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Local Governance, Mainstay for Evolving Grassroots Democracy

The City Hall of Seoul is decorated with colored lamps, showing the national flag of Korea ahead of the nation’s Independence Day, which falls on Aug. 15, in this Aug. 11, 2006 file photo. Seoul has been the center of local governance since Korea started fully-fledged local elections in June 1995. / Korea Times Photo by Hong In-giBy Park Eung-kyuk KIPA President George Bush Jr. was the governor of Texas. Bill Clinton was the governor of Arkansas. Ronald Reagan was the governor of California. They climbed to the top of central executive establishment from the gubernatorial post. They walked the same path in their political careers; from the governor to the president. It is common to see a governor-turned-president in the U.S. When it comes to Korea, President Lee Myung-bak is the example. Lee is the first person to rise to the head of central government from mayor. Lee's story is a testimony to the successful advance of a local administrator into the central administrative hierarchy. He practiced a lot as administrator at a local level to become the head of state. His skillfu

Choi Hee-sup, left, executive vice president of BC Card ...

GS Group Chairman Huh Chang-soo, right, listens to ...

Kang Young-won, right, president and chief executive of the Korean

Matthew Cannon, fifth from left, head of global markets ...

KoreaToday Convergence Changes Landscape for Local Card Industry

By Kim Jae-won Staff Reporter Local credit card firms still vividly remember the painful situation back in the early 2000s, when the credit card crisis swept through the nation. Many big firms then suffered liquidity problem. LG Card, which was then a dominant player with more than 10 million customers, became the biggest victim, with the firm going bankrupt in 2003 and merging into Shinhan Card in 2007. However, they learned lessons from the experience. Domestic companies have since strengthened risk management. They have made efforts to develop new markets with new products. Thanks to such efforts, the plastic card industry is now maintaining sustainable growth, but many challenges are lying ahead. Now, several issues are waiting for the local industry, which can be summarized by three keywords ― convergence, spinoff, and competition. Convergence for New Creation Convergence with other industries, such as telecommunications and retail, is an important trend in the industry. Hana SK Card, founded by Hana Card and SK Telecom, plans to launch a new type of mobile phone

KoreaToday Global Card Issuers Undergoing Deleveraging

This is the fifth in a 12-part series of “The Korea Times . the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Joint Project” designed to identify new realities in the post-crisis world and provide winning strategies for leading Korean firms in 11 key industries. In cooperation with BCG, The Korea Times will look into a wide variety of issues both in the global economy and major indstries. ― ED. By Park Sang-soon Senior Partner, BCG Seoul Office The global credit card industry is facing a myriad of challenges in the wake of the global financial crisis. In the post-crisis world, plastic issuers both at home and abroad are urged to tackle several issues. First of all, the global credit card industry is under pressure to improve its fundamentals since the financial crisis. As the global financial crisis exposed household over-indebtedness, concerns have been raised in the U.S. and elsewhere that a second subprime-type meltdown could originate from the credit card industry. Such concerns have materialized to a certain extent particularly in the U.S., where the financial crisis spilled over

Park Jong-il, left, professor at Seoul National University ...

ERGO Daum Direct, an auto insurance company ...

Models pose beside the Sportage R, the latest edition ...