Office of Commercial Affairs,
Royal Thai Embassy in Korea
- New procedures will assure consumers that foreign products are safe to eat
Date: December 21, 2010
Source: JoongAng Daily
An official from the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries checks identification labels yesterday that will be attached to all imported beef as part of the government’s tracking system as he visits a discount store in Seongsu-dong, central Seoul. [YONHAP]
Beef importers will be required to list detailed information starting today about their products - including country of origin and packaging date - to benefit consumers, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said yesterday.
The ministry said it will introduce a tracking system for all imported beef sold in Korea that will include a barcode-based identification label. “Imported beef without an identification label will be barred from being distributed in the domestic market,” Lee Sang-soo, head of the ministry’s animal quarantine division, said yesterday.
“The mandatory system will allow the government to manage and control the retail records of imported beef in a systematic and transparent manner, which will ensure that consumers have access to safe and clean imported beef and will speed up product recalls.” Currently, all providers of hanwoo, or Korean beef, must abide by the tracking system and provide information about the beef they supply, but the system had operated on only a voluntary basis for suppliers of imported beef.
Under the new rules, all beef importers, meat processing dealers with more than five employees and meat retailers with sales counters larger than 300 square meters (3,229 square feet) will be obliged to abide by the system and provide identification numbers for meat they import to the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service.
According to the ministry, consumers will be able to receive information - including country of origin, expiration date, butchery date and name of exporters and importers - about the beef they purchase at www.meatwatch.go.kr or via mobile phone. “The new system will help the government track down records should there be controversial issues regarding food safety in restaurants, butcher shops and retailers,” the official said.
Korea currently imports beef from Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Mexico. Imports of Canadian beef have been banned since 2003, when a case of mad cow disease was found in Canada. Despite negotiations between the two countries in October on the lifting of the ban, they have not been able to reach a compromise.
Date: December 22, 2010
Source: Mail Economic Newspaper
MIKT is the new BRICs. Jim O'Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and creator in 2003 of the term BRIC economies, referring to Brazil, Russia, India and China, now says he sees the rise of the MIKT economies, referring to Mexico, Indonesia, Korea and Turkey.
O'Neill said he was adding these four countries to his list of growth economies that could prosper despite whatever happens in advanced countries. O'Neill has already included Korea's economic potential in his list of the "Next Eleven," a class of countries that are forecast to emerge as the new axis of the global economy.
Investors have injected a great amount of money into BRICs since 2007, when investment in emerging markets was booming. However, local investors have been withdrawing funds amounting to around 3 trillion won ($2.6 billion) from the BRICs this year.
However, market analysts believe that BRICs will regain growth momentum among investors next year and MIKT countries will also benefit from increased investment.
"These four countries are the ones that have shown a robust performance in the stock market this year and their economic fundamentals are considered strong," said Kwak Byung-ryul, an investment strategist at Eugene Investment & Securities.
"However, I am not sure whether they will outpace the BRICs. I feel like those new growth economies are junior versions of the big economies.
For example, Korea is a little China and Mexico is a small version of the U.S.," he explained. Meanwhile, O'Neill predicted next year will become the "Year of the USA" with a possible rise of 20 percent in the stock market because of improving growth and falling unemployment.
And if the U.S. economy is normalized next year as forecast, it will eventually boost the Korean economy as well as the domestic stock market, analysts explained. "One of the major reasons that the local stock market is able to maintain an uptrend is the rapid recovery of the U.S. economy," said Lee Jae-man, an equity analyst with Tong Yang Securities.
Date: December 23, 2010
Source: Hankyung Economy
A government research institute yesterday submitted new plans for the west coast’s Saemangeum reclaimed land project to revive its economic prospects. The Saemangeum project, which began in 1991, was meant to provide new farm land principally for growing rice, but its original intent was made obsolete since Korea is now suffering from a rice surplus.
Several proposals have since been made for finding new uses for Saemangeum to avoid it becoming a “white elephant” project. The state-run Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements yesterday proposed that the reclaimed zone should include an industrial complex, a tourist zone and residential and commercial areas.
The plan was based on discussions with the North Jeolla government and various ministries including the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
The government is expected to finalize the plan based on the results of hearings in January. The Saemangeum area covers 401 square kilometers (99,089 acres), which is about two thirds the size of Seoul. The research institute said the potential value of Saemangeum was connected to its geographical proximity to China.
Nineteen major cities in Northeast Asia are within two hours flying time of the zone and the government wants to turn the area into an international business and tourism hub.
According to the plan, the Saemangeum area, which stretches from Gyeonggi through South Chungcheong to North Jeolla, will consist of three industrial corridors.
The main industrial axis will consist of international business and tourism areas. An area focused on forging links across the Yellow Sea will include a new harbor, and another industrial area will be devoted to renewable energy and science research.
A multipurpose city named Ariul will be built in the middle of the reclaimed zone. The Saemangeum area is expected to accommodate 730,000 residents. The new harbor is expected to be constructed by 2020.
Date: December 24, 2010
Source: Yonhap News
Korea had hoped to build on the success of its achievement in signing a deal a year ago to sell four nuclear reactors to the United Arab Emirates, but so far it has failed to reach that goal. The $20 billion deal with the U.A.E. represented the emergence of Korea as the world’s fifth nuclear reactor exporter, along with the U.S., Japan, France and Russia.
Officials at the time talked about new orders that would come Korea’s way soon. “After Korea won the U.A.E. nuclear construction project, hopes were high that the country would win more overseas orders, with Turkey mentioned as the most likely,” said an official from the Ministry of Knowledge Economy.
Other countries, including South Africa, Malaysia, Lithuania and Argentina, were also mentioned as possible buyers.
Officials predicted that Turkey would sign a $20 billion deal with Korea during last month’s G-20 Summit in Seoul to build four nuclear plants at Sinop on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
But that deal failed to materialize despite the fact that negotiations had been taking place since March when Korea Electric Power Corporation and Turkey’s state-run power company Elektrik Uretim signed a preliminary agreement.
The talks broke down due to an impasse on Korea’s ability to recoup initial investment costs for the project, which would have involved the supply of Korea’s APR-1400 reactor model, the same one that was sold to the U.A.E. The two countries disagreed over the price of electricity that would be supplied by the reactors in Turkey.
The electricity price rates were important because they would have been the main source of Korean companies recovering their initial investments in the project. After the deal’s collapse, Turkey began talks with Japan’s Toshiba Corp., which has been eyeing the project after failing to win the U.A.E. bid last year.
But Choi Kyung-hwan, the Minister of Knowledge Economy, said yesterday that the “Turkish deal with Korea is not totally off” and that “it wouldn’t be easy for Japan to have proposed Turkey a better deal than what Korea proposed.” He added that “since the project is the biggest in Turkey’s history, it is natural for Turkey to be considering various options.”
Korea could still participate in bidding for a nuclear order from South Africa that is expected next year, while Malaysia may seek nuclear power bids in 2012 or 2013. But Korea has suffered several other setbacks in its quest for orders.
It decided not to participate in a bid in Lithuania because of complicated issues surrounding the prospective construction site that would have increased the costs. A planned nuclear project with Jordan also failed to bear fruit.
The recent setbacks underscore that Korea suffers from a disadvantage in offering attractive financial terms in winning orders. “In the case of the U.A.E., it has a lot of oil money so it is less concerned about the final pricing for building new power plants,” said a ministry official.
“For other countries seeking to build power plants like Turkey, however, they want to negotiate the pricing as low as possible, which burdens Korea in terms of financing. Competition in the nuclear power industry will also become fiercer in the future as more countries see nuclear plants as being energy efficient.”
Date: December 26, 2010
Source: JoongAng Daily
Korea has agreed to cooperate with Myanmar to develop resources such as oil and rare earth minerals as it seeks to secure stable supplies of resources, the country’s energy ministry said Sunday.
According to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on conducting a geological study on resource development.
Currently, Korean trading firm Daewoo International Corp. is developing gas fields off the coast of Myanmar. Korea, heavily dependent on energy and resource imports, is seeking to raise its self-sufficiency of key natural resources such as copper.
The country also said earlier it would raise stocks of copper, tin and lithium in 2011 in anticipation of strong demand fueled by economic growth in China.
- Cold weather makes disinfectants ineffective because they freeze up
Date: December 26, 2010
Source: Yonhap News
A health-authority official vaccinates cattle against foot-and-mouth disease at a farm in Andong, North Gyeongsang yesterday. The government began the vaccinations Saturday, but the epizootic spread further around the country. [Photo above]
The Grand National Party is pushing for integration of inspections and a single government body to oversee the deadly foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) after two additional outbreaks of FMD at pig and cattle farms were confirmed by health authorities yesterday.
“Currently, quarantine operations are divided among three government offices - the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service, the National Plant Quarantine Service and the National Fisheries Products Quality Inspection Service - but they need to be integrated,” said Chung Woon-chun, a former agriculture minister who now heads the GNP’s special committee for counteracting FMD.
“The GNP will come up with measures to effectively contain the disease,” he said. “And it will also encourage the public’s consumption of beef and pork because an outbreak of FMD doesn’t affect food safety.” The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said yesterday a pig farm with 2,100 pigs in Yeoju County, Gyeonggi tested positive for the disease.
All animals on the farm and within a 500-meter (0.31-mile) radius were slaughtered to prevent the disease from spreading. Of 140 cows raised at a cattle farm in the same county, two tested positive as of yesterday afternoon and are also slated to be culled, according to the ministry.
In addition to the Yeoju farm, the ministry received a report of a suspected FMD case at a farm with 5,000 pigs in Icheon, Gyeonggi, raising concerns among health officials and area residents.
Despite the government’s efforts to eliminate the disease by vaccinating cloven-hoofed animals beginning Saturday, health officials are facing another obstacle: disinfectants have been freezing in the recent cold spell and can’t be sprayed to help prevent the spread of FMD.
The Korean government had refrained from using the vaccine because doing so would make it more difficult for Korea to regain its FMD-free status, which is necessary for exports. Since the outbreak of the disease on Nov. 29 in North Gyeongsang, it has spread to Gyeonggi, Gangwon and Incheon.
There have been 51 infections reported and more than 325,000 livestock have been ordered to be culled. The Agriculture Ministry estimated losses related to the disease at around 400 billion ($347 million).
The worsening situation is forcing local governments to cancel or suspend their long-prepared celebrations for the first sunrise of 2011, an annual event held by many communities in Korea. North Gyeongsang, which has lost the most livestock from FMD, decided to cancel all such events.
Some events that have been canceled include the Yeongdeok Sunrise Festival, organized by the Yeongdeok County Office, and a bell ringing ceremony to mark the new year, organized by the North Gyeongsang Provincial Government.
Cheongwon County in North Chungcheong decided to cancel its year-end concert and will offer refunds on purchased concert tickets, officials there said. President Lee Myung-bak yesterday ordered winter gloves, earmuffs and other winter-protection clothes to be given to farmers and government officials combating the disease after he was briefed by his Presidential Chief of Staff Yim Tae-hee about current FMD countermeasures.
Source : http://www.depthai.go.th