In an interview, medical historian Frank Snowden discusses how the coronavirus pandemic mirrors past outbreaks and argues that we must quickly apply the lessons learned today in preparation for the next disease.

Germany’s strict limitations on contact between people haven't conquered the virus - they have merely bought the country more time. Epidemiologists believe a second wave will come.

The number of coronavirus cases is slowly sinking in Italy, but the country is now facing the next phase of a serious crisis: how to kickstart an economy that has been at a standstill for weeks.

When the coronavirus pandemic began, the pharmaceutical company Gilead pulled remdesivir out of its storeroom. The drug, which had proved to be ineffective against other illnesses, could have a future in the battle against COVID-19. But it's likely not a "game changer."

The corona crisis is changing the global economy. Production security is growing more important than efficiency. Here is what that might look like.

In the global jostling amid the coronavirus crisis, Beijing is extending its influence while U.S. President Donald Trump continues to squander America's leadership role. The pandemic could mark the beginning of a new Chinese era.

Ahead of the lower court decision on the definition of ordinary wage involving Kia Motors as a defendant, the nation's car makers warned that they would move their plants overseas if Kia loses the lawsuit. The Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association whose members include Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, GM Korea, Renault Samsung, and Ssangyong Motor, said in a statement, "If Kia Motors must pay an additional labor cost of 3 trillion won after the ordinary wage litigation, we have no choice but to c...

President Moon Jae-in said on August 15, "Another war in the Korean Peninsula must be resisted at any cost. Military action on the Korean Peninsula can only be decided by South Korea and no one else can decide to take military action without the consent of South Korea." In congratulatory remarks in celebration of the 72nd Liberation Day in Seoul's Sejong Culture Center, he said in relation to the North Korean missile crisis, "The government will do everything it can to prevent a war with Nort...

President Moon Jae-in said on August 17, "The denuclearization bid by the current government is not so radical. It will take more than 60 years for us to reach that goal." In an interview in celebration of the 100th day since taking power, President Moon said, "The design life of nuclear reactors that were launched recently or under construction is 60 years. We plan to close reactors one by one as soon as their design life expires." His remarks are in reponse to criticism that his government'...

Hyundai Merchant Marine is pushing forward with a plan to attract an investment of up to 1 trillion won from BlackRock, the world's largest asset management firm. According to investment banking industry and shipping industry sources on August 20, the company is currently in talks with BlackRock to bring in an investment of 600 billion won to 1 trillion won. The investment will be made in the form of BlackRock taking part in a capital increase by Hyundai. Once the deal is successful, the equi...

Samsung Electronics said on August 20 that its Samsung Pay service has surpassed the 10-trillion-won milestone in payment volume within two years since launch. Introduced in August 2015, Samsung Pay exceeded the 1-trillion-won level in August last year. Since that time on, the service volume quadrupled for one year's time. An official with Samsung Electronics said, "The volume of out online transactions has taken off since last year, accounting for 30 percent of the total online transactions....

The volume of home mortgage loans made out by commercial banks is falling at a rapid rate after the government's measure to keep the housing marketing from overheating on August 2. According to figures made public by the nation's top-five banks including Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori, KEB Hana, and Nonghyup on August 21, the balance of home mortgage loans as of August 18 was 368,370.2 billion won, up by 1,834.3 billion won from the end of July (366,535.9 billion won). In monthly rate, this is up ...

LG International will expand its palm oil operations in Indonesia for the first time in six years. This is a move for the trading company to focus more on the food resource business. The company recently broke the ground for the palm oil plant. It plans to complete the construction by the end of the first half of next year and start producing 110,000 tons of palm oil a year. This is an increase of 30,000 tons from the current capacity. Back in 2009, LG International jumped into the food re...

The Thailand unit of Samsung Life, which has continued its presence in the Southeast Asian country even after most Korean financial service firms had withdrawn, turned to the black for the first time in 20 years. Samsung Life said on August 22 that Samsung Life Thailand's net profit for the second quarter was 340 million won. Given the Thai subsidiary is doing quite well in the third quarter, it is expected to post a positive net profit for the whole year. Back in 1997 Samsung Life establishe...

Hyundai Motor is currently in the works to develop a pickup truck model for the U.S. market. Michael O'Brien, vice president in charge of product planning for Hyundai Motor America, said on August 22 in a press conference, "The top management approved a project to develop a pickup truck model." Pickup trucks are highly popular in the United States. There is only one pickup truck model available in Korea, which is Ssangyong Motor's Korando Sports.Hyundai Motor unveiled a pickup truck concept mode...

This year's tourism balance of payments is estimated to surpass US$15 billion. This is up more than 40 percent of $10.8 billion recorded in 2007 in the wake of the global financial crisis. According to the Bank of Korea, the tourism balance of payments in the month of June this year was a deficit of $1.39 billion. The cumulative deficit for the first six months of the year has been $7.74 billion, the second all-time highest after the second half of 2007. Last year, the tourism spending by K...

The government will create 200,000 new jobs in the healthcare sector by 2022. Vice-Minister of Health Kwon Deok-cheol said on August 25 in a healthcare industry jobs discussion sponsored by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute and the Korea Economic Daily that the government plans to create 168,000 public sector jobs and 32,000 private sector jobs within five years from now. As for the public sector, he explained, the government will expand jobs in nursing and elderly care, as well...

A government study said it had injected a total of 168.7 trillion won (US$150.8 billion) since the 1997 Asian financial crisis as part of an effort to clean up insolvent financial services firms and has only recouped 115 trillion won as of the end of the second quarter of this year. This is the recovery ratio of 68.3 percent in 20 years' time. Even though it looks good in appearance, there is a big difference from that of the U.S. government. The U.S. government had spent $426.4 billion for...

SK Engineering & Construction has won a large-scale petrochemical plant project in Thailand. The company said on August 29 that it clinched a deal worth US$210 million to build polyol plant within the Hemaraj industrial zone in Thailand's Rayong. This followed news that the company signed a $1.6-billion project to modernize an oil refinery in Iran earlier this month. The plant, located 150 kilometers southeast of Thailand's capital Bangkok, is commissioned jointly by PTT Global Chemical, ...

Global furniture and home furnishing company IKEA has earned 365 billion won in sales for the past one year in Korea. The company said that it would open a total of six stores in Korea starting with a second store in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, followed by Yongin (Gyeonggi) and Gyeryong (South Chungcheong) by 2020. Andre Schmidtgall, president of IKEA Korea, said on August 29 in a press briefing held in Bread Comma in Seoul's Yeonnam-dong that his company's sales revenue for the 2017 fiscal ye...

After phone calls with Korean President Moon Jae-in on September 1 and 4, Donald Trump U.S. President said the Korean government agreed to purchase American-made weapons and military equipment worth several billion dollars. The White House revealed the news on September 4 that in phone calls between the two leaders "President Trump approved in principle to lift the weight limit of missile warheads the Korean military can mount." In a September 1 announcement, the White House also said simi...

The market value of LG Group companies has moved up to the third place after overtaking that of Hyundai Motor Group following Samsung and SK. Hyundai Motor lost out to LG after giving away the second place to SK Group in June this year. According to the Korea Exchange on September 6, the aggregate market capitalization (including that of preferred stocks) of LG Group's 16 publicly listed affiliates was 96,883 billion won as of the end of September 5. On the same day, the value of 16 publicly ...

POSCO Daewoo has opened Lotte Hotel Yangon on September 8 in Myanmar's capital Yangon. The five-star hotel, located near Inya Lake in the central business district of the city, consists of a 15-story hotel building (343 rooms) and a 29-story long-term serviced apartment building (315 rooms). POSCO Daewoo is responsible for the overall management while Lotte Hotels and Resorts taking charge of daily management. On the opening day, Myanmar Minister of Hotels and Tourism Ohn Maung, Chief Ministe...

As international coal prices are on the rise, Hanwha Chemical's prospect is getting brighter. That's because the Korean company uses naphtha to produce polyvinyl chloride (PVC) while its rivals in China are largely based on coal, which will make it more price competitive vis-a-vis the Chinese chemical producers. According to Korea Resources Corp. and chemical industry sources on September 10, the freight-on-board (FOB) price of bituminous coal out of the Chinese port of Qinhuangdao was US$95....

LG International Corp., Korea's leading general trading company, is set to kick off the operation of a cement factory in Myanmar for which it has invested for two years. This is part of the company's strategy to preempt the rapidly growing Myanmar market by becoming the first general trading firm to build a cement plant in the Southeast Asian nation. According to industry sources on September 11, LG International is currently making a pilot run of the cement plant in the erstwhile reclusive c...

The youth unemployment rate has hit a record-high level in August since the Asian financial crisis. As for the number of net job increase, it fell to a low of 54 months. Even though the government is doing everything it can to create jobs, jobs-related figures won't budge. According to a report "August 2017 Employment Trend" published by the National Statistical Office on September 13, the jobless ratio of those aged between 15 and 29 was 9.4 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from a year ago. ...

The Daesan petrochemical industrial zone in Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, will transform into an advanced chemical industrial complex. The nation's major petrochemical companies may invest up to 10 trillion won in this area. On September 14, S-Oil, Lotte Chemical, Hanwha Total, South Chungcheong provincial government, and Seosan city gathered in Lotte World Tower and signed a memorandum to create a Daesan specialized industrial complex. Currently the area is home to large petrochemical ...

Private-sector power generators are complaining mightily about the government's pressure on them to switch coal-fired power plants they are building into ones based on liquefied natural gas. That's largely because the government is mum about the sunk cost and other costs to retrofit the plants estimated to be as high as 2.6 trillion won. According to private-sector power generation industry sources on September 17, the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy requested to POSCO Energy, SK Gas,...

Chief executives of the nation's leading companies like Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and LG Display have made a request to the government to relieve the problem of labor shortage in the area of semiconductor and display. Kwon Oh-hyun, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, said on September 18 in a discussion session held in Kensington Hotel in Seoul's Yoido presided over by Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy Baek Woon-gyu, "Skilled workers are in short supply in fast-growing industries...

As the government pronounced illegal on the practice of companies relying on subcontract workers for a long time such as the cases in Paris Baguette and Mando-Hella, the whole industry in shock. This is not just restricted to manufacturers but is spread to services and the food franchise industry as well. The corporate sector expected on September 24 that companies like Tous Les Jours, Samsung Electronics service centers, and LG U+ will likely face the same problem any time soon after the Min...

As Korea and China are set to improve their relationship that was rocked by the controversy over the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-ballistic missile system, Korea's tourism and duty-free shopping industries are raising their hopes of better days.The tourism industry believes that the Chinese government's group tour ban to Korea would be relaxed soon. A travel agency in Hebei posted an Internet ad recently for a group tour program to Korea in November at the price of 1,4...

Beachgoing is not just for the summer. Nothing is romantic than walking on the beach with a loved one. What about the beach in the autumn? Walking on the beach on a cool breeze and sitting in a café with an ocean view may be something you don't want to miss.   If you long for a place where you can see the autumn sea and uninhabited islands, all you need to do is take the Airport Train from Seoul station or Gimpo Airport station. Within one hour, it will take you to Yeongjo...

"Realty Expo Korea 2018 to Unveil in Sept. This Year   Organized by Korea’s No.1 Business News Provider Korea Economic Daily FIABCI KOREA to Sponsor Jointly... Interest of 67 Member Countries Heightened REK 2018 Organizers Start Taking Applications... Foreign Exhibitors to Get Additional Discounts   Realty Expo Korea (REK), the global festival for real estate professionals in the Age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, will be with you for three days between September 19th and 2...

Over the years, Poland has worked to position itself as a strategic partner to Ukraine and its gateway to the European Union. One of these initiatives appears to be paying dividends. The efforts of the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) to attract new fore...

“Not a Dirty Word”: ESMA revisits the impact of its Opinion on delegation for UK managers if there is a “hard” Brexit In the wake of the draft Agreement on the withdrawal of the UK from the EU, a speech by Steven Maijoor, th...

With increasing numbers of working parents comes a sharper focus on employer support for childcare arrangements.  On 6 April 2005, the Government is to introduce new tax incentives in relation to childcare arrangements which are intended t...

After nine years pursuing her claim against her employer, Michelle Alabaster walked away with an award of just £204.53.  However, the impact of the decisions of the ECJ, and now the Court of Appeal in the maternity pay case of Ala...

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