Announcements
Podcasts
Subscribe to our Podcasts on
iTunes or your RSS reader!
Home  Corporate Affairs
|
|
Corporate Affairs
Our corporate affairs project area provides the international business community with unique access to the issues and individuals that define U.S.-Korea business relations in a rapidly changing global environment. The programs offered in this project area include conferences, seminars and forums that help Americans and Koreans meet the challenges of doing business together. These programs bring together Korean and American leaders from government, business, the media, academia and international organizations for frank and interactive discussions of the current economic, political and security topics that affect U.S.-Korea relations in a global context.
The focus of this project area is to explore and clarify the major issues affecting the economic partnership between the U.S. and Korea by providing opportunities for interaction between major players in both the private and public sectors of both countries. The objective is to promote a better understanding of the potential for mutually beneficial collaboration within a rapidly changing global environment.
|
|
 Young Professional Forum
Investing in Korea
Panel Discussion and Networking Session
Smaller and less well-covered than neighboring Chinese and Japanese markets, Korea presents a certain challenge for American investors looking for opportunities. Four of New York’s top investment professionals helped to fill in the gaps, presenting a detailed map of Korea’s economy to an overflow crowd of young professionals. The forum was co-presented by Columbia Business School Asian Alumni Club of New York and sponsored by Merrill Lynch, Korean Business Association of Columbia Business School and Tiger Asia Management, L.L.C.
“Korea is growing at cruising speed,” said Donald Hanna, global head of emerging markets at Citigroup, adding that Korea’s macroeconomic situation is solid. Korea is known as an export powerhouse, but Hanna said that in recent years, the domestic consumption has been rapidly expanding as well. Housing prices in Seoul have increased dramatically in 2006 and 2007 and the central bank is getting jittery about an asset bubble. This boom, however, is more a side-effect of success rather than a genuine trouble spot. There isn’t as much housing in Seoul as consumers want, Hanna said, as the city becomes wealthier, potential buyers are bidding up prices.
The securities market in Korea has become more complicated as well, added John Lee, director of Lazard Asset Management. But the complexity offers greater opportunity, he continued. When asked about Korean securities in the past, “I used to just say ‘buy Samsung’” said Lee. Now there are numerous, smaller companies which provide great value. And, unlike in many East Asian countries where excellence is highly concentrated by sector, Korea has great companies across the economic spectrum.
Eric Yoon, a partner at White & Case law firm, noted a point of concern that others shared: the possibility of a nationalist backlash against foreign investment in Korea. Korea has been a leader in globalization, and benefited tremendously, especially after opening its markets to foreign capital in the wake of the IMF crisis. However, beginning with the KEB–Lone Star investigation, a series of high profile cases in which foreign investors were seen to take huge profits from Korea stirred nationalist resentment. Calls for government action against foreign capital have grown. In response, the government has begun tightening restrictions on tax shelters frequently used by foreign businesses and many fear more action might be in the offing.
Kaz Parsch, senior manager of international tax services at Ernst & Young, closed the program with a more detailed discussion of Korea’s tax regime.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
February 28, 2007
The
SK corporation is one of South Korea’s most successful conglomerates,
and an emblem of the country’s rapid economic development. Just a few decades
ago it was a small textile concern in rural South Korea. Now it generates U.S.
$70 billion in annual revenues worldwide from ventures as diverse as energy and
telecom, and is 112 on the Fortune 500 list. Still, when SK’s chairman Chey Tae Won assumed leadership in
1998, the company was in trouble and major reforms were needed.
Speaking
at a CEO Luncheon program at The Four
Seasons hotel in New York, chairman Chey explained SK’s organizational
challenges and the plan he implemented to overcome them. In 1998, South Korea’s
economy was still reeling from the IMF crisis. Beneath such immediate problems
as liquidity and debt issues however, Chey discerned a deeper crisis at SK. For
a generation, Korean business had imbued its managers with a strict sense of
hierarchy and vested all corporate power and initiative with the chairman.
Amidst the crisis, corporate officials were paralyzed, unable to respond for
themselves to emerging issues.
Chey
saw that to change this pervasive culture he would have to start at the top. He
began by reforming SK’s board of directors. In the process, 70% of the new
board he appointed was drawn from outside the company, so as to bring in new
ideas. Chey then mandated 100% attendance at meetings from his board. Most
importantly, he stressed to each member that from that point on, they would be
responsible for developing their own strategies as opposed to waiting for
direction from above.
Resistance
to Chey’s reforms was initially high. However, it abated as the reforms gained
traction and the company became more nimble. Now Chey is in the process of
implementing similar reforms on the boards of SK’s dozens of affiliate
companies.
|
|
|
 Business Roundtable
with
Hasung Jang
Dean
Korea University Business School
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
11:30 AM-12:00 PM ♦ Registration and Reception
12:00-2:00 PM ♦ Luncheon and Presentation
The Korea Society, 950 Third Avenue, Eighth Floor, New York City
(Building entrance on SW corner of Third Avenue and 57th Street)
Up until 1997, Korea’s economic miracle was kept on track by a cozy relationship between big business
and government; a relationship that brushed aside notions of good corporate governance. The
IMF crisis and its aftermath revealed the dire need for transparency and regulation. Since then, major
changes have been made in Korea’s corporate culture and Hasung Jang has been at the forefront of
them. He will address his work at the Korean Corporate Governance Fund, recent changes in Korean corporate governance and competitiveness pressures in the Korean economy.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
 November 2, 2006
Oh Jong Nam, who just finished his term as executive director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), says Korea is much better positioned in the global economy than when he began his tenure at the IMF. Strong exports and a dynamic tech sector have propelled South Korea into a four-way tie with India, Mexico and Russia as the world's tenth largest economy. Its new prominence has been recognized by the IMF, which recently reapportioned member-country voting rights to give Korea greater influence. Now, according to Oh, is the time for Korea to recognize its status and begin acting like a responsible global leader.
Since the end of the Korean War, economic policymakers in Seoul have labeled Korea a developing country. Decades ago it was an accurate description. War had shattered an already undeveloped economy. Almost half of the country's GDP came from the agricultural sector, with only a tiny fraction derived from exports. The South's economic output was smaller than the North's through the mid-1970s. As such, Korea was given typical developing-country treatment from the IMF. It received periodic infusions of economic aid from abroad, drew capital from foreign markets and sent students to the IMF's vocational training programs.
This relationship continued even as the country boomed in the 1980s, with Korea claiming special developing country exemptions in international trade agreements, and culminated in 1997 when an IMF loan saved Korea from economic calamity.
Korea has fully recovered from the 1997 crisis. Per capita GDP, which had dropped from $11,000 to $7,000 during the depths of the crisis, has rebounded to $16,000 today. Oh stated that Korea's relationship with the global economy and the IMF needs to change. Korea needs to start thinking and acting as a fully developed economy. Instead of receiving aid and technical training, it should be providing it to truly developing nations.
If Korea wants to be a major player, it has to start bearing the burdens of a major player, Oh said. If it does, the world will be better for it. If it leads, "Korea can be a bridge between advanced countries and developing countries," he added.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
| << Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
| | Results 13 - 16 of 40 |
|
|
|