Fusion Manpower Fostering Center Operating Full Swing This Year

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy has designated Ulsan University and Ajou University as fusion manpower fostering centers for 2009 in the IT and automobiles and IT and shipbuilding sectors, respectively.

Each center will receive a maximum of 2.6 billion won in support funds from the state budget over the coming two to four years and produce a total of 40 fusion professionals annually.

Enterprises, universities and research centers will jointly develop IT fusion-related subjects and carry out projects proposed by companies related to automobiles and shipbuilding.

25 Public Institutions to Invest 57 Trillion Won in 2009

The nation's 25 major public institutions, including Korea Electric Power Corp. and Korea Expressway Corp., will invest 57 trillion won this year, up 9 trillion won from a year ago.

Nine financial public corporations will also supply liquidity amounting to 366 trillion won in 2009, an increase of 80 trillion won from 2008.

Heads of the 34 public institutions comprising 25 SOC and energy-related institutions and nine financial public corporations reported their 2009 business plans to President Lee Myung-bak on December 30.

The investment expansion is designed to activate the slumping economy at the earliest date possible and attract investment from the private sector in order to create more jobs.

By sector, SOC investment will increase from 34 trillion won in 2008 to 40.4 trillion won in 2009 and energy investment will expand from 12.1 trillion won to 14.7 trillion won.

Investment in agriculture and cultural sectors will increase from 1.7 trillion won to 2 trillion won. By institution, Korea National Housing Corp. will make the biggest amount of investment with 158 trillion won this year, followed by Korea Land Corp. with 126 trillion won, Korea Rail Network Authority with 60 trillion won and Korea Electric Power Corp. with 47 trillion won.

Meanwhile, heads of public corporations in the financial sector reported that they will accelerate enterprises' facility investment through pre-emptive liquidity supply and place focus on promoting enterprises' financial soundness.

Korea Development Bank will increase its liquidity supply from 27 trillion won in 2008 to 36 trillion won in 2009 and the Industrial Bank of Korea will expand from 27 trillion won to 36 trillion won. Korea Eximbank will hike from 40 trillion won to 47 trillion won and Korea Export Insurance Corp. will increase its support for export insurance from 130 trillion won to 170 trillion won.

Korea Development Bank and the Industrial Bank of Korea will supply liquidity amounting to 11 trillion won and 9 trillion won, respectively, to enterprises facing a financial pinch owing to the global financial crisis and economy slowdown.

The two state-run banks will also extend 1 trillion won to the green growth industry, 10.8 trillion won to the growth engine industry, 3.7 trillion won to the service industry and 7.5 trillion won to small and medium-sized companies for their facility investment.

In particular, Korea Development Bank will purchase 7 trillion won worth of corporate bonds and stocks of small and medium-sized companies in the capital market early this year to inject more funds into companies.

The Industrial Bank of Korea will provide 6 trillion won in loans to those operating small enterprises that cannot make access to bank loans. Korea Eximbank will spend 2.8 trillion won for growth industries seeking green growth and overseas resources development.

They will also inject a total of 10.2 trillion won to assist financial institutions that are on the verge of bankruptcy. For instance, Korea Development Bank will invest 2 trillion won in the bank capital expansion fund and Korea Asset Management Corp. will spend 2.6 trillion won for the purchase of bad credit.

At the same time, Korea Development Bank will invest 1 trillion won in the bond market stabilization fund to help the direct financial market recover its normal function at an earlier date.

Restructuring of Global Semiconductor Industry Threatens Korean Semiconductor Companies

Taiwanese and German governments are moving to extend financial support to their semiconductor companies, which are on the verge of bankruptcy owing to the global financial crisis.

Meanwhile, the possibility of a merger between latecomers in the global semiconductor industry such as Elpida of Japan and Powerchip of Taiwan is becoming more likely.

However, such foreign governmental support for global semiconductor companies and mergers between ailing international semiconductor makers could give a threat to Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor.

State Budget Spending for Informatization to be Front-loaded

The Ministry of Public Administration and Security said that it will front-load 182.5 billion won or 92 percent of the 2009 budget spending for informatization projects in the first half of the year.

It is designed to help the Korean economy tide over the current economic crisis as soon as possible by implementing such projects for e-government support, ubiquitous projects, expansion of protection of information, information resources, and new technology for informatization at an earlier date.

KOTRA to Select 10 IT-based Korea Business Centers

As part of its efforts to promote the nation's IT exports, KOTRA will designate 10 Korea Business Centers this year.

The establishment of the centers aimed at helping smaller IT companies facing difficulties in advancing into overseas markets owing to insufficient funds, shortage of ability to make access to overseas markets, and lack of overseas information, a KOTRA spokesman said.

Among strong candidate sites for the centers are New York in the US, San Paulo in Brazil, Mexico City in Mexico, London in England, Munich in Germany, New Delhi in India, Taiwan, and Singapore.

KOTRA plans to increase the number of Korea Business Centers to 20 on a gradual basis.

KMA to Place a 55 Billion Won Order for Construction of Supercomputer

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) plans to place a 55 billion won order for construction of a 200 teraFLOPS supercomputer in January.

The project is designed to build the third supercomputer, which will replace the second supercomputer with a current speed of 18.5 teraFLOPS now in operation, a KMA spokesman said.

KMA plans to select a successful supplier for the supercomputer construction project in March or April this year, he said.

Database-related Industry Likely to Face Worst Business in First Quarter

The database-related industry is expected to face the worst business ever in the first quarter of this year, Korea's Database Promotion Center said.

In its survey of 300 DB-related companies and 200 users on the DB business survey index (BSI), the center said that the prospect for BSI in the first quarter was 60. A BSI of less than 100 means that pessimists outnumber optimists regarding the DB business prospect.

The BSI result for the fourth quarter of 2008 was 50, much lower than its earlier forecast of 84. The center attributed the poor business results mainly to the recession of global business and worsened domestic consumption.

Samsung Electronics Should Turn Crisis into Opportunity

Samsung Electronics CEO Lee Yoon-woo said in his December address to Samsung officials that the company could turn the current crisis into opportunity for another take-off.

"By overcoming the crisis, Samsung will make new opportunities," Lee said.

He said that Samsung should use the crisis as an opportunity in a pre-emptive measure to clear crisis factors. In a group-wide effort, we should strengthen our crisis management system in this ongoing crisis.

"We need to go back to the basics in times of crisis. Samsung should revive internal capability that we had successfully finalized during the foreign currency crisis for survival in the mid-1990s. With a can-do spirit, we will create more chances by clearing crisis factors, again, amid the deepening credit crisis in the global economy," he said. Noting that Samsung successfully tided over the serious crisis during the Asian financial crisis and was reborn as the world's top-class electronics maker, Lee said: "Let's turn this crisis into golden opportunity for another take-off with strong confidence."

New Year of Customer-oriented Management

Tmax Soft held its opening ceremony for 2009 with 2,000 employees in the Grand Ballroom of COEX.

The biggest domestic software company, Tmax Soft (CEO Moon Jin-il, www.tmax.co.kr) held its opening ceremony on January 2.

In addition to the 2,000 employees were Moon Jin-il, the CEO, Bae Hak, the president general of overseas business, and Park Dae-yeon, the CTO. They all got together to give New Year's greetings, introduce new employees, and hand out awards to excellent employees from 2008.

CEO Moon declared his goal for 2009 to be "Customer oriented management, Management of earnings, Management of human resources." He will focus on customers and manage the company's reputation to influence its customers. In addition, he will focus on the company's profit and loss margins in 2009 to prepare for listing in NASDAQ in 2010.

Also, he emphasized that the core engine of the company is men of ability and encouraged all employees to make a cheerful social culture with trust and respect.

Furthermore, Bae-Hak, president-general of overseas business, said: "Last year, we started to enlarge the position of foreign sales. And this year, we will become a real global software company with those former achievements."