Lee Myung-bak was elected the 17th President of Korea last December and this year was his first year as the President of Korea. From the beginning, he focused on the Korean economy and has been trying to fulfill his 747 promises.
2. Ministry of Information and Communication disappeared
In February of 2008, the Ministry of Information and Communication was dissolved along with the Ministry of Science and Technology. In their place the Ministry of Knowledge Economy was created, and some departments were integrated with the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, and the Korea Communications Commission.
3. OECD Ministerial Meeting & World IT Show
The OECD IT Ministerial Meeting was held from June 17 and 18, 2008 at COEX. At the same time, the World IT Show also took place on June 17~20 at COEX. For the OECD IT Ministerial Meeting, a number of the world's leading figures in the Internet and telecommunication industry gathered in Seoul to share their views. In addition, in the World IT Show, the biggest IT Show ever held in Korea, 520 IT companies and organizations from Korea and the rest of the world showed off their high-tech products and vision.
4. Mad Cow Disease drove Korean public mad
Using the Internet as a communication medium, special interest groups whipped the Korean population into a frenzy of fear against the nonexistent threat of Mad Cow Disease in American beef imports, causing the new presidential administration to pause in ratifying the Korea-US FTA and remove some cabinet members as an appeasement sacrifice.
5. Beijing 2008
This year, the Olympics were held in Beijing, China from August 8 to 24. China got the first ranking with 51 golden medals, and Korea ranked seventh with 13 golden medals.
6. 22 New Growth Engines
The Lee administration specified 22 New Growth Engines to be the most promising industries in Korea.
7. Low Carbon, Green Growth
The Lee administration suggested Low Carbon, Green Growth as the new paradigm of Korean national development. According to the plan, Korea will increase the rate of independent development by 18% during Lee's presidential term and fulfill the dream of becoming an energy-independent state by increasing the rate more than 50% by 2050.
8. IMID 2008
IMID 2008, KES 2008, and i-SEDEX 2008 were combined together in the Korea Electronics Grand Fair 2008. Low energy consumption displays were the hot topic at this new, bigger fair.
9. Robot World 2008
Robots actively participated this year in the opening ceremonies for their own show, conducting the ceremonies, passing out bouquets, and dancing to popular Korean pop songs.
10. GStar 2008
A resurgence in popularity of the GStar computer game show in Korea was helped by new management. Popular TV personalities and pop singers were present to lend a buzz of excitement to the show, which heavily featured online games this year
11. Financial crisis
Skyrocketing exchange rates deteriorated profitability of exports. Wall Street was shocked by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings and disposal of Merrill Lynch & Co.
12. The 1,000 Line
The 1,000 Line was destroyed in the Korean stock market due to the global financial crisis, and has yet to recover.
13. Oil prices soared
Oil prices dropped suddenly after reaching their peak, giving a small break to the population which is already struggling with financial problems.
(WTI : 7/11, $147 --> 11/18, $54)
14. 'Barack Obama Day' created
Barack Obama was elected US President and declared a Green New Deal Policy. Construction companies and telecoms companies were very interested after hearing about what many people rumored to be a 700 billion dollar stimulus package.
15. KIKO disaster
The KIKO disaster aggravated financial difficulty of SMEs in Korea. SMEs gambled on the won to dollar exchange rate staying low, but they lost.
