contrats avec leurs sous-traitants. En neuf mois (janvier-septem-bre 2009), le carnet de commandes des trois grands n’a diminué que de 15 à 16%. Toutefois, l’étude de leur carnet de comman-des montre que les chantiers navals coréens sont fortement exposés au secteur des porte-conteneurs, qui représentent environ 38% du backlog national. Or ce secteur est l’un des plus frappés par la réduction des échanges, avec des taux de fret en chute libre et un taux de croissance de la flotte très important. En février 2009, 8,8% de la flotte de porte-conteneurs (soit 1,1 million evp) était inactive, un taux qui est passé à 11,7% en novembre 20093 , soit le plus fort taux de l’histoire de la flotte conteneurisée.

3. Des armateurs en difficulté pour honorer leurs contrats
Par ailleurs, un certain nombre d’armateurs, parmi les plus gros clients des chantiers navals coréens ont déjà des difficultés pour honorer leurs engagements. TMT (Taiwan), CP Offen et Hapag Lloyd (Allemagne), Zim Integraded (Israël) ont déposé des demandes de finance-ment auprès d’organismes financiers publics coréens. Korea Line (Corée) a bénéficié des fonds de la KDB qui a racheté certains des navires de la compagnie. Hanjin Shipping (Corée) est en train de subir une deuxième procédure de restructuration. Les annonces répétées des difficultés des armateurs ont renforcé les doutes du secteur sur l’état réel des carnets de commandes.

4. Les trésoreries des constructeurs sous pression
La conséquence immédiate de l’effondrement des nouvelles commandes et des délais de paiement accordés aux armateurs en difficulté est la disparition des avances sur livraison (premier versement à la signature du contrat, deuxième versement lors de la découpe des plaques d’acier un an ou deux plus tard…). Les besoins de fonds de roulement importants des chantiers navals ont donc très rapidement amputé les trésoreries des chantiers navals, obligés de s’endetter.
Toutefois, pour les plus gros chantiers navals coréens (Hyundai, Samsung, Daewoo, Hanjin) ce recours croissant à l’endettement n’est pas inquiétant pour le moment. D’une part ces entreprises avaient un niveau d’endettement quasi nul avant l’éclatement de la crise, et par conséquent elles possèdent une marge de manoeuvre assez importante. D’autre part, elles disposent de la confiance des banques, du fait de leurs fondamentaux très solides, en particulier pour Hyundai, Daewoo et Samsung. A moyen terme, et dans la limite des informa-tions disponibles, les gros chantiers navals coréens ne semblent pas sérieusement mena-cés par la crise.

Spiraling debt threatens Korea's fiscal status

2010-01-21T22:57:00.000-08:00

This is the first of a two-part series on debt. The first installment deals with the government debt and the second will look into household debt. -- Ed.
By Kim Yoon-mi
The rapid growth of government debt is imposing a big burden on the Korean economy and it may even negatively affect Korea's sovereign rating, experts warned yesterday.
The alarm is being raised at a time when the government may include some of the mounting debt at public firms in the government debt in the near future.
"In 2010, the government debt problem will become a major factor in assessing a nation's sovereign rating, partly because government debt has emerged as an important issue as the global economy recovers," said Rep. Lee Han-koo of the Grand National Party, who once chaired the Special Committee on Budget and Accounts, in a telephone interview with The Korea Herald.
"Korea's sovereign rating, in particular, will be largely affected by growing public debt once outsiders notice that the government has to take care of debts at state-run companies as well."
Data from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance yesterday showed that government debt nearly quadrupled for the past decade.
Government debt rose to about 360 trillion won ($318 billion) in 2009 from 93.6 trillion won in 1999. The government debt as a percentage of GDP rose 34 percent in 2009 from 18.6 percent in 1999.
The debt's quick rise was particularly due to aggressive fiscal stimulus packages, including the 28.9 trillion won supplementary budget, tax cuts and tax incentives meant to avert a recession in the wake of the global financial crisis in late 2008.
Adding to the debt problem is rapid growth of debts at state-run firms, which are not included in the official government debt data but still important in that their bonds are guaranteed by the government.
According to the ALIO (All Public Information in One) website run by the Finance Ministry, combined debts at state-run enterprises and government-affiliated institutions are estimated to have increased to 377 trillion won in 2009 from 320 trillion won in 2008.
The ministry projects that the combined debts will double to 617 trillion won in 2014.
Fitch Ratings' Asia Sovereign Ratings director Ai Ling Ngiam said growing debts at state-run firms will "affect the broader public sector debt levels but not yet directly affect the sovereign government's debt levels."
"Fitch may include the financial liabilities of these entities if we judge these liabilities to very likely become a financial liability for the government," Ngiam said in an e-mail interview.
"To date, we have been observing the increased activities of quasi-sovereign entities and higher net non-financial public-sector debt from 17 percent of GDP in 2003 to 25 percent in 2008. (These) suggest 'implicit' sovereign guarantees have increased," she said.
Fitch currently applies the "A+" Korean sovereign rating to all public sector entities in a top-down way.
Moon Weh-sol, a research fellow at the Samsung Economic Research Institute, stressed that the government debt should not be left untouched and allowed to reach an uncontrollable level.
"The Korean government spent big in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. Without reducing the debt level, the government used another fiscal stimulus to fight the recent global financial crisis," Moon said.
"If we face another economic crisis and use a fiscal stimulus again, it will be a big problem."
The Finance Ministry has been repeatedly saying that Korea's government debt as a percentage of GDP, which is about 34 percent, is relatively low compared with the average of OECD, about 90 percent.
However, Rep. Lee noted that this is because European countries include miscellaneous public entities' debts in tallying government debt while Korea does not.
"The Korea Land Housing Corp's recent failure of issuing bonds proves that public debt problem is not something the government should turn a blind eye to," Lee said.
As voices for public debt's inclusion into the government debt grow, the Finance Ministry recently asked the state-run think tank Korea Institute of Public Finance to study which public institutions should be included in the government's debt calculation.
Park Hyeong-soo, a research fellow at the KIPF, said the 24 major state-run companies like Korea Electric Power Corp. are likely to be excluded in tallying the government debt.
"Out of the 297 government-run institutions, those whose incomes are less than 50 percent dependent on government support are likely to be included in tallying the government debt. But we haven't finished the study yet," Park said.
To minimize the fiscal deficit risk, Lee advised the government scale down the debt-financed national projects, including four-river restoration program, and give up "fiscal policy populism."
(yoonmi@heraldm.com)

2010.01.21
The Korea Herald

The U.S. Isn't as Free as It Used to Be

2010-01-19T21:23:00.000-08:00

Source : Wall Street Journal - TERRY MILLER

The United States is losing ground to its major competitors in the global marketplace, according to the 2010 Index of Economic Freedom released today by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal. This year, of the world's 20 largest economies, the U.S. suffered the largest drop in overall economic freedom. Its score declined to 78 from 80.7 on the 0 to 100 Index scale.

The U.S. lost ground on many fronts. Scores declined in seven of the 10 categories of economic freedom. Losses were particularly significant in the areas of financial and monetary freedom and property rights. Driving it all were the federal government's interventionist responses to the financial and economic crises of the last two years, which have included politically influenced regulatory changes, protectionist trade restrictions, massive stimulus spending and bailouts of financial and automotive firms deemed "too big to fail." These policies have resulted in job losses, discouraged entrepreneurship, and saddled America with unprecedented government deficits.
In the world-wide rankings of economic freedom, the U.S. fell to eighth from sixth place. Canada now ranks higher and boasts North America's freest economy. More worrisome, for the first time in the Index's 16-year history, the U.S. has fallen out of the elite group of countries identified as "economically free" by the objective measures of the Index. Four Asia-Pacific economies now sit atop the global rankings. Hong Kong stands in first place for the 16th consecutive year, followed by Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Every region of the world maintains at least one country among those deemed "free" or "mostly free" by the Index.

Columnist Mary O'Grady discusses the Heritage Foundation's Index of Economic Freedom for 2010.
Some countries, notably Britain and China, have followed America's poor example and curtailed economic freedom. But many others—such as Poland, South Korea, Mexico, Japan, Germany and even France—have maintained or expanded economic freedom despite the global crisis. Ignoring the pressures of recession, these enlightened nations have continued to liberalize their economies, granting their entrepreneurs and consumers greater freedom. As a result, the average Index score dropped only 0.1 point in 2010. Eighty-one countries out of the 179 ranked recorded higher scores than in 2009.
These trends are important because study after study shows a strong correlation between economic freedom and prosperity. Citizens of economically freer countries enjoy much higher per-capita incomes on average than those who live in less free economies. Economic freedom also has positive impacts on overall quality of life, political and social conditions, and even on protection of the environment. Perhaps of most significance in these hard times, Index data indicate that freer economies do a much better job of reducing poverty than more highly regulated economies.
The public sector can't match the vitality of the private sector in promoting growth. Governments, even those that promise change, are primarily agents of the status quo. They tend to reflect the views and needs of those already holding political or economic power. Even democratic nations have their vested interests. Real change, however, can happen when those outside the mainstream have the freedom to try new things: new production processes, new technologies and new methods of organizing workers and capital.
It is common these days to dismiss as simpletons or ideologues those who speak in favor of the free market or capitalism. An honest assessment shows otherwise. Economic freedom, as represented in the Index of Economic Freedom, is a philosophy that rejects economic dogma, championing instead the diversity that follows when entrepreneurs are free to choose their own paths to prosperity.
The abiding lesson of the last few years is that the battle for liberty requires perpetual vigilance. President Obama professes desire to foster prosperity, environmental protection, poverty reduction and better health care. How ironic, then, that his economic proposals so consistently ignore or even undermine the one system—free enterprise capitalism—that has proven best able to achieve those goals.
Now America's once high-flying economy is barely crawling forward. Americans deserve better, and they can do better—as soon as they reverse course and start regaining the economic freedom that made America the most prosperous country in the world.
Mr. Miller is director of the Center for International Trade and Economics at the Heritage Foundation. He is co-editor, with Kim R. Holmes, of the "2010 Index of Economic Freedom" (471 pages, $24.95), available at heritage.org/index.

Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

COMPTE RENDU REUNION CCEF COREE DU 18/11/2009

2010-01-12T21:33:00.000-08:00

Extrait du Compte rendu de la réunion de la section Corée des Conseillers du Commerce Extérieur de la France du 18 NOVEMBRE 2009

1- Evénements/ Visites:

- Préparation du G20 : mise en place d’un comité de coordination interministérielle dirigé par le Dr SAKONG Il.
- Deux réunions des Ministres des finances se tiendront en Corée en Juin et Novembre .
- Le Ministre de l’Environnement Coréen sera à Paris le 15 décembre.
- France-Culture a réalisé un reportage d’une semaine sur la Corée , incluant une rencontre avec des CCE. Ils feront l’objet de deux émissions mi-décembre, ainsi que d’une semaine de brèves de 10 mns en matinale. Disponible en pdecast sur le site de France-Info et à mettre sur le blog.

2. « Green Economy »

Compte tenu de l’importance prise par ce sujet pour l’economie coreenne et de la volonte politique du gouvernement coreen d’en faire un axe de developpement majeur , l’idee est discutee de mener une reflexion au sein de la section sur ce sujet
Des secteurs très divers peuvent être concernés tels que le tourisme, les normes de construction, le captage du Co2, les batteries, la gestion des systèmes de transport , le traitement des eaux et des dechets etc…
Il est decide de faire dans un premier temps un inventaire des sujets reglementaires et normatifs et des opportunites possibles pour les entreprises francaises

In South Korea, cyber attacks a growing phenomenon

2010-01-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

Source : Korea Herald - Jan 8, 2010

When German-born fashion journalist Vera Hohleiter poked fun in print at the smell of kimchi and the short skirts of South Korean women, the cyber response was swift and nasty.

Incensed Seoul Internet users flooded her blog with insults, calling her a racist and a Nazi, and demanded that she leave their country immediately.

"For weeks, I went everywhere by taxi," said Hohleiter, 30, whose perceived transgressions were contained in a 2008 book, "Sleepless in Seoul," her memoir about a foreign woman hopelessly in love with a young Korean man. "I just didn't want to be confronted with this growing public anger."

Hohleiter is among the latest victims of South Korea's combative and often destructive Internet phenomenon - personal cyber attacks.

In recent years, celebrities, authors and ordinary South Koreans have been subjected to relentless online assaults - at times with disastrous, or even lethal, effects.

In 2007, a 16-year-old high school student killed herself after repeated Internet bullying that followed her appearance on a TV show to describe how she lost 90 pounds in three months.

Many Net users reportedly became angry because the teen appeared with a popular actor, analysts say. Miffed that they had never had the chance to meet the celebrity themselves, they attacked her.

Most South Korean cyber bullies are teenagers hiding behind the cloak of Internet anonymity, analysts say, products of a highly regimented culture where the young are discouraged from speaking their minds with parents, teachers or bosses. At home in their rooms, they let loose, often at the slightest provocation.

Other nations endure outspoken and reckless bloggers and Internet posters. But in South Korea, where government statistics show that 99 percent of citizens between the ages of 10 and 39 use the Internet, cyber thugs carry inordinate social weight.

In recent months, several South Korean celebrities have committed suicide, in part because of vicious rumors spread about them on the Internet, according to press reports here.

Many here now temper their public statements out of fear of the Net. And efforts are under way to rein in the barrages, including proposed legislation aimed at governing Internet behavior as well as social programs to encourage civility.

The bill, to punish those who "insult" others on the Internet with up to three years in jail or a US$30,000 fine, was proposed after a popular actress committed suicide last year. But it has languished since critics questioned whether it would stifle freedom of expression.

Min Byoung-chul, a professor of English at Konkuk University in Seoul, cites the society's hypercompetitiveness as a key factor in online prickliness.

"Many assume cyberspace is not inhabited by people with real feelings who can really be hurt," he said.

He recently encouraged his students to post 10 positive remarks in Internet chat rooms and founded the Sunfull movement, which aims to reduce anonymous derogatory online messages.

The group sponsors a monthly Sunfull day, which inspires as many as 300,000 positive Internet posts by high school and university students. The organization also seeks to make the Guinness World Records for the longest string of positive Internet comments.

"I was alarmed at the level of maliciousness on the Internet," Min said. "Many people enjoy hearing about how much damage has been done to the target person. There needs to be more civility."

That hasn't happened yet.

Last month, appearing on a popular TV talk show, a Seoul college student expressed an opinion that "short men are losers." Within hours, Internet users had tracked down the woman's home page address and graduation photos. Tagging her "Loser Girl," they made public her posts on her university's website and on shopping and plastic surgery sites.

The woman soon closed her page on a Korean social networking site and issued an apology. Like others, she declines to speak publicly for fear of further provoking Net users.

Previously, there was the woman who didn't clean up her dog's mess on a subway. Her picture, snapped by a fellow commuter, was posted on the Internet.

Within days, Web users revealed her identity, including her age, contact numbers and recent test scores. She reportedly quit school to evade the scrutiny. Emigre journalist Hohleiter says she has tried to ignore the angry posts, which she says resulted from a poor translation by a Korean college student in Germany of passages from her book.

Jobless rate, broadly defined, nears 13%

2010-01-06T22:23:00.000-08:00

Source : Korea Herald - Jan 6, 2010

The number of people "actually" out of work and not counted in official jobless figures in South Korea surged last year from a year earlier amid a protracted economic slump, data showed Wednesday, according to Yonhap News.

According to the data provided by Statistics Korea and private economic think tanks, the number of de facto unemployed people here totaled 3.3 million at the end of November last year, up 12.5 percent from 2.9 million a year earlier.

The data included those in job training programs, economically inactive senior citizens and people working less than 18 hours a week, all of whom are not currently reflected in the government's official jobless data, which counts only those willing to work but are unable to land a job. The official jobless number totaled 819,000 as of November.

Based on the data, the actual unemployment rate rose to 12.6 percent from 11.3 percent the previous year, far higher than the nation's official jobless rate of 3.3 percent.

The unofficial figure is the highest ever since related data started to be compiled in 2003, when the corresponding figure stood at 2.63 million in November, according to the statistics agency.

The increase is largely attributed to a protracted economic slump and frozen corporate sentiment, which results in businesses trimming investment and shunning recruitment for fear of cloudy performance forecasts, analysts say.

Number of foreign firms in Korea almost 10,000

2010-01-06T18:24:00.000-08:00

Source : Korea Herald By Cynthia J. Kim - Jan 7, 2010

Nearly 10,000 foreign companies are operating in Korea, although the number decreased slightly for the first time in a decade in 2008, a government report said yesterday.

The number of foreign companies operating in Korea almost doubled from 4,317 in 1998 to 9,612 in 2008, a National Tax Service report said.

It peaked in 2007 with 9,682 foreign companies in the country, but 70 of them left in 2008 with the onset of the financial crisis.

A total of 6,593 companies, or 68 percent, are foreign-invested corporations with at least 10 percent of their assets financed by foreigners, the report said.

Businesses in the form of subsidiaries made up 1,569 of the total, and liaison offices 1,450.

Wholesalers made the largest group numbering 2,799, followed by manufacturers and service providers which made up 2,060 and 2,540 companies, respectively.

Despite the slight decrease in 2008, the two-fold increase of foreign companies over the past decade is expected to be followed by a further rise as policymakers make the macro-business environment more friendly for foreign entities, analysts said.

Effective from this month, Korea allows foreign investors who make a local investment of $500,000 or more to hold permanent residency, according to the Justice Ministry.

The ministry is also mulling ways to grant priority visa status for those who invest in recreational facilities on Jeju island to boost the tourism industry.

The government is also trying to entice foreign research and development companies.

"The government plans to ease eligibility requirements for cash grants and rent subsidies for foreign R&D centers in Korea," Deputy Knowledge Economy Minister Lee Dong-geun said.

Tax experts urge that what Korea really needs for a business-friendly environment is to make its tax policies transparent and easy.

"Among foreign companies, Korea only comes second to India in complexity of its tax system. They especially find its tax audit an area it needs to work on to improve transparency," said a tax specialist at the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.

Pourquoi il ne faut pas sous-estimer la Corée ?

2010-01-06T00:10:00.000-08:00

Source : Philippe Li - Le Figaro - January 4th, 2009

L’annonce de la sélection du consortium sudcoréen pour la construction de quatre centrales nucléaires aux Émirats arabes unis a fait l’effet d’une bombe pour beaucoup. Comme c’est souvent le cas en matière sportive lorsqu’une équipe nationale subit un revers, on s’en prend aux joueurs de son équipe (en l’occurrence, le consortium formé par Areva, EDG et GDF Suez) avant de reconnaître les mérites de son adversaire. Alors que ses atouts sont souvent mésestimés, la Corée du Sud,treizième puissance économique mondiale, est emblématique de ces pays émergents qui rattrapent à pas de géant leur retard sur les grandes puissances. Au-delà de ce contrat,
il y a peut-être pour la France et ses entreprises des enseignements à tirer de cette expérience.

Alors qu’il était l’un des pays les plus pauvres de la planète dans les années 1960, ce pays a multiplié par 243 son PIB par habitant en trente-huit ans. Concentration et dirigisme économique lui ont permis, comme à d’autres, de se focaliser sur des secteurs érigés comme des priorités nationales, d’où l’émergence de champions japonais, coréens et bientôt chinois dans l’électronique, l’automobile ou les chantiers navals. Depuis longtemps, de nombreuses entreprises coréennes et asiatiques ont été capables de discerner les secteurs recélant les plus gros potentiels d’avenir : actuellement les écrans à cristaux liquides ou la téléphonie mobile, demain sans doute les énergies renouvelables ou les biotechnologies.

On travaille également beaucoup plus en Asie qu’en Europe ; plus de 2 100 heures de travail par an en moyenne en Corée du Sud quand on ne dépasse pas 1 400 ou 1 500 en France. Ajoutons à cela la vitesse d’exécution dont savent faire preuve les Asiatiques. Les Coréens ont notamment tiré de leur situation récente de précarité un esprit de résilience constant. Cela se traduit au quotidien par une volonté exacerbée de dépasser ses concurrents, une mise sous pression poussant à agir dans une forme d’urgence. Les Coréens n’appellent pas cela du suractivisme ; c’est leur manière d’être compétitifs.

Ainsi, le processus de fabrication de cigarettes ou de produits cosmétiques entre la conception et la mise sur le marché prend deux fois moins de temps en Corée du Sud que dans la plupart des pays européens. En outre, travailler vite et bien ne suffit pas. L’environnement social pousse sans cesse à l’émulation.
Progresser et se dépasser est véritablement une condition de survie pour chacun, d’où le nombre important de salariés optant pour des cours du soir sans que l’entreprise contribue nécessairement à leur financement.

La vie collective est également ancrée dans les moeurs et la culture de chacun. On apprend aux gens à travailler ensemble dès leur plus jeune âge parce que le fonctionnement de la société repose sur le groupe. Lorsqu’un projet est considéré comme un enjeu national aux yeux du monde extérieur, la mobilisation est totale, qu’il s’agisse d’un contrat nucléaire ou de l’organisation du G20, qui se tiendra à Séoul au mois de novembre prochain. Chaque échéance est l’occasion pour le pays de se fixer des défis et de progresser.

Et la France dans tout cela ? Par son histoire, sa vision et ses valeurs, la France est peut-être le pays le plus globalisé au monde, mais elle donne parfois l’impression de l’avoir oublié. À l’étranger, elle donne parfois l’image d’un pays morose, replié sur lui-même, essentiellement préoccupé par des considérations hexagonales, alors que d’autres pays ne cessent d’évaluer leur compétitivité, de « benchmarker » les autres puissances et sont obnubilés par la course à la performance mondiale.

Aujourd’hui, ce sont ces pays que l’on appelle encore émergents qui fixent les règles du marché international, car ils sont dotés des entreprises les plus agressives et les plus conquérantes sur les marchés extérieurs. Ils consacrent des efforts considérables à la recherche et au développement(la Corée y a investi 29 milliards de dollars en 2008).

Prendre la mesure de ces pays, c’est également être plus présent sur leurs marchés pour y trouver des débouchés commerciaux, mais également s’y enrichir et y développer des alliances industrielles et technologiques. Certaines entreprises françaises ont fort opportunément compris le potentiel et l’avantage que pouvaient apporter des partenariats de cette nature, car les avantages peuvent être doubles : recherches conjointes et développement de marchés en commun.

The North’s subterranean cookie economy

2009-12-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

Source : Choco Pie collectors have popped up [across North Korea] - Joongang Daily - December 19, 2009

Today in North Korea they say South Korean chocolate-covered cookies with marshmallow filling are essentially keeping the Kaesong Industrial Complex going.

The innocuous treats, called Choco Pies, have become popular trading items among shrewd North Korean merchants.

Here’s the story.

At the Kaesong complex, built in 2003 as a symbol of inter-Korean cooperation, 116 South Korean firms employ about 42,000 North Koreans. And each of the workers receives about two or three Choco Pies as a snack each day. Since they were first provided in May 2007, monthly consumption has quintupled to 2.5 million.

But those working at Kaesong say it’s difficult to find evidence of the pies. That’s why the complex is sometimes referred to as the “Black Hole of Choco Pies.” An official there said, “At first, the workers were taking them home to feed their children or younger siblings.”

But today, people are taking Choco Pies to the underground market.

“Choco Pie collectors have popped up [across North Korea],” said an official at the Unification Ministry in Seoul. “In Sinuiju, a northern city near the Chinese border, there is even a retail market.”

Kaesong workers have their possessions checked before they leave work, but that hasn’t prevented the massively popular pies from exchanging hands in other places.

Kaesong Retailing Corp. is the exclusive distributor of Choco Pies in the North. In the South, Orion Confectionery is the creator of the snack, but the North chose less expensive versions made by Orion’s rivals, Lotte Confectionery and Crown Confectionery - which started making the pies years after Orion.

The pies cost 125 won (10 cents) per pack, or less than half the retail price in the South. Lee Jeong-goo, president of Kaesong Retailing, said the snack occupies a prominent place in the hearts of Kaesong employees.

“Given North Korean workers’ preferences, price and logistical convenience,” Lee said, “no single product could replace Choco Pies.”

Instant coffee mix sticks have also become a new favorite in the North. North Korean officials at a Kaesong office handling inter-Korean cooperation enjoy their cups of instant coffee as energy boosters. Drivers and workers also get their caffeine fix from coffee mix powder. A source at Kaesong said he replaced the mixes with instant coffee powder but soon had to bring back the mixes at the behest of his colleagues. Gone are the days when coffee, once viewed a dubious part of capitalism, was taboo in the North.

While workers are munching on their pies and washing them down with coffee, customs workers at Kaesong are busy sorting out pornography. One South Korean worker was recently caught carrying a USB flash memory stick with some lascivious video clips. Another was fined by North Korea for watching a film of such nature on his office computer.

A South Korean company manufacturing lingerie once had to convince North Korean authorities that its package featuring a scantily clad female model, stripped down to the company’s products, shouldn’t be considered pornographic. The North demanded that such packages not be exposed to North Korean workers.

The company compromised by closing their curtains while only the South Korean workers did the packaging. The company’s truck was once denied entrance to Kaesong because it displayed an image of lingerie. The North Korean guards argued that the South Korean company was “out to spoil our employees.”

Much to their chagrin, North Korean customs workers once found a bikini calendar in a heap of discarded paper. A massage parlor inside the complex that employed female ethnic Koreans from China closed its doors after Kim Yong-chol, head of the policy bureau at the National Defense Commission and an influential figure in the regime, said, “There’s no need for such a place.”

At least employees at the Kaesong conclave are well fed. There are the usual meals and snacks, plus occasional servings of ramen and kalguksu, a dish of handmade, knife-cut noodles. After about three months, most of them put on an extra pound or two.

Better still, there’s air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter. Employees can take a hot shower year-round. All of that makes working at Kaesong immensely popular - and expensive. Sources say people sometimes pay up to 600,000 North Korean won (pre-currency revaluation) to get a job there. That’s equivalent to the annual expenses of a typical North Korean household.

The industry is also a significant cash cow for North Korea, which receives yearly wages of about $40 million - salaries that are paid in greenbacks. It’s little wonder, then, that the North was willing to embark this week on a joint inter-Korean tour of foreign industrial complexes, despite a series of provocations toward the South earlier in the year.

GNI will hit $20K mark if currency remains stable

2009-12-15T18:46:00.000-08:00

(Source : Joongang Daily - December 15, 2009)

Ministry says this year’s figure will be $17,000 per capita

Korea’s GNI per capita, or gross national income per person, will regain the $20,000 mark next year, government officials forecast yesterday.

The $20,000 GNI per capita is psychologically important for Koreans who want their country, which has the 15th largest economy in the world, to be equally impressive in terms of individual income levels.

Korea achieved that milestone in 2007 with GNI per capita standing of $21,695, but the figure fell to $19,231 last year during the global financial crisis.

“If the current currency rate is maintained, GNI per capita will be $17,000 or so this year and will surpass $20,000 next year,” Yoon Jong-won, director general of the economic policy bureau at the Finance Ministry, told reporters. Noh Dae-lae, deputy finance minister, revealed the same forecast in a radio interview on the same day.

The estimate for next year’s turnaround is based on expectations that the local economy will experience solid recovery next year. Last Thursday, the government revised its outlook for next year from 4 percent to 5 percent growth.

The data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development yesterday backed the optimism. The OECD said its composite leading indicator (CLI) for Korea in October stood at 100.9, rising above 100 points for the third straight month.

The CLI is an indicator that gauges how the economy will fare six months ahead by measuring industrial output, gross domestic product, and housing and financial market conditions. A reading above 100 means the economy will continue to expand.

Some analysts, however, cautioned against reading too much into GNI growth because it is heavily affected by currency fluctuations.

Following the financial crisis late last year, the won-dollar rate fell to 1,590 won in March, helping to lower the dollar-denominated GNI per capita by 11.4 percent in 2008 from a year earlier. In fact, the won-denominated GNI per capita rose 5.2 percent during the same period.

Since then, the won has gained ground and finished at 1,157.20 won yesterday. Many think tanks such as the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade forecast the won against the dollar will rise by 15 percent next year, thus helping to lift the dollar-denominated GNI per capita.

“The economy will recover, but because of the currency effect, it would be too much to hold on to a $20,000 GNI per capita as something special,” said Lee Sang-gyu, a researcher at Korea Development Institute.

Expats assess local business culture

2009-12-15T18:30:00.000-08:00

(Source : Joongang Daily - December 15, 2009)

Korea is trying to become one of the leading business hubs, not only in Asia but around the globe. And as part of that effort it is trying to listen to what foreign businesses have to say, including their thoughts on what the Korean business environment offers.

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency yesterday released a collection of interviews it had with 15 foreign business executives living in Korea since September on the pros and cons of doing business in here.

The executives include William Oberlin, head of Boeing Korea; John Walker, chief executive of Macquarie Group Korea; Pietro Doran, chairman of Doran Capital Partners; and Makino Jun, president of AvanStrate Korea. The foreign business leaders gave high points for the high-quality human resources and Korean workers’ strict work ethic.

They also gave high marks for the global competitiveness of local companies ranging from the semiconductor, mobile phone and automotive industries that generate both profitability and growth.

They also said the stable political and social structure as well as the relatively reliable legal system compared to other Asian countries were positive points in doing business in here.

However the non-flexible labor market, high employment wages, and the high concentration of valuable workers and capital in Seoul were considered negative business factors.

Additionally the business managers noted that it cost too much to localize their products as the Korean standards are different from global expectations.

Another obstacle that was listed as preventing Korea from advancing as a leading business center was the substantial number of tax regulations.

The foreign business leaders already considered Korea an economic powerhouse.

They forecast that both the country’s domestic market and export will increase as the global economy recovers and more foreign investment will be attracted to the country.

However, they warned that Korea needs to prepare for the risk caused by an increasing number of foreign businesses advancing into China and the shrinking population that will eventually weaken labor power and the domestic market.

Radio-France semaine spéciale Corée des « Enjeux internationaux »

2009-12-14T18:49:00.000-08:00

Une semaine spéciale Corée des « Enjeux internationaux », chaque matin de 7h 18 à 7h 26, du lundi 14 au vendredi 18 décembre, de 7h 18 à 7h 26.

Lundi 14
Les actuelles relations entre les deux Corée
LIM Beyong-chul, sous-direction de la politique de l’unification, Ministère de l’unification.

Mardi 15
La Corée du Sud, l’Europe et la France
Philippe LI, président de la Chambre de commerce et d’industrie franco-coréenne, avocat.

Mercredi 16
Les deux Corée et l’identité coréenne
Elisabeth CHABANOL, directrice de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient à Séoul (université Korio).

Jeudi 17
Le traitement de la crise financière par Séoul
YOON Jong-Wan, département de la politique économique, Ministère de la stratégie et des finances.

Vendredi 18
La couverture journalistique européenne de l’actualité coréenne
Sébastien FALLETTI, correspondant à Séoul du Figaro et du Point.

Ces émissions peuvent être :
1) téléchargées (bouton « Podcast ») le jour même ;
2) écoutées durant six mois

Deux émissions (« Sur les docks »), les lundi 14 et mardi 15, de 17h à 17h 50.

Voyage en Corée du Sud – Première partie : quelle identité coréenne ?

Invités :
Elisabeth CHABANOL, directrice de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient à Séoul université Korio).
Joëlle GIRARDIN, professeur à l’Alliance française.
KANG Ok-kyung, professeur à l’Alliance française.
LEE Rulee, étudiante coréenne à l’Alliance française.
LIM Beyong-chul, sous-direction de la politique de l’unification, Ministère de l’unification.
MOON Siyeun, professeur à l’université Sookmyung.
PARK Dongha, vétéran de la guerre de Corée
Bernard SENÉCAL, jésuite, professeur à l’université de Sogang.
SEOL Yong-soo, vice-président du Conseil coréen pour l’éducation à l’unification.

Voyage en Corée du Sud – Seconde partie : Une économie émergente

Invités :
DOYEN Jean-Yves, attaché Énergies et nouvelles technologies à l’ambassade
Capitaine JOUNG, de l’armée coréenne.
Commandant KIM, de l’armée coréenne.
Philippe LI, président de la Chambre de commerce et d’industrie franco-coréenne, avocat.
MIN Dong-pil, président du Conseil coréen de recherche sur la science et la technologie.
KIM Min-chaï, étudiante coréenne à l’Alliance française.
PARK Dongha, vétéran de la guerre de Corée
Jérôme STUBERT, directeur des opérations du groupe Accor en Corée.
YOON Jong-Wan, département de la politique économique, Ministère de la stratégie et des finances.

Ces émissions peuvent être :
1) téléchargées durant une semaine ;
2) écoutées durant un mois (bouton « Écoutez », streaming).

Advancing Inter-Korean Relations

2009-11-30T18:46:00.000-08:00

Source : Infomag December 2009 . magazine of the Europe-Korea Chamber of Commerce

The current administration’s North Korea policy is aimed at advancing inter-Korean relations for mutual benefits and common prosperity through pragmatic and result-oriented approaches.
The Ministry of Unification is responsible for establishing policies on national unification and dialogue, exchanges, cooperation and humanitarian cooperation between the South and the North; unification education and public relations activities; and other tasks regarding national unification.
It serves as centripetal force in collecting public opinion on the issue of unification and to inspire people with the willingness to achieve unification. In addition, its responsibility is preparation for the eventual unification of South and North Korea.
In the last decade has seen a series of ups and downs in the relationship between South and North Korea. It appeared as though the previous two Government’s policy of engagement towards peace and reconciliation with the North started to bear fruit with the first and second inter-Korean summits. This was accompanies by encouraging events that followed, including family reunions, reconstruction of transport links, governmental talks, including defense, economic cooperation and joint culture/sports events. However in recent months there has been an increase in tensions on the peninsula, particular after North Korea tested its nuclear weapons and halted cooperation with the South.
However, the North, which had been openly critical of Seoul until recently, has again made a series of conciliatory gestures towards the South and the international community in recent months.

In an exclusive interview to Infomag, Mr. Hyun In-taek, Minister of Unification speaks about the current state of affairs and the South Korean government’s policy towards North Korea.
Can you elaborate on the government’s policy towards North Korea?
The Republic of Korea (hereinafter ROK) government’s policies are ultimately aimed at improving inter-Korean relations and achieving peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula.
The key to reaching this ultimate goal lies in resolving the North Korean nuclear problem—the most outstanding issue and the major threat in establishing permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula.
To this end, the Lee Myung-bak administration, upon its inauguration, outlined its North Korea policy in the Vision 3000: Denuclearization and Openness Initiative. This initiative clearly states that if North Korea commits to completely and irreversibly renounce its nuclear ambitions, the ROK is more than ready to partner with the international community to help develop North Korea’s staggering economy and guarantee a regime security.
In this way, we can enhance the quality of life for North Koreans and help them achieve per capital GDP of 3,000 dollars over a ten-year period.
With such a vision and objectives, the ROK government is closely consulting and cooperating with the Six-party Talks partners and the rest of the international community to persuade North Korea to tread the path of denuclearization as soon as possible.
Under a guiding principle that all problems should be resolved through multilateral dialogue and cooperation, we have continued to engage with the North on joint economic projects such as the Gaeseong Industrial Complex as well as on humanitarian missions.
What is your opinion on the nuclear tests conducted by North Korea, and the Six-party Talks? Do you think there will be a solution to the current impasse?
North Korea’s nuclear tests were grave mistakes, period. As you may know, North Korea conducted its second nuclear test in May this year, in defiance of the international community. Subsequently, the United Nations immediately passed UNSC resolution 1874 and imposed sanctions against North Korea. Nonetheless, North Korea brazenly took a hard-line stance in response to the sanctions.
Over the course, the North Korean nuclear problem has rapidly worsened. North Korea walked out of the Six-party Talks, declared it is at the final stages of weaponizing reprocessed plutonium and enriching uranium, and reiterated its determination not to give up nuclear weapons.
At the same time, interestingly enough, North Korea has reached out for bilateral talks with the United States. North Korea also insisted on including nuclear disarmament in the agenda of the bilateral talks, insinuating that they want to be recognized as a nuclear state. This is something we can never accept.
In coping with North Korea’s daunting nuclear challenges, I believe what is most needed and urgent is to resume the Six-party Talks. The Six-party framework is the most effective and useful arrangement to put an end to North Korea’s nuclear ambition.
Without a doubt, all the parties to the Six-party Talks other than North Korea are of one mind when it comes to denuclearizing North Korea. In the past two decades or so, we have failed to effectively repress North Korea’s nuclear ambition.
In fact, during that same period, North Korea has made a steady progress in secretly developing its nuclear weapons while pretending to engage in dialogue with the international community. As a consequence, North Korea declared itself to be a nuclear state, which we can never accept or recognize.
Over the past couple of years, negotiation with North Korea has been in a stalemate. As has been witnessed, we experienced a painful failure in negotiating with North Korea in the past. The old step-by-step, piece-by-piece approaches have rather allowed North Korea to find a niche to successfully carry out the so-called “salami tactics” that subsequently resulted in a repetitive, fruitless, and vicious cycle of making one step forward, then one step backward.
To call an end to past pattern of failure, President Lee proposed a “Grand Bargain” in his speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York in September this year.
To elaborate, the Grand Bargain calls for exchanging North Korea’s commitment to denuclearize with the international community’s promise for a regime guarantee and economic assistance.
I strongly hope that a grand bargain be discussed at the six-party table where North Korea may openly disclose what it expects from the five parties, and vice versa.
Are you confident of a peaceful reunification of both countries? What are the economic costs and benefits of reunification?I strongly believe that peaceful unification of the two Koreas will someday become a reality. We Koreans have never given up on our national dream.
Economic cost of reunification will clearly depend on when and how unification is achieved. Even under the best-case scenario, however, the costs may reach astronomical figures.
Reunification of the Korean Peninsula signifies the birth of an economically advanced and politically stable united Korea, which will eventually contribute to global prosperity, peace and stability.
Do you have any message for European investors?
Although the Republic of Korea is burdened with the so-called “North Korean Question,” it is a country with political stability, dynamic economy, and strong security.
The ROK has long been and will continue to be an attractive place for foreign investors. During the last six years, the ROK’s investment and trade with the EU have reached their new levels.
The EU is now Korea’s second largest trading partner. Between 2003 and 2008, annual trade volume has more than doubled, from 44 billion dollars to 98 billion dollars.
During the same period, the EU invested more than 26 billion dollars in Korea. In particular, the EU invested more than 6 billion dollars in Korea last year despite a world-wide financial crisis. The ROK and the EU have successfully signed a bilateral FTA last October. The agreement will take bilateral cooperation to a new stage.
We have vigorously engaged with each other in many areas, including science and technology, communications, machinery, and chemicals. I am convinced that the ROK-EU FTA will open new frontiers for both Korea and the EU. Together, we have great potentials for further cooperation in the future.

COMPTE RENDU REUNION CCEF COREE DU 15/10/2009

2009-11-27T00:09:00.001-08:00

Extrait du Compte rendu de la réunion de la section Corée des Conseillers du Commerce Extérieur de la France du 15 octobre 2009

1. Evénements/ visites :

La visite en Corée de Madame A.M. Idrac du 9 au 11 octobre, en provenance du Japon, s’est bien passée. Elle a remis une décoration à l’actrice coréenne Jeon Do Yeon au festival du cinéma de Busan. La Ministre a aussi visité l’usine Danone à Muju, et a eu des contacts avec l’école du luxe créé par Daniel Mayran. La Ministre, au niveau officiel, a eu des contacts avec le Dr. Sa Kong Il et Mr. Ahn Ho-Young, « Sherpa » du Président LMB pour l’organisation du sommet du G20 de novembre 2010.

Pour ce qui concerne le G20, la Corée, a créé une entité spécifique, type Secrétariat, à l’intérieur du Ministère des Finances. La Corée n’a pas encore décidé ou se tiendra le sommet des chefs d’Etat, et le choix est entre les villes de Séoul/Incheon/Busan/Jeju. La France considère donc qu’elle a beaucoup à échanger avec la Corée qui a la charge de l’organisation du G20 juste avant la France.

Accord FTA EU- Corée : l’accord doit être paraphé ce jour 15 Octobre. Cet accord sera ensuite traduit dans les 27 pays de l’Union Européenne, puis passera au Conseil Européen au printemps 2010, et l’approbation formelle par les Etats membres doit avoir lieu à l’été 2010. Cet accord va créer des structures d’arbitrage qui n’existaient pas avant ce nouvel accord FTA fait partie des accords dits de « nouvelle génération »

Réunion Asie du Nord » 2010 (au Japon) : le Président rappelle que le thème choisi est l’innovation, mais aucune date n’a été proposée par la section Japon, qui est en attente de la date de la visite du Président Sarkozy au Japon

2. Informations économiques

Secteur Luxe :

Les perspectives restent fortes pour le secteur du luxe avec une forte accélération du trafic client – sur environ 40 marques internationales de luxe présentes en Corée , la progression des ventes sera d’environ + 20/ 25 % sur l’année 2009

Secteur Construction :

Les prix des appartements ont fortement augmenté à Séoul(+20%),.

Le résidentiel n’a pas redémarré à cause de la rareté de l’offre et du nombre d’acheteurs qui n’ont plus les mêmes moyens. Les élections municipales de 2010 vont peut être relancer des programmes

Secteur Hôtellerie / Tourisme :

Hôtellerie : nouveau record pour Q3/2009 pour le taux d’occupation des chambres, mais la restauration ne reprend pas, et reste à des niveaux inférieurs à l’année précédente. Cependant la Corée s’en sort bien, si on la compare à l’Asie du Sud Est, et c’est un des meilleurs pays au monde pour l’hôtellerie. Les perspectives sont bonnes pour 2010, alors qu’elles ne l’étaient pas il y a 6 mois. Le Japon et le marché chinois aident beaucoup pour cette reprise .Il y a une reprise lente pour les évènements mariage. La planification se fait 4 a 6 mois avant et on observe une baisse importante dans le nombre d invites, surtout pour les grands mariages. Beaucoup de nouveaux sites hôteliers sont mis en œuvre en Corée et surtout pour des « resorts » et à Séoul plusieurs projets sont relancés. Le groupe Intercontinental annonce l’ouverture d’un nouvel hôtel à Pyongchong pour décembre 2009.

Secteur pharmaceutique/ sante :

Le marché coréen des médicaments est tiré par le besoin des coréens d’accéder aux nouveaux traitements et par les prix bas des génériques.

Sanofi-Aventis a signé avec l’Institut Pasteur de Corée un accord pour la mise en pratique des techniques de détection de la tuberculose. Par ailleurs l’accord de collaboration signé par Sanofi –Aventis avec les Autorités s’avère très prometteur.

Le niveau de la recherche en biotechnologies est très élevé en Corée

Pour les PMEs d’origine françaises dans le secteur dentaire en Corée, la situation est beaucoup plus difficile, les sociétés coréennes prenant des parts de marché très importantes avec de bons produits, les marques étrangères(allemandes ou suisses) comptant moins pour les dentistes coréens.Les PMEs italiennes dans ce secteur dentaire voient d’un mauvais œil la signature de l’accord FTA.Pour avoir du succès en Corée, il faut une excellente collaboration entre la collecte d’informations, les professeurs de faculté, les cliniciens, et les mécaniciens. Les domaines de l’imagerie et de l’implantologie sont les deux secteurs du futur dans le domaine dentaire dans les quels les coréens s’engouffrent à fond. A titre d’information, le prix d’un implant peut varier de 1 (prix coréen) à 20 (prix suédois).

Secteur Défense- Aéronautique :

De beaux programmes sont à venir en Corée dans les 4/5 ans, principalement dans le domaine des satellites. La défense reste un créneau important de « business » pour l’industrie française. Pour les demandes de localisation, les entreprises françaises doivent accepter de coopérer avec les Coréens qui travaillent bien, et comprendre que la Corée est très volontariste dans le domaine spatial avec un bel avenir.

Il y a cette semaine à Séoul le salon « Airshow », ou EADS amène l’Airbus A380(il sera à Incheon le 19 Octobre)

Thales confirme la mise en service avec succès de l’instrument IFE chez Korean Air.

Secteur Social :

Chômage en Corée : il commence à baisser à un niveau inférieur à 3,4%

Salaires : certaines sociétés coréennes ont des pressions internes pour revenir sur les blocages des salaires/bonus de 2009, car les performances des sociétés sont bonnes, et il y a un début de négociations des salaires à la hausse dans certaine sociétés.

Secteur Industrie :

le groupe POSCO recommence à investir dans de nombreux projets liés à l’énergie (SNG/CTL) et à l’augmentation de ses capacités de production d’acier tant en Corée qu’à l’étranger [ Indonésie, etc…).La Corée veut développer son propre procédé de gazéification de charbon pour être toujours plus indépendante énergétiquement.

Chimie : activité soutenue et bon niveau d’exportations

La Corée continue d’accroitre sa domination sur le marché des mémoires DRAM

2009-11-24T20:53:00.000-08:00

S. Korea’s D-RAM Global Market Share Leaps 7.9 Percent in 1 Year (Maeil Business, 25/11/2009)

The global financial crisis stemmed from the U.S. helped the South Korean D-RAM industry to bolster its presence in the global market.

According to market researcher iSuppli on November 25, Samsung Electronics topped the global industry, commanding a 35.5 percent market share. The runner-up was Hynix Semiconductor Inc. with 21.7 percent which managed to surpass 20 percent for four consecutive months.

The aggregate market share of South Korea’s D-RAM manufacturers namely Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor is 57.2 percent which surpassed the previous record of 55.8 percent set in Q2 2009. Moreover, the market share grew by 7.9 percentage points from 49.3 percent in Q3 2009.

The two companies marked its first 50.0 percent market share in Q3 2007, but continued to remain in the 49 percent range due to a spiraling game of chicken in the semi-conductor’s industry.

Japan’s Elpida ranked third with a 16.9 percent market share in Q3 2009, up 0.4 percentage points compared with the previous quarter. The U.S-based Micron Technology came in fourth place whose market share declined by 1.2 percentage points to 12.7 percent.

Meanwhile, iSuppli projected this year’s global semi-conductor’s market to shrink by 12.4 percent ($3.2 billion) which indicates a smaller decline in sales compared with the estimate made in the beginning of the year.

Hanwha Chemical se lance dans la production de batteries rechargeables pour automobiles

2009-11-24T20:52:00.000-08:00

Hanwha Chemical to build rechargeable battery part plant (Yonhap, 25/11/2009)

Hanwha Chemical Corp., a South Korean chemicals maker, said Wednesday that it plans to build a plant to produce a key part for rechargeable batteries in the southeastern area of the country by October 2010.

The plant will have an annual production capacity of 600 tons of LFP or LiFePO4, which can produce rechargeable batteries to provide power to about 120,000 hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), Hanwha Chemical said.

Le gouvernement devrait baisser la taxation des entreprises de 25% à 20%

2009-11-24T19:35:00.000-08:00

Corporate Tax Will Fall to 20% Next Year (Korea Times, 25/11/2009)

The government plans to cut corporate income tax to as low as 20 percent next year from the current rate of up to 25 percent in a move to attract more foreign investment, Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said Wednesday.

``To create jobs and stimulate the economy, it is essential to secure more foreign direct investment (FDI). To that extent, the government plans to cut corporate tax to the level of 20 percent by the end of 2010,'' the minister said during the opening speech of the 2009 CEO Forum for Foreign-Invested Companies in southern Seoul.

``Korea will make sure of creating a business-friendly environment supportive of investing firms.''

Currently, taxes levied by the central government for profits on companies here are set between 13 and 25 percent. With local taxes added the rates average 24.2 percent, the ninth-lowest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Requests, however, have been mounting in the local business community that bigger perks are necessary in an export-driven country like Korea.

Below the OECD average of 26.3 percent, Korea's corporate tax rates are still higher in comparison with other members in the race to attract more FDI. A lot of fast-growing European countries, including Ireland, the Czech Republic and Poland impose taxes less than 20 percent, with Ireland the lowest at 12.5 percent.

Most rival Asian countries are looking at lower corporate taxes ― Taiwan plans to slash its rate by 5 percentage points to 20 percent next year; and Singapore from 18 percent to 17 percent. In Hong Kong, the rate is 16.5 percent.

Choi said foreign-invested firms have become a mainstay in the Korean economy. This year's accumulated FDI amounted to more than $8 billion as of September, up 8 percent from the same period last year.

He told foreign business leaders that the environment here is ``notably getting better,'' citing the expansion of free economic zones, improvement in labor-management relations and the protection of intellectual property rights.

Calling foreign-invested companies ``our significant neighbors,'' he quoted an old saying that a good neighbor ``is better than a brother far off.''

Also at the forum, Strategy and Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun said the country will focus on fostering growth potential, expanding openings to the global business community and strengthening damage control for post-crisis economic policies.

Jeffrey Jones, the former president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AMCHAM Korea), delivered a speech under the theme ``The 10 Charming Things About Investing in Korea.''

Other guests at the forum included the incumbent AMCHAM Korea Chairman David Ruch and Seoul Japan Club Chairman Tsutomu Awaya.

La Corée pourrait exploiter le méthane des veines de charbon en Mongolie

2009-11-23T20:50:00.000-08:00

S. Korea, Mongolia agree to develop coalbed methane gas (Yonhap, 24/11/2009)

South Korea and Mongolia agreed Tuesday to jointly develop coalbed methane (CBM) gas that could lead to wide-scale use of the resource, the government said.

The deal, reached at a meeting of the bilateral resource cooperation committee on Jeju Island off South Korea's southern coast, calls for exploration, drilling and commercial development of CBMs in the land-locked

La fréquentation touristique étrangère passe la barre des 7 millions

2009-11-22T20:54:00.000-08:00

Annual Foreign Tourists Top 7 Mln for 1st Time (KBS, 23/11/2009)

The annual number of foreign tourists to Korea has topped seven million for the first time.

The Korea Tourism Organization says the number, which surpassed seven million on Monday, is up 14 percent from six-point-one million posted at the same point last year.

Japanese accounted for nearly 40 percent, or two-point-seven million, of the seven million visitors to Korea this year. Chinese tourists came in second at 17 percent and Americans at eight percent.

The KTO expects the number to reach seven-point-eight million before the end of the year, which would be well above its target of seven-point-five million.

The yearly number of foreign tourists topped three-point-five million in 1994 and six million in 2005.

The agency aims to attract ten million annual foreign visitors by 2012.

Première transaction de droits à émission de CO2 entre entreprises coréennes

2009-11-22T19:37:00.000-08:00

Korean Firms Post 1st CO2 Emissions Transaction (KBS, 23/11/2009)

South Korean companies have completed their first-ever transaction of carbon emission rights.

The Korea Water Resources Corporation signed a deal Monday to sell its carbon emission rights worth 170 million won to the Korea Carbon Finance carbon trading company.

The state-run water management company had received the emission rights from the U.N. for its projects to build small hydroelectric power plants, which are said to be more eco-friendly than large hydro power facilities.

The water company’s tidal power plant and several dams have already been registered as clean energy development projects with the U.N.

The water corporation says that the deal is a result of its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This is the first transaction of carbon emission rights between Korean companies.

Les premières stations de rechargement pour véhicules électriques devraient voir le jour l’année prochaine

2009-11-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

Electric car recharging stations due next year (Korea Herald, 20/11/2009)

The government plans to begin setting up recharging stations for electric vehicles next year.

Officials at the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said the government plans to install 300 recharging facilities in areas designated for testing electric vehicles by 2014.

Under the plans, the government will install 50 charging stations in a city where the electric car project is being tested in 2011.

An additional 50 charging stations will be added in the following year, with the same number being added again in 2013. In the final year of the project, 150 charging stations will be built in the areas.

The electric vehicle rechargers will be situated at gas and liquefied petroleum gas stations, government buildings, large supermarkets and other similar locations.

According to officials at the ministry, the recharging stations will be placed at regular intervals to compensate for the fact that current electric vehicles offer only short driving ranges.

In addition, the government plans to subsidize 50 percent of the costs of buying and installing chargers for electric vehicles until 2013.

According to a Knowledge Economy Ministry official, a charger costs about 50 million won ($43,000) and another 20 million won to install the device.

Subsidy programs are also in place in Japan, where similar projects are underway.

In Tokyo, the central and regional governments cover the cost of the devices, and the installation costs are covered by the operator of the facilities. In Kanagawa prefecture, the government covers 50 percent of the cost of rechargers.

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy also plans to draw up the detailed plans for securing the recharging infrastructure for electric vehicles during the first half of next year.

Les premières stations de rechargement pour véhicules électriques devraient voir le jour l’année prochaine

2009-11-19T20:51:00.000-08:00