Car Company of South Korea target US for 2010

After making solid gains in 2009, South Korean automakers Hyundai and Kia are predicting more gains in market share in 2010 as they roll out more new vehicles.
John Krafcik, Hyundai Motor America's acting president and chief executive, said on Thursday he expects car sales in the United States to grow next year, and Hyundai's market share to grow with it.
"Sales should be up about eight per cent to 10 per cent next year," he said.
"The first and second quarter will be more like this year but things should pick up in the third quarter," Krafcik said.
Overall sales in the US market should grow beyond 11 million units in 2010. Hyundai's market share also will continue to grow, he said.
Hyundai, which sold over 401,000 cars so far in 2009, boosted its market share by a third this year and more gains are expected next year with introduction of the all new 2011 Sonata and new Tucson.
Both models were unveiled during the press previews ahead of the Los Angeles auto show.
The Sonata was designed to compete in the mid-sized segment, which is at the heart of the US car market.
Scott Magnusson, Hyundai's director of product planning, said the new Sonata offers efficiency, excellent packaging and solid driving dynamics at less than $US20,000 ($A21,600).
"But it's also well styled," he said.
"You still have great efficiency and great packaging and not have to drive a boring car thanks to our fluidic styling."
The same sculptural styling also was used in the design of the new Tucson, which Hyundai hopes will appeal to consumers who in the past have tended to go for the major Japanese brands - Toyota, Honda and Nissan.
"We're being cross-shopped much more frequently now with the Japanese," said Magnusson.
"Both vehicles are very, very nice both inside and out," said Stephanie Brinley, an analyst with Auto Pacific.
Tom Loveless, vice president of sales for Kia Motor America, a Hyundai subsidiary which markets its own brand in the US, also said the value message resonates with US consumers.
Kia also has posted double digit sales increases since mid-summer and will finish the year with a substantial increase in market share, Loveless said.
Kia's biggest market share-gains have come in the northeastern United States, where it as jumped 80 per cent.
Loveless said Kia also has added dealerships, placing some on prime real estate in major urban areas that were abandoned by other carmaker.
He said he expects Kia to make greater gains in sales and market share next year as it rolls out new models.
During the LA Auto Show preview, Kia rolled out the 2011 Sorento, which is being built at a new Kia assembly plant in West Point, Ga.
The introduction of Kia Soul and Kia Forte earlier this year also raised consumer awareness of the Kia brand with their aggressive styling, Loveless said.
"The Soul was a real game changer for us," he said.
Ed Kim, an analyst with Auto Pacific, said the styling on the Sorento is more conservative than the Soul or the Forte but it is still solid and the vehicle has been designed to reflect American taste and preferences.
So far this year, Hyundai Group sales have grown by more than 6 per cent in a soft market and Kia and Hyundai combined now hold nearly 6.2 per cent of the US market, the highest share ever, according JD Power & Associates.
Hyundai's market share has grown to 3.76 per cent from 2.58 per cent in 2008, while Kia's has increased to 2.41 per cent from 2 per cent in 2008.

Bollywood superstar Aamir to be an foreign ambassador.

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan will once again reunite with 'Rang De Basanti' director Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra to spread the message of 'Athithi Devo Bhava'.
Four new commercials are being made for the Tourism Ministry, featuring the actor who once again is seen appealing to the public to stop defacing monuments and be cordial to tourists.
The aim of the commercials is to take further the 'Incredible India' campaign and are part of the 'Atithi Devo Bhava' initiative aimed at enlightening the public about being tourist friendly.
"The newly made four ad films are different from Aamir's early films made by the same director for the ministry. Aamir is donning the role of a sutradhar (narrator) in these films," said the official.

Vision of Asian development bank in Asia until 2020.

Another year, another long-term strategic blueprint-style plan for the Asian Development Bank. This year, however, the bank’s planning is underpinned by sizeable increase to its resources.
A particular theme seems to define the ADB agenda every year, depending on what economic/political/financial forces are engulfing the region. The past 12 months have all been about the credit crisis and the dwindling capital supply available to Asian SMEs. The ADB has tackled the problem at its most essential level: trade finance.
About US$50trn of the word's wealth was destroyed in 2008 – or one year's worth of GDP, according to a report released in mid-March by the Asian Development Bank. Asia accounted for nearly US$9.62trn or 19.25% of those losses.
The role of organisations such as the Asian Development Bank has become critical in responding to the global financial crisis. Efforts are being made to boost trade that would revive the global economy. The ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda talks to Prakash Chakravarti about the bank’s efforts in that regard and shares his views on the potential for an alternative international currency as well as Asian monetary integration.
Despite a 22-year stint with the ADB, Rajat Nag, managing director general, feels he has been with the bank for a very short time. The enthusiasm and excitement he had when he joined the bank still lives because of what Asia has gone through. He talks to Prakash Chakravarti about the ADB’s achievements and the way forward.
As the financial crisis blooms into a global economic recession, Asia’s fragile political arrangements and democracies are coming under stress. Asian politics can be tumultuous at the best of times – throw in two wars in the Middle East, increasing concerns about economic dislocation in China and ongoing power struggles in Thailand and Malaysia, and the region’s political risk problems start to mount.
Multilateral development banks are political beasts. In this article an ex-ADB staffer talks about the historic and organisational issues that complicate the aid logistics of development banks, and the urgent need for reform.
The oil price spikes may be a year behind us, but they were a timely reminder of the necessity of addressing Asia’s long-term energy needs. The ADB is rolling out all manner of sensible, practical solutions to bring energy to the people, and in an environmentally sustainable man.
As part of its corruption fighting measures, the ADB independently investigates dozen of cases every year. It manages to process this volume of casework partly because it does not publish those names it deems guilty of corruption.

Free market increased Korea's economy

South Korea's economy expanded 3.2 percent in the third quarter, the central bank said Friday, a better performance than initially estimated amid stronger growth in manufacturing, exports and services.

AP - South Korean labors work on a construction site in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 4, 2009. South Korea's ...
The revised figure for the three months ended Sept. 30 compared with the previous quarter remains the country's strongest growth in more than seven years since an expansion of 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2002, according to Bank of Korea figures.
The bank said in October that Asia's fourth-largest economy had grown 2.9 percent. The latest estimate is based on more complete data.
The 3.2 percent figure equates to annualized growth of 13.6 percent, according Lim Ji-won, economist at JP Morgan in Seoul. The BOK does not provide an annualized number.
The stronger quarterly growth adds to mounting evidence that South Korea is recovering from the global slowdown. GDP has expanded three straight quarters after contracting 5.1 percent in the final three months of last year amid the shock of the worldwide financial meltdown. Export markets for South Korean products had withered as consumers around the world slashed spending.
Manufacturing expanded 9.8 percent in the third quarter, compared with the initial estimate of 8.7 percent, the central bank said. Growth figures for capital spending, private consumption, exports and services were also revised upward.
The Bank of Korea also said that the economy grew 0.9 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period last year. That was higher than the initial estimate of a 0.6 percent expansion. Beginning in the fourth quarter last year the economy had contracted for three straight quarters compared with the year before.
Exports in November posted their first year-on-year gain in 13 months, increasing 18.8 percent to $34.3 billion. The country's foreign currency reserves hit a record high of $270.89 billion in November. And the jobless rate fell to 3.2 percent in October, the lowest level in 11 months.
The Bank of Korea steadily slashed its benchmark interest rate after the onset of the global financial crisis to help boost the economy. Attention is now focused on when Gov. Lee Seong-tae and other bank policy makers will decide to begin raising the rate from a record low 2 percent. The next rate-setting policy meeting is scheduled for Dec. 10.
Economists have broadly expected the bank to begin gradually lifting the rate in the first quarter of 2010.
Pressure from the government against a perceived early exit from the low rate strategy and the approaching conclusion of Lee's four-year term as central bank governor at the end of March have injected some uncertainty into that scenario, said JP Morgan's Lim