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Lee Kyung-min

Korea Times AI content 2 team Reporter

Value context and insight. lkm@koreatimes.co.kr

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Economy

Concerns growing over manufacturing exodus

By Lee Kyung-min Mauro F. Guillen, director of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton SchoolThere are growing concerns that major Korean manufacturers will accelerate the relocation of their factories and operations overseas amid the worsening business environment here. Global experts have said that the government's “anti-business” and “pro-labor” policies compounded by the prolonged U.S.-China trade war is forcing out not only foreign investors but local businesses, further adding strain to Asia's fourth largest economy.The rapid minimum wage hike and heavy regulations, they noted, could further undermine the country's growth prospects amid weakening economic fundamentals. The nation's GDP contracted 0.3 percent in the first quarter from the last three months of 2018, the worst performance in 41 quarters.“Public sentiment against business is running high, and this will continue to be driven high by the current administration's railroading,” said Yun Chang-hyun, a business professor at the University of Seoul. “Not o

Jul 2, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Banking & Finance

Banks close down branches amid digitization

By Lee Kyung-min The number of bank branches in Korea has been on a steady decline due to an increase in non-face-to-face transactions amid digitization. According to latest data from the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the number of branches at the country's 18 commercial banks including the top five ― Shinhan, KB Kookmin, Woori, KEB Hana and HongHyup ― has decreased by 13 percent to 6,771 in 2018 from 7,698 in 2012.The shutdown has come as a result of an increase in the number of customers switching to internet banking. Bank of Korea (BOK) Economic Statistics System data showed there were over 146 million subscribers to online banking services including over 137 million individual customers and 9.1 million corporate customers as of the end of 2018. The figures are nearly double from four years earlier, when there were 81 million individual customers and 5 million corporate customers. The number of subscribers far outweighs the total population of the country as people use services from multiple banks. “Many of our customers use the online platform to check balance and wi

Jul 2, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Economy

Dollarization rules North Korea economy

By Lee Kyung-min “Dollarization” is the most notable aspect of North Korea under the Kim Jong-un regime, an inevitable result of a weak economy whereby the North Korean won fails to function as a currency, a state-run think tank said Tuesday. Otherwise known as currency substitution, dollarization is a term for when a foreign currency is used in addition to or instead of the domestic currency as legal tender. According to the North Korea Review published by the Korea Development Institute (KDI), the North's economy led by its young leader Kim Jong-un is sustained largely by foreign hard currencies including the U.S. dollar, Chinese yuan and euro. “In the past, foreign currencies served a limited purpose including purchase of high-priced assets or to replenish foreign reserves,” the study's lead author Lee Suk said. “However, foreign currencies play the core function in running the economy now. For example, they are used to price products, complete economic transactions and serve as a general standard for measuring economic activities.”In

Jul 2, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Dollarization rules North Korea economy
Banking & Finance

Future fintech experts

Winners and participants of the 2019 KB-KISA Fintech Hackerthon pose with KB Kookmin Bank officials at the Seoul branch of the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), June 30. A total of 126 people from 33 teams joined the competition to share new ideas for fintech-based financial services. Courtesy of KB Kookmin Bank

Jul 1, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Future fintech experts
Economy

Korean customs official elected WCO director

Kang Tae-ilBy Lee Kyung-min Kang Tae-il, a senior official from the Korea Customs Service (KCS), has been elected to serve as a director of the Capacity Building Directorate at the World Customs Organization (WCO), the customs agency said Monday. The election was held June 29 at the WCO Council in Brussels, Belgium. This is the first time for a KCS official to take a high-ranking position at the organization, which is comprised of 183 countries representing over 98 percent of international trade.Kang, currently director general of the KCS Information and International Affairs Bureau, won over a strong finalist from Zambia following a runoff after competing with candidates from Switzerland, Morocco and Tunisia. Kang will serve for the next four years.“I feel deeply responsible to assume the highly important post amid the ongoing global trade dispute, over which the influence of customs diplomacy holds major sway,” Kang said. “I will do my best to lead the global standard on customs administration, thereby helping many Korean businesses expand their presence in develo

Jul 1, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Korean customs official elected WCO director
  • Korea aims to become leader in global customs services
Banking & Finance

Hana aims to be digital platform company

This is the second in a series of articles highlighting major financial groups' strategies for digital transformation. ― ED.By Lee Kyung-min Hana Financial Group has a clear objective that differentiates the holding company from its competitors: becoming a fully data-based entity to fundamentally transform itself from a traditional financial services provider to a digital platform company.Under the new vision created by Chairman Kim Jung-tai to reinvent the group as a digital information services provider, a group-wide effort is ongoing to help workers set new goals prioritizing a customer-oriented mindset and embracing new challenges through cooperation among subsidiaries. “We set new goals prioritizing customer-oriented mindset, challenge, cooperation, action and taking initiatives,” chairman Kim said during a ceremony to unveil the group's digital vision in November. “These values will be integrated into a new governance structure whereby separate departments are merged in an organic manner to help improve agility to become more flexible and faster in the rapidly

Jul 1, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
  • Hana TI: digital center and beyond
Banking & Finance

Student volunteers

Hana Financial Group Chairman Kim Jung-tai, center, pose with university student volunteers at the KEB Hana Bank in Seoul, June 28. Until August, 50 students will engage in promotional events related to the improvement of the bank's financial services as part of the group's social responsibility program. Courtesy of KEB Hana Bank

Jun 30, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Banking & Finance

Shinhan strengthens investment banking abroad

Shinhan Financial Group Chairman Cho Yong-byoungBy Lee Kyung-min Shinhan Financial Group is rushing to expand its investment banking business overseas, in a long-term move to enhance the high-risk, high-yield financial service to identify new growth sources, the group said Sunday.The group will set up an investment desk at the bank's Sydney branch in Australia in the first week of July to build a business network in a region with ample growth potential, mostly due to large-scale, state-led project financing deals. At least one official will be sent to the country to help manage relationships with private equity and asset managers and to provide effective finance sourcing vehicles. “The country has a great demand for investment banking deals involving mergers and acquisitions and real estate among others that require competent financing capabilities,” a Shinhan official said.“Experience gained in Sydney will help us learn, grow and become a relevant player in global investment banking.” The expansion is the group's latest effort to diversify global business cha

Jun 30, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Shinhan strengthens investment banking abroad
Economy

Shorter work week to hurt Korea's growth

Goldman Sachs headquarters in New York By Lee Kyung-min Korea's shorter work week ― 52 hours from 68 ― will reduce economic growth by 0.3 percentage points in 2020, according to a global investment banking powerhouse, Sunday.The bleak assessment poses greater concern for Asia's fourth-largest economy already beset by low growth and low inflation, compounded by lingering external uncertainties involving the U.S.-China trade dispute and sharply declining memory chip sales. In the report “Korea: Reduction in Work Hours Could Pose Growth Headwinds for 2020,” Goldman Sachs said the country's growth prospects could be further clouded, leading to a slower growth rate of 2 percent, down 0.3 percentage points from the previous projection of 2.3 percent. “The new work-hour limit comes against the backdrop of slowing growth, highlighting the risk that Korean companies may not be able to quickly fill in the productivity gap left by the reduced work hours,” the report said. Effec

Jun 30, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
Shorter work week to hurt Korea's growth
  • Gov't to expand 52-hour workweek
Banking & Finance

Hana TI: digital center and beyond

By Lee Kyung-min Hana TI ― TI being short for “transform IT” ― is the financial group's subsidiary representing its core values in essence: synergy via integration. Modeled after Santander Financial City Boadilla del Monte in Madrid, Spain, Hana TI in Cheongna International City in Incheon seeks to be the IT hub of the group.On a 65,712-square-meter lot sits Hana TI's two earthquake-resistant buildings ― 16-story Vision Center and seven-story Core Center, where 1,800 people work. Vision Center is where IT officials from all of the group's subsidiaries work together, enabling them to have more frequent, casual encounters that can lead to a friendly lunch, dinner or after work get-together. The subsidiaries include bank, life insurance, card, financial investment, savings bank, capital and Hana TI. “Their work overlaps in many ways and their physical proximity with one another helps increase opportunities for interaction to share work-related information and concerns. It is an efficient and effective method of communication,” a Hana TI official said. Also notabl

Jun 30, 2019By Lee Kyung-min
  • Hana aims to be digital platform company
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