Lifestyle - The Korea Times

Korea, Japan vie for Vietnam's infrastructure projects

By Choi Sung-jinKorea and Japan are fiercely competing to carve out a larger share of the rapidly enlarging construction market in Vietnam, business sources said Friday. The Vietnamese government plans to build up the country’s poor social infrastructure with airports, railways and subways, and it is estimated to spend more than 30 trillion won ($24.8 billion) doing it. The Japanese builders’ main advantages are abundant funds and accumulated know-how while their Korean competitors’ strengths are their experience of rising from a developing to a developed country and superior information technology, sources said. The central and provincial administrations in the Southeast Asian country are going all out to build roads and expressways, thinking that the lack of social infrastructure is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to brisk economic development, they said. In 2014, motorcycles accounted for 81.4 percent of all means of transport in Ho Chi Minh City, remaining almost unchanged from the 81.8 percent of 2004. Bus transportation and other means

Jan 15, 2016

Startup seeks O2O leadership in food delivery

Lim Eun-seon, CEO of food delivery startup Fly & Company, speaks about the company’s online-to-offline (O2O) delivery platform FoodFly, in an interview at its headquarters in southern Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of Fly & CompanyBy Lee Min-hyungLim Eun-seon, 33, CEO of food delivery startup Fly & Company, sought to start something “on his own” before quitting his consulting career.“A consultant helps other’s business prosper, and there was no chance to take actions for myself,” Lim said in an interview, Wednesday. “That is why I shifted my career into running a startup.”FoodFly, the company’s online-to-offline (O2O) food delivery platform, is gaining traction here, with more than 1,000 restaurants and cafes forming alliances across Seoul. The company has attracted investments of some 6.5 billion won ($5.36 million) since opening for business in 2012.“The invested capital is used to expand our services across the nation,” he said. “Currently, we are operating in some 12 districts of the natio

Jan 14, 2016

Startup seeks O2O leadership in food delivery

Psy awarded highest honor at CICI Korea 2016

Psy, left, speaks after receiving the Stepping Stone Award at a Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI) ceremony at the Coex Hotel InterContinental, southern Seoul, Tuesday. Next to Psy is Choi Jung-hwa, head of CICI./ Korea Times photo by Kim Jae-heunBy Kim Jae-heunThe Corea Image Communication Institute (CICI), headed by Prof. Choi Jung-hwa, held its annual award ceremony “CICI Korea 2016” yesterday at the Coex Hotel InterContinental, southern Seoul, to recognize people who contributed to promoting Korea’s culture abroad over the last year.The ceremony invited some 700 international and local opinion leaders, including former Prime Minister Han Seung-soo, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Kim Jong-deok and Na Kyung-won, chairwoman of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee.U.S. Ambassador to Korea Mark W. Lippert gave welcoming remarks on behalf of fifty ambassadors at the event to congratulate the awardees of the day.K-pop idol Psy won the highest honor, the Stepping Stone Award, for promoting the “creativity of hallyu.&rdqu

Jan 12, 2016

Russian sports manager strives for PyeongChang success

Nikolay Belokrinkin, the sports manager in charge of Alpine Skiing for the PyeongChang Olympics organizing committee, is seen in this photo taken during the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games./ Courtesy of PyeongChang Olympics organizing committeeBy Nam Hyun-wooNikolay Belokrinkin, 32, is a Russian sports manager in charge of alpine skiing for the 2018 PyeongChang Organizing Committee for the 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG) and one of the most ardent supporters working for the success of the upcoming Winter Games.Since March last year, Belokrinkin has been in Pyeongchang and Jeongseon in Gangwon Province ― isolated counties he would probably never have visited if it weren’t for the Olympics ― to provide his knowledge and expertise in holding and operating alpine competitions for Korean officials, who have less experience in holding international-level skiing events.Among the sports managers for the POCOG, Belokrinkin is arguably the busiest, in preparation for the International Ski Federation (FIS) men’s downhill and super-G events which will take place

Jan 12, 2016

Russian sports manager strives for PyeongChang success

KTO to bolster MICE industry

Shim Hay-ryun, director of KTO Singapore OfficeBy Kim Jae-kyoungSINGAPORE ― Korea should shift the focus of growth in tourism to “quality” from “quantity” to develop it into a more value-added industry, according to a senior official of the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO).To that end, she said that the KTO plans to put more efforts on developing the country into a major destination of MICE (meetings, incentive travel, conventions and exhibitions) in Asia.“Korea has enjoyed substantial growth in terms of the number of inbound tourists. Now is the time to focus on quality growth by fostering the MICE industry,” Shim Hay-ryun, director of the KTO Singapore Office, said in a recent interview in Singapore.“Business event travelers spend twice as much as general tourists. This means that MICE events will not only offer quality tours for foreigners but also bring more economic benefits to the country.”The Singapore office recently succeeded in securing a large-scale incentive tour event from Herbalife International.With a sales network i

Jan 11, 2016

Korean male nurse hired in Saudi Arabia

Park Byung-woo, second from left, visits two officials at King Abdulaziz Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with Jun Lee, left, CEO of KOSAnet, a job agency working with the Human Resources Development Service of Korea, on Dec. 30. /  Courtesy of Park Byung-wooBy Kim Se-jeongPark Byung-woo, 27, has become the first Korean male nurse at King Abdulaziz Medical City (KAMC), a government-funded general hospital in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.He is also one of the first-ever male nurses in the country, which previously did not allow male nurses in hospitals for religious reasons. But it recently opened its doors to men in the intensive care units, and KAMC is the first hospital to do so.Arriving at the medical center on Christmas Day, Park is currently attending an orientation session at the hospital.“People here are nice to Koreans and want more Korean medical staff,” Park said in an e-mail interview with The Korea Times. He will be working in the intensive care unit once the orientation is completed.Park joins male colleagues from all over the world. &ld

Jan 8, 2016

Forestry expert seeks to make Asia greener

Lee Yeong-jooBy Choi Kyong-ae Lee Yeong-joo, 50, has built his career in forest restoration and protection for the past three decades and now pushes forward an ambitious project to make Asia greener.He has served as coordinator for the ASEAN-Korea Forest Cooperation Secretariat (AFoCo) since August 2012 when the Seoul-headquartered international organization began operations with an aim to help rehabilitate and protect destroyed forests of the countries in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.“In the past four years, we (AFoCo) focused on two things. One is we have offered education and field study programs in Korea to some 200 forestry experts and government officials from 11 ASEAN member states,” said Lee.“In the other, we have sent teams of experts to some of the Southeast Asian countries to perform reforestation and rehabilitation jobs in forests devastated by fires, construction or climate changes.”The funds needed for these efforts are largely financed by the Korean government with the 11 ASEAN states sharing a small portion of the e

Jan 7, 2016

Forestry expert seeks to make Asia greener

Women swoon for Park in 'Cheese in the Trap'

Actor Park Hae-jin, who stars in the new drama “Cheese in the Trap,” attends a publicity event in Seoul, Dec. 22, 2015./ YonhapBy Kim Jae-heunActor Park Hae-jin successfully returned to TV screens in tvN’s new drama “Cheese in the Trap” on Monday, in a program that recorded the channel’s record-high rating for a Monday and Tuesday drama.His last appearance in a drama series was in cable channel OCN’s “Bad Guys” in 2014.“Cheese in the Trap” is based on a webtoon of the same name that has had more than 1.1 billion hits on the country’s no. 1 portal site, Naver, since 2010. The drama stars Park and Seo Kang-joon and rising actresses Kim Go-eun and Lee Sung-kyoung.“I was very worried about acting out my character in the scenes because the original story of the webtoon had gained so much love from so many people,” said Park during a press conference at Times Square in Yeoungdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on Dec. 22. “It (his character in the series) was the most difficult character in my career because view

Jan 7, 2016

Women swoon for Park in 'Cheese in the Trap'

Defense researcher awarded for work reducing aircraft weight

Jun Seung-moonBy Jun Ji-hye Jun Seung-moon, a senior researcher at the Agency for Defense Development (ADD), has received awards for his research into reducing the weight of aircraft.The ADD said that Jun was chosen as the Researcher of 2015, the most prestigious award in the defense research sector given for making the biggest contribution to developing and improving the nation’s defense science and technology for the year.The awards ceremony took place on Dec. 31 at ADD headquarters in Daejeon.The state-run defense research center has selected a recipient for the award annually since 2002 among those who have been working for the agency for more than 20 years.Jun, who joined the ADD in 1988, has been in charge of research and development of airplane fuselage structure.This year’s award was given to him because he successfully applied carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) in developing aircraft wings, which will contribute considerably to reducing the weight of the airplane while improving its performance.   CFRP is a strong and light composite material,

Jan 6, 2016

Defense researcher awarded for work reducing aircraft weight

Costa Rican envoy's visit

Costa Rican Ambassador to Korea Rodolfo Solano Quiros, right, shakes hands with Korea Times President-Publisher Lee Chang-sup, during a courtesy visit to the English newspaper’s office in central Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Han Dong-gyu