MIC news Korea's mobile phone manufacturers are confident that they can recuperate their sales that fell short of expectations in the first half of this year. At a CEO meeting presided by Rho Jun-hyung, minister of information and communication, on July 27, corporate leaders in the manufacturing business said that mobile phone sales in the second half of this year will increase, helped by the appearance of various new models and a seasonal rise in the demand. Pointing out that the drop in mobile phone sales during the first half of this year was a temporary aberration due in large part to the appreciation of the Korean won, industry leaders at the meeting pledged to make new advances through the realigning of assembly lines, doubling of marketing efforts, and the showing of resilience in a changing environment in addition to the display of multi-functional luxury phones. Stressing that "a company's internal competitive strength is more important than how much market share a company holds," Lee Ki-tae, president of Samsung Electronics, who took part in the meeting said, "One or two percent drop in our market share is nothing of a concern to us. Rather, we are investing more in such fields as the mobile Internet service WiBro and HSDPA to prepare for the future." Minister Rho, in the meantime, added that the government plans to build a mobile field test bed in cooperation with mobile phone manufacturers for its joint use by both large and small firms in the business. When the construction of the special mobile zone is completed, the ministry added, all kinds of mobile phones in the world can be tested at home with the effect of saving about 20 billion won annually. The basic outline of the plan is scheduled to be unveiled sometime this month.