Will shell-shocked Japanese head to Busan?

2013-09-11 16:53

Will shell-shocked Japanese head to Busan?

By Kim Young-jin, Baek Byung-yeul
BUSAN – Not long after the earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 devastated Japan’s eastern coast, local media speculated that jitters could prompt Japanese to flock to Korea’s second-largest metropolis.
While the southeastern port city ㅡ close enough to Japan’s Fukuoka to reach by ferry ㅡ has not seen such a boom, plans are underway to capitalize on a growing number of Japanese wanting to stay overseas for extended periods. Read more of this post

South Korea’s conglomerates are turning their attention to “skills” that prove effective on the ground from “qualifications” such as GPA, prestige of universities, as criteria for recruitment

30 conglomerates shift focus from “qualifications” to “skills” for recruitment

Lee Han-na, Seo Dong-chul, Jang Jae-woong

South Korea’s conglomerates are turning their attention to “skills” that prove effective on the ground from “qualifications” such as GPA, prestige of universities, as criteria for recruitment.  Top 30 conglomerates have already radically transformed their recruitment systems. Lotte Group, Daewoo E&C, Woori Bank, CJ Foodville, SeAH Steel, Hanwha S&C, LS Networks, KT Skylife, SKC Solmics, NHN and Orion have initiated such innovative transition in recruitment, said the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Wednesday. The transition is a phenomenon found in not only top 10 conglomerates but also mid-sized conglomerates across the industries, including manufacturing, service, IT and finance and construction. In these circumstances, other large companies are showing signs of putting the skill-based approach on the forefront. Samsung Group has eliminated the step of screening out candidates by assessing their resumes and other paper applications during the recruitment process. Hyundai Motor Group has taken to streets to look for prospective employees. The MOEL plans to require 210 corporations to adopt “key job competency assessment model” by next year to help them properly evaluate candidates’ job performance capacity. The model is expected to become the standard “manual” for facilitating skill-based recruitment to take root. “Meister” high schools, which were established to foster students’ working-level competency needed on the ground, have grown in line with this trend. 2,630 companies have signed academic-industrial partnerships with 35 meister high schools nationwide as of late June, according to the Ministry of Education.

With Japan’s help, an ex-soldier leads Yangon from backwater to megacity

With Japan’s help, an ex-soldier leads Yangon from backwater to megacity

Tue, Sep 10 2013

By Andrew R.C. Marshall

YANGON (Reuters) – Every evening, long after Yangon’s office workers have squeezed onto packed buses for grueling commutes to the suburbs, a single room remains lit up on the top floor of City Hall. Inside sits Toe Aung, a former army major who almost by accident bears one of the biggest responsibilities in reform-era Myanmar: planning Yangon’s unstoppable transformation from a regional backwater into Southeast Asia’s next megacity. As deputy head of urban planning, a department which didn’t exist until he set it up in 2011, Toe Aung’s task is unenviable. With its power shortages, floods, traffic jams, pollution and slums, Yangon is a moldering testament to nearly half a century of economic stagnation under military dictatorship.

Read more of this post

Short-Selling Bans Tested in U.K. Turf War Over EU Powers

Short-Selling Bans Tested in U.K. Turf War Over EU Powers

The U.K.’s bid to overturn a European Union agency’s power to ban short selling faces a test tomorrow when an EU judge gives his view on part of Britain’s turf war with the bloc’s financial regulators. An adviser to the EU Court of Justice will issue a non-binding opinion on whether the European Securities and Markets Authority’s decision-making ability goes beyond limits allowed under the bloc’s treaties. Read more of this post

Fund managers ‘will be replaced by computers’; Standard Life Investments, the global investment manager, has proposed that there will soon be no need for fund managers

Fund managers ‘will be replaced by computers’

Standard Life Investments, the global investment manager, has proposed that there will soon be no need for fund managers. Man has to deal with ‘fear and greed, intellectual constraint and fatigue’, whereas a machine is ‘agnostic, tireless’ and has ‘no bias’ in decision making, says Standard Life Photo: Alamy

By Gabrielle Putter

6:37PM BST 11 Sep 2013

In a report published this month by the investment firm, they argue that long-term strategy fund managers could soon be replaced by machines. “Using artificial intelligence applications have enhanced our understanding and analysis of financial market behaviour, adding to the range of predictive tools,” the investment firm says. While the firm is aware that, traditionally, “investment approaches generally contain both qualitative and quantitative elements”, which means that “in broad terms human thinking may be better suited to the qualitative side while computers are used to varying extents to add value to quantitative inputs”. This looks like it could change. Read more of this post

Wenzhou, China’s “City of Entrepreneurs”, facing unprecedented financial challenges; “Many entrepreneurs in Wenzhou are now counting their business career in terms of hours”

Wenzhou facing unprecedented financial challenges

Staff Reporter

2013-09-11

A series of issues including the collapse of the realty market and a disruption in the loan guarantee chain has pushed many enterprises in Wenzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province to the brink of bankruptcy. “Many entrepreneurs in Wenzhou are now counting their business career in terms of hours,” remarked Chen Dongqing, owner of a local home appliances retailer. In the city’s Leqing district, 15 mutual guarantee institutions, each consisting of 10 or even scores of enterprises, are reportedly on the verge of collapse due to the dire financial straits of their members. Read more of this post

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the foundations of a growth rebound aren’t solid while cautioning that stimulus won’t help resolve deep-rooted issues in the world’s second-largest economy

Li Says China Rebound Not Yet on Solid Foundation

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the foundations of a growth rebound aren’t solid while cautioning that stimulus won’t help resolve deep-rooted issues in the world’s second-largest economy. “The foundation of an economic recovery is not solid yet with many uncertain factors,” Li said in a speech today at the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China. The nation is taking steps to stabilize growth and can achieve the main economic targets this year, Li said. Read more of this post

The Complete History Of The Financial Crisis In One Chart

CHART OF THE DAY: The Complete History Of The Financial Crisis In One Chart

SAM RO 58 MINUTES AGO 947

Five years ago, the The U.S. economy got slammed by the financial crisis. “In the span of a few weeks, many of our nation’s largest financial institutions failed or were forced to merge to avoid insolvency,” wrote the Treasury Department’s Anthony Reyes. “Capital markets — essential for helping families and businesses meet their everyday financing needs — were freezing up, dramatically reducing the availability of credit, such as student, auto, and small business loans.” The Treasury Department just published a presentation looking back at the financial crisis and the progress since then. It included this annotated chart of the S&P 500 and consumer sentiment during the period.

Groupon India Onion Deal So Popular It Crashes Site

Groupon India Onion Deal So Popular It Crashes Site

The Huffington Post  |  By Amanda Scherker Posted: 09/10/2013 12:09 pm EDT  |  Updated: 09/11/2013 8:09 am EDT

Groupon India is offering an unusual deal on cheap onions, and the sale has turned out to be as chaotic as designer-label Black Friday shopping. The weeklong bargain began Sept. 5, and offers 1 kilogram of onions at 9 rupees (about $0.14) for 3,000 buyers each day. The signature whimsical Groupon ad reads thus:

People haven’t experienced onions in a long, long time. That sweet, pungent aroma of onions being sautéed to a nice golden brown before being added to your mum’s signature curry is no longer familiar. This much-coveted, much-written-about, much-craved-for vegetable is now almost as expensive as caviar, diamonds and Donald Trump’s wig! Men are scrambling to the market to pick the perfect onion ring to please their ladies.

Groupon had no idea how right that ad was. It took only 44 minutes to sell the first 3,000 kilograms of onions, and the sudden traffic spike subsequently crashed Groupon’s Indian site, according to Al Jazeera America. Read more of this post

Greece May Need Two More Aid Packages Says ECB’s Coene

September 11, 2013, 3:40 a.m. ET

Greece May Need Two More Aid Packages Says ECB’s Coene

Comments Add to Rhetoric Building the Case for More Aid to Greece

LAURENCE NORMAN

BRUSSELS—Greece’s official lenders could need to step in twice more to help the country as it very slowly recovers from its economic crisis, Luc Coene, the president of Belgium’s National Bank, said in a radio interview Wednesday morning. Asked whether Greece’s euro zone partners will need to prepare a third aid package for Greece, Mr. Coene, who is also a European Central Bank Governing Council member, said there will need to be at least one more package of support. Read more of this post