Wow, I’m surprised that I remember how to login to my blog, of late. Thought that I’d pop in to give an update on the busy offline side of my life, as written by some chaps at Korea Herald:
Expats in Daegu have something new to slip into their pocket, thanks to the publishers of Daegu Pockets. The recently launched bilingual magazine aims to provide the long-underserved expat community in Korea’s fourth-largest city.
“The expat community in Daegu is so splintered here, we wanted to bring people together and we hope to do that with the magazine,” Daegu Pockets’ managing editor Craig White told Expat Living.
White, a seven-year veteran of Korea, said the full-color magazine’s unusual name came from its size.
“It’s a pocket magazine, we wanted it to fit into people’s pocket.”
The magazine, first published in February, came about largely because of White’s involvement with www.galbijim.com. The Galbijim website uses technology similar to Wikipedia, but is devoted to information regarding Korea. White noticed Daegu was among the places disproportionately represented on the site.
“I always wanted to have an offline presence to compliment the online presence of Galbijim,” White said.
White said he was inspired by the Fukuoka Now publication in Japan regarding what kind of content Daegu Pockets would have.
Eventually, White decided to join forces with Korean-American Scott McLaughlin who started the company BCE last year to organize events such as art shows, basketball tournaments, and concerts for Daegu’s Korean and expat communities.
“It sounded fun,” McLaughlin said, regarding why he got involved. “But more importantly, Daegu has been without a bilingual magazine for the four years I have lived here, so I wanted to be part of the first Daegu magazine that I’ve seen that filled this void.”
Currently, the only connection between Galbijim and Daegu Pockets is cross-promotion. Daegu Pockets also uses maps from Galbijim.
Daegu Pockets usually has a circulation of about 1,000, but because of additional funding by the local government, the circulation has been bumped up to 4,000 and should remain so for the rest of the summer, White said. Pages in the publication usually range between 44 and 64. White said four people are on staff, while an extensive support cast volunteers, translates, proof reads and does event co-ordination.
The publication’s continued growth has been helped by the support of the local government, White said.
He said the content of the magazine continues to evolve, with Daegu Pockets including more newspaper-like content in this month’s issue.
White says the magazine is bilingual in order to bridge the gap between the Korean and expat communities in Daegu. Daegu Pockets wants to be helpful to everyone living in the city. “We always look for the story within the story, so a Korean will say, ‘Hey, I didn’t know that!’” White said.
The future for the magazine looks bright, with White and McLaughlin hoping one day to up the circulation to 10,000 and expand into other under-served markets around Korea.
“The long-term plan is to figure out how to make the publication successful in Daegu and use that as a template for other cities around Korea,” White said.
White expects Daegu Pockets to be a long-term publication that will continue to serve both the expat and Korean community in the city for years to come.
“I can see us doing this indefinitely, as long as we’re having fun. We want to see how big we can get, we want to see how many lives we can change.”
Mike Conery, an American expat from Seattle who’s been in Korea for about two years, said he likes Daegu Pockets because it is a good resource for both Koreans and expats alike.
“My favorite part of the magazine is that it is really easy to carry around. It’s not too big. It is also designed in a way that is appealing to both foreigners and Koreans,” Conery said. “It has information, and easy to find locations about many businesses and restaurants that I have not been able to find in the past. I also think that the magazine is really colorful and fun to look at.”
Conery added that he expects great things from the publication in the future.
“I think that as Daegu grows and as the magazine continues to grow, it will become an excellent resource for expats and Koreans alike,” he said.
By Shelton Bumgarner
Daegu broke ground on the EXCO expansion today, which will essentially double the size of the existing convention facility. More convention rooms, meeting rooms, and a parkade will be added, which is expected to be wrapped up before the World Championships are held in the summer of 2011. Adjacent to EXCO is Interburgo Hotel’s latest addition to their regional family of hotels. In a few week’s time, Interburgo EXCO will open and be connected to EXCO via underground pedestrian walkways.
Source: Joongang Ilbo
Lee Jung-hwan became chairman and chief executive of Korea Exchange in March, just in time to preside over the steepest decline in South Korean stock prices this decade. Since January 2005, when the Korea Stock Exchange, the Korea Futures Exchange and the Kosdaq Market were combined, Korea Exchange has been the common-platform operator of the nation’s trading in stocks, bonds and financial derivatives and ranks itself as Asia’s seventh-largest bourse by market capitalization and the world’s second-largest derivatives market by number of trades.
Twice in the 1990s, South Korea’s markets experienced protracted downturns that erased three-quarters of shareholder value. But in recent years, volatility decreased and the Korean market entered a more mature phase, as South Koreans themselves took a longer-term approach to investing. Even so, this year South Korea’s benchmark Kospi index is down 44%, reflecting the world-wide equities selloff.
In September, London-based market evaluator FTSE Group said it would lift the South Korean exchange to developed-market status next year. That action is likely to be matched by MSCI Barra, a New York-based provider of support tools to investment institutions that is majority owned by Morgan Stanley, the global financial-services firm. Such reclassification means that South Korean companies, long the biggest target of emerging-market investors, would be eligible for the larger pool of investments that flow to advanced markets.
Mr. Lee, 54 years old, spent most of his career as an economist and tax specialist at South Korea’s Ministry of Finance and Economy. In the late 1980s, he worked for three years at the World Bank, and in 1998 led Seoul’s delegation to the 30-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, in Paris.
In early 2005 Mr. Lee came to KRX to lead its management strategy division. Recently, he sat down at his office in Seoul for a chat with Evan Ramstad, where he spoke in English. Here are excerpts:
WSJ: How do you position KRX against other exchanges, particularly those nearby, such as Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai?
Mr. Lee: We have three strategies. With regard to the exchanges in advanced countries, such as in the U.S. or European countries, we have made strategic alliances. For example, we concluded an [memorandum of understanding] with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to put our Kospi 200 index futures on the CME global system.
Our other strategy is to work with new markets elsewhere in Asia. For instance, we’ve been training Cambodian government and central bank people to get used to the exchange environment. Because they don’t have stock exchanges, we thought it important to get people to know more about the operational stock market. We had an MOU for a joint-venture agreement with the Cambodian government — they are going to have 55% of shares and we will have 45% — and maybe this month we will sign the final agreement. We also have a preliminary agreement with the government of Laos to set up a stock exchange by 2010. We exported our bond-trading system to Malaysia and we are also discussing with the Mongolia Stock Exchange about modernizing their system.
The last part of our strategy is to attract foreign companies to list here. Last year, three Chinese companies were listed on the Korea Exchange for the first time. More than 10 foreign companies are on the waiting list.
WSJ: South Korea is on the verge of being reclassified by professional investors from being an advanced emerging market to a developed market. How does that affect KRX?
Mr. Lee: We changed our market operations according to their standards. Even though FTSE announced the reclassification in September, it takes time for investors to change. They have to reorganize their internal systems and reallocate their money. The impact will appear in the Korean market slowly.
WSJ: Does it affect the way you think about how you might do business in the future?
Mr. Lee: We are now looking at our own [initial public offering of shares] too, even if the timing is not set. We think the market-friendly policy is the best for exchange business.
WSJ: What was your first job, and what did you learn from it?
Mr. Lee: I was in the international finance division of the Ministry of Finance, and I learned a lot about the overall economic policy there, and more specifically about many financial products and financial planning. It was the early 1980s and at that time I was in charge of traffic control of our companies, including banks and private companies, to get [foreign investors involved in] bank loans or bond issues. We also discussed and reviewed their contracts with foreign companies. I accumulated my expertise and know-how in the financial market from that experience.
WSJ: How did your experience at the World Bank affect you?
Mr. Lee: I spent three years there as an economist. My eyes were opened at that time and I saw international people in the financial world, how they act and how they proceed with their daily work with other international bodies, including private banks and investment companies.
WSJ: What are some of the most important attributes you look for in managers?
Mr. Lee: Managers should have the intuition and the capacity to continuously give their staff new good ideas that are useful for the company, and after creating the ideas, make it policy to be used as that company’s growth engine.
WSJ: What advice do you give to people starting out in finance or in business to get to that kind of managerial level?
Mr. Lee: Whether in the financial or other industries, to people who graduate from school and enter a company, my advice is, if you cannot avoid the inevitable, then just try to enjoy it. You have to work with an engaged and positive mind. That will produce good results, whether in management or policy.
WSJ: What do you like to read?
Mr. Lee: I always carry a book in my briefcase. Lately, I have been reading a history of the Conservative Party in the U.K. by Kang Won-taek of Soongsil University in Seoul. I also read “Team Secrets of the Navy Seals” [subtitled "The Elite Military Force's Leadership Principles for Business," by Anonymous] and “The Dream Society” [subtitled "How the Coming Shift From Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business"] by Rolf Jensen of Denmark.
WSJ: How do you keep the KRX staff motivated as the market goes through this volatile period?
Mr. Lee: The nature of the market is uncertain and the role of the market operator is to stick unswayed to principles rather than try to come up with special measures. I tell my staff that solutions often appear in the process of undertaking tasks. The best way to find solutions to problems is not to look for them per se but to do our job.
Source: Wall Street Journal
