South Korea will need 730,000 more homes after unification

A recent news article has announced that South Korea will need 730,000 more homes after unification. This announcement was based on a discussion which was held at a forum on the future of the country’s housing that was hosted by the Korea Housing Association in May 2007. Most experts in this field has agreed to the fact that a large number of North Koreans are likely to move to the South in search of better economic and social opportunities after unification. This is something that we South Koreans should not neglect to focus on and prepare in advance. Not only about the house problem, but also there are lots of significant economic aspects that should be considered before and after the unification. So it is recommended that we study about the economic influence that unification will bring, and prepare for it.

Millions of people do think that unification in Korean peninsula is something that must be done. However, most of them don’t actually think about what it’s going to be after unification, and what we should do to actually bring the unification. It might be because both Koreans have lived so many years separately, and people actually don’t want any significant changes. However, whether or not we are prepared for it, the unification will come someday, and we’ll have to live after unification also. That is why we should prepare for it in advance.

Unification in Korean peninsula will absolutely bring a huge crisis to Korea’s economy. As we all know, South Korea’s economy scale and quality is definitely better than North Korea’s. The gap is so huge that it is even useless to compare. So whenever the unification takes place, the subject will be South Korea, leading the unification. And the form of unification will be South Korea absorbing and supporting North Korea. This is the problem. The gap between two countries is so huge that it will definitely bring severe crisis to South Korea’s economy. Back in the history, when Germans had unification between West-Germany and East-Germany, West-Germany’s economy scale absorbed East’s and West supported a lot. However, Germans had some hard time after the unification because the economic gap between two countries was so huge. And the thing is, the gap between South Korea and North Korea is huger than the gap between West and East-Germany. Also, South Korea’s economic power isn’t that strong, compared to West-Germany’s at that time. This really is a serious problem. Also, even if the unification had gone well and South Korea has passed the struggling time due to the economic crisis caused by the unification, there is another problem. The people from North Korea who came to South won’t be able to adapt themselves into capitalism and competitive society, and they won’t be competitive enough to survive. Also, their characteristics won’t be progressive enough to motivate themselves to learn new skills and new lifestyle. So concerning all these problems, the unification in Korean peninsula doesn’t seem to be so optimistic.

As we look deeply into the reality of unification in Korean peninsula, we realize that it is not definitely optimistic and hopeful. It will bring many side effects to Korean economy. However, even though, that doesn’t mean that we should avoid the unification. The unification in Korean peninsula is a must. No one can deny this. So what we should do is to prepare for the unification, not to face a chaos after it. The most effective way to do that is to interact with North Korea in economic ways. We should motivate them to change their attitude toward economy, and we should help them to develop their ability to survive. This is the ultimate way to not face the economic crisis after unification.


Reference : http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=108&oid=044&aid=0000067793

20700273 Entry 14

LG's music phone in China

          LG is pusing heavily on its music phone in China whereas they put a greater effort to promote their touch-screen phone in developed countries. The company stated that they would launch two new phones specialized in playing MP3 and distribute those models in countries like China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazile, and Chile.

          The main reason why they are targeting China is that as the country gets developed and have more income annually, they would replace the low-end mobile device and purchase more high-tech goods with more advanced techonology. According to one research, LG already had shipped more than 23.6 million handsets in the first quarter of 2008 to China, compared to 16 million in the same period last year.

          As LG gains more of its popularity in those emerging countries, they are also planning to promote those touch-screen phones called "View." However, some experts advises that LG should remember even though the touch-screen phones are attractive, they do not appeal to everyone in the market; some people just want to have a cellphone that can simply dial and answer the calls.

          I still remember the time when Samsung first introduced its multimedia oriented cell phone to the market and instantly became the hit. When one of my friends started to carry the phone, everyone were almost immediately attracted by it and wanted to buy one for themselves. I think developing countries like China and India are now experiencing the same thing; younger generations are widening their eyes to more various materials and want to have a taste on many new technologies. However, I hope LG would never forget what they had planned for the first time and will keep its good work until it seizes its reputation in those developing countries.

Reference;

Cho, Jin-seo. "LG Bets Heavily on Music Phones in China" KoreaTimes. 2008/06/04

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/06/123_25323.html

20601008 - 13th Entry

Apple's expansion to all of the world

I read an article about Apple's new product, iPhone 2.0. When Apple first developed iPhone, their market was only America. But now they expanded their market to Europe. It's a marvelous advancement! Actually, before iPhone, Apple was a failed company. iPhone 2.0 will have many functions that include network, e-mail, memo...etc. And the new product will be sold in 64 countries. Apple's market region was just 6 countries. And most of their products are sold in America. Now they will challenge to the global market. In wireless phone market, the biggest company is Blackberry. The company occupy about 44% of US market. And Apple's iphone occupy about 19%. If the innovation will be successful, Apple can defeat Blackberry and can be the best wireless phone company.

Actually, iPhone is the best product in the history of Apple. Analysts say Apple can sell about 40 million iphone by the end of 2009. It is humongous amount! If the prediction will achieve, Apple can be a leading company in wireless phone market. But yet Apple is not a international company. There are many opstacles they have to overcome to be a global company. Actually, their product portpolio and financials are excessively dependent on US market. There are already Europe's 5 countries, but Apple is not well in Europe. European think iphone has too many functions to use. They often pursue a product that is convenient to use. I think Apple has to consider these tendencies if they want to expand business in Europe.

Apple also considers China market. They think China is a big market and it can replace the US. Now Apple try to appeal chinese with many products that follow chineses' tendencies. Apple now considers many alternatives to penetrate international market. They learned many things in US market, and now made contractions with two wireless carrier companies in each country. Actually, in US, they just employed only one carrier company. And they realized that if they do things like in US, they will fail in the market.

Then what's the characters of China market's products? China is a country that embrace humongous populations. They already employed Chinese carrier company and ready to introduce iphone. I think if Apple wants to successful in China, they have to employ many chinese. Because, in China, there are many characters that are different those of US. I think Apple and korean companies have in common. Korean companies are now expanding to the world. They developed many first class technologies. Through these technologies, korean wants to dominate global market. In some regions, korean companies already dominate the market. But if we fail in the competition, Korea can be bankrupt and something like IMF will overwhelm Korea's economy. A dice is already casted away. It's the time that starts limitless competition era.

Author: Arik Hesseldahl and Jennifer L. Schenker

Title: iPhone 2.0 Takes on the World

Date: June 6, 2008, 12:01AM EST

Page: 2

reference: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2008/tc2008065_290813.htm

entry # 13 20700067

Koreans Spend Billions of Dollars on Studying Abroad

A recent news article has announced the fact that Koreans are spending billions of dollars on studying abroad. This doesn’t sound unfamiliar because we already know that lots of people are outside of Korea, studying abroad. We might even have one or few of our family members who are studying abroad. In this situation, a concrete study about the utility of studying abroad is needed. ‘What is the ultimate goal of going out?’, ‘What can we do to make it more effective?’ are some subjects that should be specified.

When talking about studying abroad, how many people are going out and how much money is being spent is important. These figures help us know approximately about what is going on. However, the essence is, ‘why.’ Why do people go out? Why do people spend billions of money on studying abroad? Well, this is quite simple. Most Koreans who go to English speaking countries – USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc. – have a common goal. They go to these countries to study English more deeply, develop their English skills, and to experience high-quality education. More frankly, they do think that these advantages will bring success to them. So, whatever the reason is, most people who are studying abroad do believe that their time & efforts will enable them to make lots of money and earn fame. Then we start to wonder, “Is going out for studying abroad is the only way to make them happen?” “Isn’t there any other way except studying abroad?”

Studying abroad has some side effects. Students who don’t actually study eagerly and don’t try to make the best of their time in the specific foreign country, might end up with nothing. However, with lots of efforts to make their future more successful, students do have a chance to make their lives more valuable while they are studying abroad. This is why many people are willing to go out and study abroad. However, it costs lots of money. It really does cost enormous money that normal people can’t even think about going out. So, it is recommended that people find more effective and cheaper way.

There are some ways that people can get what they want more effectively and cheaply. For example, studying in Handong can be an alternative. With relatively cheaper tuition fee, Handong can offer high-quality education, and people in Handong have plenty of opportunities to enhance their English ability. Second, studying hard and applying for scholarship in foreign universities can be another way. Why can’t we achieve scholarship? It is our responsibility to do our best while we’re studying abroad. If we do, we will be able to get scholarship. Third, it might be a good idea to go out and study abroad when the exchange rate between Dollar and Won is relatively low. If one dollar worth below 1,000 Won, it is a good chance.

We are living in a global age. Visiting foreign countries and studying abroad are inevitable. However, thoughtless and blind visit to other nations is something that we must not do. As we all know, studying is about making money in the future. When it comes to studying abroad, it becomes more evident. We don’t spend our time and money in other nations just for fun. We think of making lots of money, earning fame, and eventually making our lives more successful. So the best way is, studying hard. No matter how expensive and how hard it is, we do have to study hard and make the best use of it. We should keep in mind that studying is also a part of business, making money.



Reference : http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSOD&mid=sec&sid1=108&oid=040&aid=0000052734


20700273 Entry 13

Hynix to Raise DRAM prices by 15% in June

The world’s #2 memory-implemented chip maker, Hynix Semiconductor said that it will hike contract prices for computer memory chips by about 15 percent in June. They will raise prices by about 15 percent this month, a similar level seen in May and April. Also, they are talking to bigger clients about narrowing the differentiation on a percentage increase level and the final decision will be fixed by the second week of the month. Chip manufacturers usually negotiate their prices with PC set makers twice a month.

Kwon Oh-hyun, CEO of the world’s biggest memory chipmaker said that his company will be more aggressive spending 7 trillion won on the memory business this year. Samsung took up to 30 percent of the global DRAM share in terms of sales in the first three months. Hynix trailed up to 18.6 percent and Japan’s Elpida with 14.5 percent over the same period. This is according to data from iSuppli. However, bigger chip manufacturers are busy raising their contract chip prices in the belief that prices will recover due to investment spending cutbacks and increased demand in the future of new school year and the year-end shopping season.

A Hynix official said that this year’s recovery my not be as quick as in previous years because the global chip industry should be in a demand and supply balance by the third or fourth quarter. While Samsung has raised chip prices by 5 percent in early Many and was known to implement a similar measure in June. Elpida plans to raise more money to its customers for more profitability. The Asia’s biggest on-line trading site DRAMeXchange, gave an average contract price of the industry’s mainstream 512-megabit double-data-rate-two chip rose 6.6 percent.

Chipmakers had invested heavily in new facilities in 2005 and 2006. They are hoping to gain more market share with higher expectation of Microsoft’s Window Vista operating system. However, higher speculations about technical flaws in the system forced PC makers to avoid releasing such sets with the new computing system. From this, chip prices have fallen almost 90 percent since 2007. This dragged down the profitability of chipmakers to below manufacturing costs. Because of this dilemma, Hynix is attempting to solidify a strategic partnership with Taiwanese chip manufacturers to a bid to cut costs. Recently, the government gave approval to transfer its distinguished memory chip processing technology to Taiwan’s ProMOS technology. From this approval, ProMos will start using the 54-nanometer technology owned by Hynix on a foundry basis to make 12-inch chips by late 2008. Samsung and Hynix had been in this “verbal fights” that saying Hynix is leaking technology to its competitors.

Personal Opinion

The way Hynix shared their technology to a Taiwanese company was a hug mistake they have made. I understand why they reacted in such way but sharing information and technology to other country is dangerous and can be a threat in the future. The reason is that there are many cases of sharing technology that ended up defeated by other rivals. This is how Asian companies grew from the influence of western technology. I would prefer to share it with domestic firms instead of firms outside country. Even though Hynix’s greatest competitor is Samsung, they should have figured out different strategy increase their profit.

http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2008/06/123_25086.html

20620042 entry # 13