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Doosan sets example of Korea Inc.s resilience

Light-industry conglomerate turns into heavy-industry cluster By Kim Yoo-chul Doosan Group ― the nation's oldest conglomerate whose key business areas range from construction, desalination, power plants to heavy equipment ― is set to further raise its international profile by using the upcoming G20 summit as the right forum for its future. Group officials say its chairman Park Yong-hyun is planning to hold several strategic meetings with high-profile executives from international companies as the business summit is crucial for Doosan to boost its corporate brand awareness. "Doosan is planning to use the business summit as a springboard to raise our international presence," said a senior group spokesman Shin Dong-gyu, Monday. Doosan, which has recently struck a series of sizable acquisition deals in the United States and the Czech Republic, is aiming to create 15 trillion won ($12 billion) in sales outside the peninsula this year. That's some 60 percent of this year’s total sales target of 24.4 trillion won, according to Shin. Doosan's key affiliates have about

Gist of Gyeongju communique

The following is the gist of the joint statement made by finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 advanced and emerging countries at the Gyeongju meeting that took place from Friday to Saturday. ● Pursue market-determined exchange rate systems in order to let economic fundamentals determine currency values and refrain from competitive devaluation of currencies. ● Reduce their excessive current account surpluses or deficits as a means to relieve global trade imbalances. They will maintain their surpluses or deficits at sustainable levels and ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to define those sustainable levels given regional circumstances. ● More strictly regulate the global financial system by requiring banks to raise capital and liquidity conditions to better fight a worldwide economic crisis like the one sparked in 2008. They pledged to impose tougher requirements for globally influential financial companies called significantly important financial institutions whose failure could endanger the whole global financial system. ● Shift by 201

G20 Gyeongju meeting raises hope for Seoul summit in Nov.

― Korea to introduce practical guidelines on current account balance― By Kim Jae-kyoung The world has taken an important step to tackling global imbalance as Group of 20 member nations agreed Saturday to stop a currency devaluation race and overhaul the governance structure of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The outcome of the G20 meeting attended by finance ministers and central bank governors in Gyeongju has raised hopes that the G20 Seoul Summit slated for Nov. 11 and 12 will bring about practical solutions to the global economy, which will help the G20 remain as a going concern. “Following the Toronto Summit in June, there have been growing doubts about the legitimacy of the G20 summit, as most of the previous gatherings were only slogan-oriented with no workable agreements and solutions,” said a source who participated in the gathering on condition of anonymity. “The significance of the Gyeongju meeting was that the G20 is now somehow given the legitimacy, which I believe is the real achievement beyond what they agreed on,” he added. “After the meeting, not

Global Best Brands in Korea (2)

The Korea Times presents a series of specials highlighting the country’s best global brands to celebrate its 60th anniversary, which falls on Nov. 1. The best brands were picked based on survey results of experts. This is the second of the series. –– ED. Deloitte Anjin About the brand Deloitte Anjin is the Korean member company of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, one of the world’s foremost professional organizations in audit and consulting services. Sharing the global expertise and resources of Deloitte, the Seoulbased outfit provides clients with world-class services in the areas of audit, tax, financial advisory and enterprise risk services. The firm says approximately 2,000 employees of Deloitte Anjin are committed to offering services which exceed clients’ expectation and thereby helping them excel in a globally competitive environment. CEO Name: Lee Jae-sool Career: Lee has 30 years of professional experiences in financial services. Based on his rich experiences, he took charge of Deloitte Anjin last year. His expertise includes merger and

Behind the scene: G20 Gyeongju meeting

Mantega’s hit-and-run Brazil was the only country at the G20 Gyeongju meeting to have neither of its finance minister and central bank governor. The absence of the two raised a suspicion that they were trying to avoid condemnation from other countries for sparking the “currency war” debate - it was its finance minister Guido Mantega who coined the rhetoric in September, which then fast developed into a global fiasco. The official excuse was that they had to monitor Brazil’s financial market after an announcement of a capital tax increase last week, which was not very convincing considering that the main sessions were held on Saturday. The mystery was solved on Saturday. “It’s the election,” a source told The Korea Times. Brazil will have a presidential election on October 31. A separate source confirmed this later on Saturday. Minister at micromanagement South Korea, the host nation, has been cautious in not taking side in the discussion as it tried its best to play the role of a peace broker in the G20. One weapon it uses to usher other nations is hos

G20 agrees to avoid currency war, settles IMF reform

Officials thank China as deal paves way for successful summit By Cho Jin-seo GYEONGJU - The Group of 20 (G20) nations reached a dramatic deal on Saturday as China, the United States agree to avoid “currency war” and to refrain from having too much trade surplus or deficit. They also settled on a 6-percent shift of voting quota at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by 2012 to emerging economies, with China emerging as the third largest voting power after the United States and Japan. In a joint statement, finance ministers and central bankers of the G20 said that they will “move towards more market-determined exchange rate systems” and “refrain from competitive devaluation of currencies.” This phrase means that China has agreed to make its foreign exchange regime more flexible to the market, G20 officials said. The G20 also agreed to have the IMF to set an “indicative guideline” of current account balance for each nation. This is intended as a solution to fix the global imbalance of growth and wealth accumulation without directly mentioning the exchange rate issue

G20 Gyeongju Communique

Communiqué Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, Gyeongju, Republic of Korea October 23, 2010 1. We, the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, met with a sense of urgency to fully address the economic challenges facing us today in preparation for the Seoul Summit. 2. The global economic recovery continues to advance, albeit in a fragile and uneven way. Growth has been strong in many emerging market economies, but the pace of activity remains modest in many advanced economies. Downside risks remain and are different from country to country and region to region. Yet, given the high interdependence among our countries in the global economic and financial system, uncoordinated responses will lead to worse outcomes for everyone. Our cooperation is essential. We are all committed to play our part in achieving strong, sustainable and balanced growth in a collaborative and coordinated way. Specifically, we will: - pursue structural reforms to boost and sustain global demand, foster job creation and increase growth potential; - complete

Geithner calls for “4% rule”

By Cho Jin-seo U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner proposed the G20 put a 4-percent cap on current account imbalances as a solution to fix the global imbalance without directly touching the currency rate issue, but only to find himself surrounded by skeptics. Geithner, in leaked letters to other G20 member nations, urged countries to “undertake policies consistent with reducing external imbalances below a specified share of GDP over the next few years.” Multiple reports identified the limit is 4 percent, plus or minus. His suggestion immediately received cynicism from rich countries with trade surplus ― Germany and Japan ― splitting the old party of G7 into two sides. It is not likely to receive support from China, of course. It also shows an irony that the United States, a long-time advocate of competitive, free-market economy, is beginning to peek at the supposedly dying idea of planned economy, at a global scale, after realizing that it cannot sustain its obese economic model without taking radical changes. “G20 countries should commit to undertake policie

Participants of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank ...

Nam Sang-tae, right, chief executive at Daewoo Shipbuilding ...