Local paper headlines August 31

1. Chosun Ilbo

- Korean Teachers and Educational Worker’s Union decided in its regular meeting to take a collective holiday the end of October in protest against teacher evaluation, incentive differentiation, and Korea-US FTA.

- According to Vision 2030, the government will pour W1100 trillion into social welfare system by 2030 to raise welfare spending to 40 per cent of national budget, up from the current 25.2 per cent. The project aims at tripling GDP, ranking 10th in the world in terms of national competitiveness and life quality by the year.

- The prosecution arrested Kim Min-seok, the chairman of Korea Computer Game Industrial Association, on charges of bribing government officials for business favors on behalf of the gaming industry and receiving kickbacks from game developers.

2. Maeil Business Daily

- Roh Moo-hyun said of Vision 2030, “it is a comprehensive national management strategy report including not only about welfare system but also about technology innovation, human resources development, aggressive globalization, and social capital expansion.” “I want the report to provide discussion subject to the public for a new national management paradigm.”

- Samsung Electronics will unveil its 4G mobile technology for the first time in the world. With the technology, users can download a movie just for 3-4 seconds. The company expects it can commercialize the technology by 2010.

- Federation of Korean Trade Unions walked out of ILO meeting currently taken place in Pusan, saying “while a roadmap for better relations between company and labor union is being discussed, Labor Minister unilaterally revealed part of the discussion.”

- Ssangyoung finally stoke a deal with its labor union and the company plants will be up and running again from tomorrow.

- Korea is expected to have more voting shares in the international monetary fund (IMF) from current 0.77 per cent to 1.35 per cent, making the country have bigger say in running the organization.