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Yoon Ja-young

Korea Times AI content 1 team Reporter

Yoon Ja-young is in charge of articles translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times. She is interested in improving the newspaper through AI.

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Economy

Park calls for 2nd Middle East boom

A shopper looks at bread at a halal certified bakery in Itaewon, downtown Seoul, Thursday. The government announced that it would support local food companies to advance into the Middle East and double exports of halal food by 2017. / YonhapBy Yoon Ja-young President Park Geun-hye said Thursday that a second Middle East boom will contribute to the nation’s economy.“The Middle East can be the answer to our prayer for economic revitalization,” Park told a trade promotion meeting.She recalled that the first version in the 1970s helped accelerate the nation’s economic development.The meeting followed her recent four-nation visit to the region.Korean companies seeking to participate in major plant and development projects in the Middle East will get government support.Helping small companies and services businesses advance into the region, and encouraging Korean young people to seek jobs there are also included on the agenda. The government also aims to attract the investment of oil money into Korea.“The first Middle East boom was created by the construc

Mar 19, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Govt. considering won-yuan trading market in Shanghai

By Yoon Ja-young The government is considering opening a won-yuan direct trading market in Shanghai as a means of globalizing the Korean currency.According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the move follows an agreement reached at the summit between President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in July.The two leaders agreed to foster a relationship to open a direct market in Shanghai, on top of immediately opening a won-yuan direct trading market in Korea. Following the agreement, the won-yuan market in Seoul opened in December 2014.“We don’t have a concrete schedule for opening (of the Shanghai direct market) as of yet,” an official at the finance ministry said. However, he said that the ministry ordered research on the improvement of the government system related with foreign currency, including measures to expand the use of the Korean won.“As you know, we already have a won-yuan direct market in Seoul. If we open such a market in two countries, it will help improve liquidity and increase transactions,” he added.China has

Mar 17, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

AIA, Heungkuk customers' claims rejected most

By Yoon Ja-youngNearly 350,000 insurance policyholders had their claims rejected by insurance companies over the past four years, data from the Financial Supervisory Service shows.AIA Life Insurance and Heungkuk Fire and Marine Insurance customers were the most likely to have their claims rejected.According to the data submitted to Rep. Min Byung-doo of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, insurance companies refused 347,502 claims between January 2011 and September 2014. That amounts to one out of every 100 claims being refused.Among the life insurance firms, the refusal rate was highest for AIA, with 3.3 percent of claims refused during that period. KDB Life Insurance followed with a 2.3 percent refusal rate, and Tongyang Life Insurance, 2.1 percent.Among non-life insurers, Heungkuk Fire and Marine Insurance topped the list by rejecting 1.6 percent of claims, followed by Meritz at 1.2 percent.The lawmaker said the insurance companies were hurting their customer base by ignoring due process or not providing enough explanation of their products.“The incomple

Mar 17, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Saemangeum aims to be global hub

A land development plan of Saemangeum / Courtesy of KASDIFree trade pacts with diverse economies to draw investorsBy Yoon Ja-youngLee Byoung-gook, administrator of the Korea Agency for Saemangeum Development and Investment (KASDI).As you drive along the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, you will encounter a sea dike that is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest seawall in the world. This is the beginning of the Saemangeum Project, which is regarded as the biggest civil engineering project in Korea’s history.After the construction of the 33.9 kilometer sea dike connecting Gunsan and Buan on the west coast in 2010 April, 291 square kilometers of new land is being reclaimed along with 118 square kilometers of newly created lakes in the still ongoing project. The vast area will be developed into a hub of global free trade and economic cooperation.The gigantic project was previously handled by diverse ministries, but the government established the Korea Agency for Saemangeum Development and Investment (KASDI) in September 2013 for more effective and comprehensive m

Mar 12, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Saemangeum aims to be global hub
Economy

Big reward on reporting tax dodging helps agency

By Yoon Ja-young The owner of a health supplement provider used borrowed accounts of company executives and employees to underreport his income so as to dodge taxes.With the money saved, he bought a luxurious apartment, imported cars, and a summer house under the name of his wife.He also sent his child to study abroad and enjoyed numerous trips overseas with the money.One of his employees, however, reported the tax evasion to the National Tax Service (NTS), and the owner was ordered to pay 6 billion won in back taxes and penalties after an investigation.The employee, meanwhile, got 200 million won as a reward.The NTS said that rewards for those reporting tax evasion are helping it collect more taxes.Whistleblowers totaled 19,442 last year, more than double the 8,945 in 2010.The government collected 1.5 trillion won from the tax evaders, three times the 477.9 billion won collected in 2010.According to the tax agency, 336 people got rewards from the agency for reporting tax evasion.The reward totaled 8.7 billion won, with the person who got the biggest sum given 310 million won.Th

Mar 10, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Babyboomers refraining from spending

By Yoon Ja-young Lim, a senior manager at a mid-tier manufacturing company, earns over 100 million won in annual salary, but he doesn’t think he has enough money for spending. And as retirement approaches, the 52-year-old is concerned about how he will continue to support his family.Households headed by those in their 50s have the highest incomes and disposable incomes among all age groups, but their average propensity to consume is among the lowest, statistics show.According to Statistics Korea, the Average Propensity to Consume (APC) of the country’s households stood at 72.9 percent last year, down 5 percentage points from 2003. The APC shows how much one has spent for consumption among disposable income. The falling APC means that households are cutting consumption while increasing savings.By age brackets, the fall was especially notable with elderly households.The households in their 60s had an APC of 69.6 percent, down 11.5 percentage points from 2003. Back then they had the highest propensity to consume among all age groups.Those in their 50s also saw their rat

Mar 10, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Young, elderly's income gap widens

By Yoon Ja-young The country’s young households are seeing their income remain stagnant, while those in their 50s and 60s saw their income increase last year. Youth unemployment and the deteriorating quality of jobs are expanding the gap between generations.According to Statistics Korea, the households whose heads are 39 years or younger made on average 4.4 million won a month last year, which is 29,486 won more, or up 0.7 percent, from the previous year. That is the lowest increase since 2003 when the statistical office started compiling the data.When considering that the consumer prices rose 1.3 percent last year, their overall buying power decreased.The households of those in their 50s, meanwhile, saw their monthly average income increase by 7.2 percent to 5 million won last year. Those in their 40s also saw the income grow by 2.9 percent to 4.8 million won.Economists explain that the youth unemployment rate and the worsening quality of their jobs are making their income stagnate.The country’s youth unemployment rate stood at 9 percent last year, the highest ever.

Mar 4, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Minister Choi calls for wage increases

By Yoon Ja-youngFinance Minister Choi Kyung-hwan has said a wage increase is necessary to boost sagging domestic consumption and remove growing deflation risks.“The working class may welcome falling prices, but inflation for February contracted when excluding the effect of the cigarette price hike,” Choi said at a forum, Wednesday.Consumer prices rose 0.52 percent in February, continuing growth of below 1 percent for three consecutive months. The country experienced deflation meanwhile if excluding the 0.58 percentage point rise caused by the cigarette price hike.“As low inflation is continuing, we are concerned over deflation,” he said.The minister added that the country hasn’t entered this yet, as core inflation excluding agricultural and oil products stands at over 2 percent. Even so, he said a prolonged period of low inflation can weaken economic sentiment.In deflationary periods, consumers prefer to delay consumption believing that prices will fall further. Businesses also halt investment and hiring. Deflation thus ends up straining economic growth.

Mar 4, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Lotte sloppy in disclosures

By Yoon Ja-young Lotte Group has been reported to be the sloppiest in disclosures among the country’s major conglomerates ― it was often late in disclosing important changes in management, and sometimes even omitted them.The Fair Trade Commission announced Tuesday that it examined 424 companies under 58 conglomerates on whether they have fulfilled their obligations in corporate disclosure. Each year, about a quarter of the 1,653 businesses under the conglomerates are subject to the FTC probe.The regulator levied 631 million won in fines on 201 of the companies for 475 irregularities.The most common was the omission of important changes in disclosures, with the number totaling 299. There were also 27 cases of false disclosure, and 19 delayed ones. Most of the omitted, false or delayed disclosures were about the management of the board or the financial condition of the company.Among the conglomerates examined, Lotte turned out to be the worst, with 42 violations. It was followed by Daesung Group with 35 and SK Group with 31.The regulator, however, explained that the com

Mar 3, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
Economy

Gwangyang Free Economic Zone attracts $1.4 bil. investment

Lee Hee-bong, commissioner of the Gwangyang Bay Area Free Economic Zone Authority, speaks about the competitive edge of the area in this file photo. Lee said the zone aims at attracting $2 billion in investment this year./ Courtesy of Gwangyang Bay Area Free Economic Zone AuthorityBy Yoon Ja-young Located on Korea’s southern coast, Gwangyang Bay Area Free Economic Zone (GFEZ) is based on the steel and petrochemical industries surrounding Gwangyang Port.The free economic zone authority has led the economy of the region, attracting an annual $1.5 bil. investment on average since its launch in 2004. Investors to the Gwangyang area highly evaluated the competitiveness of the Yeosu Industrial Complex, which is the country’s biggest petrochemical industry zone, and the presence of POSCO Gwangyang Steel Works with an annual steel production capacity of 20 million tons, as well as the Yeosu-Gwangyang Port which deals with 251 million tons of goods each year.In 2013, however, the authority attracted only $700 million in investment, due to a global slowdown in the petrochemica

Mar 2, 2015By Yoon Ja-young
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