IT Exports for August Hit Record High of US$9.85 Billion According to the press release of the MIC (Ministry of Information and Communication), IT exports for August have increased by 13.3% year by year to US$ 9.85 billion. The monthly exports for August are the highest since the beginning of this year, and the second all-time high in history. The highest monthly record is the export of US$ 9.92 billion in November 2005. The reason for high export performance is that along with the seasonal demand, the exports of semiconductors, panels, and digital TVs have increased considerably. Meanwhile, IT imports for August have increased by 6.9% year by year to US$4.94 billion. As a result, the trade balance of the IT industry has recorded a surplus of US$ 4.91 billion. Sensibility Ergonomics to be Applied to Consumer Electronics On August 30, Samsung Electronics held a new product demonstration and also showed off its mid and long-term visions for consumer electronics, announcing that the company is preparing for a new era of consumer electronics. Lee Hyun-bong, the president of Samsung Electronics in charge of consumer electronics, said, "Until now, Samsung has mainly paid emphasis to the performance and technology of our consumer electronics, but from now on Samsung is going to put priority on image technology, sensibility ergonomics, and design. By introducing the concept of image technology to the Samsung Electronics' home appliances, we will continue to keep coming closer to consumers." The company is trying to launch a new product considering the visual design angle. It is preparing for a design line-up with the help of world-famous designers including Andre Kim, who is a top designer in Korea. One senior official in charge of design said, "Andre Kim's design, which is reflecting a universal sentiment, is characterized by prestige and tradition instead of trend-chasing." Displaybank Reaches Out to Chinese Customers Displaybank announced on August 21 that it has opened a Chinese language web site, cn.displaybank.com, to provide product information to its Chinese market. This information was previously available only in Korean, English and Japanese. The Chinese site provides specialized and detailed information about the overall display industry such as special reports, consulting information, opinion columns, news, price trends, a company list, and conference information. "We have opened the Chinese site targeting the Chinese market, where the display industry is rapidly growing." said Displaybank CEO Kwon Sang-sae. Displaybank intends to consolidate its status as a display research site while providing varied content to the Chinese market, which is one of the major markets for the display industry. Moreover, it plans to provide major industrial information at the Industrial Forum to be held in China next year in order to assist Korean companies in advancing into global markets. IT Business Survey Index Continues Decline According to the IT-BSI, which has been announced by the Korea Association of Information and Telecommunication, the BSI (Business Survey Index) of the IT industry for July 2006 stood at 81, lower than the previous month of 83. This figure is the lowest in the past three years since it recorded 78 in July 2003. It is noticeable that the IT-BSI has continued to fall since October of last year. The reason is that high oil prices and increasing materials prices are deteriorating the business environment. In addition to that, the depression of the domestic mobile phone industry having an unfavorable impact on the IT business, which is the growth engine of national economy. BSI represents the sensory index of business cycles. If BSI stands at 100, the standard figure, the business cycle remains unchanged, but if BSI lies below 100, it means the business cycle is deteriorating, and if it lies above 100, the business environment is becoming favorable. Bringing Businesss to Busan; BPA Listens August 31, 2006, Busan, Korea - The Busan Port Authority (BPA) held a meeting with foreign shipping companies to talk about how to increase container volume and to strengthen competitiveness at Busan Port. This meeting was aimed at taking measures to attract more cargo to the Port of Busan which has recently showed slow growth in handling cargo. Twenty-two world leading ocean carriers such as MSC and APL participated int the meeting. Kim Seung-yong, Vice President of BPA, asked the companies to use Busan Port constantly and pay interests to the largest port in Korea after briefing them on the incentives of Busan Port, Busan New Port and logistics distribution center. Mr. Kim also said that the BPA will make efforts to improve Busan Port's service and efficiency in order to boost container volume at Busan Port. The participants from foreign shipping liners said that Busan Port should consider improving the existing incentive system and adopting container mileage system. They added that the top priority to spur container volume at Busan Port is to secure competition of productivity and port charges. Envisioning Direction of Korean Economy On September 1, Kwon O-kyu, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy delivered a speech under the subject of Vision and Direction of the Korean Economy at Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club press briefing. In the address, he said the Korean economy is expected to grow 5 percent this year and mid 4 percent next year, if policies are implemented as planned. He also emphasized that the government will do its best to substantially improve the business environment to support and boost entrepreneurship. At the same time, he said Korea must ride on the irreversible wave of opening and globalization, while upgrading the competitiveness of the entire economic system. He also highlighted the importance of opening measures, including the FTA between Korea and the USA, while inducing reform and innovation of the internal systems. Lastly, Kwon introduced the Vision 2030 released on August 30 as a policy exercise of designing a new paradigm of the Korean economy looking 25 years ahead and a shared growth strategy balancing growth and welfare. Current Accounts Turn into Deficit in July According to the Bank of Korea, the international balance of current accounts for July has provisionally recorded a deficit of US$210 million. The balance of the current account for May recorded a surplus of US$ 1.36 billion and consecutively a surplus of US$ 1.1 billion for June. The BOK explained that the reason is that the trade balance surplus was reduced compared with the previous month, but the deficit of service balance increased. In case of trade balance, imports increased due to higher oil prices, and exports decreased compared with the previous month. As a result, the trade balance for July reduced by US$910 million to US$1.8 billion. Meanwhile, the service balance deficit has increased by US$ 57 million to a deficit of US$ 1.74 billion. -- Cisco and Microsoft Unveil Joint Architecture for NAC-NAP Interoperability Security architecture to enable customers and partners to deploy interoperable Cisco Network Admission Control and Microsoft Network Access Protection. Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are delivering on their previously stated commitment to provide customers and partners with clear guidance on how Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) and Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) will interoperate. The two companies are demonstrating the new interoperable architecture at The Security Standard conference (http://www.thesecuritystandard. net), which opened in Boston. A technical white paper released by the two companies describes how Cisco NAC and Microsoft NAP interoperate for security policy enforcement and health assessment. The white paper describes the architecture and provides details on how to integrate the embedded security capabilities of Cisco network infrastructure with those of Microsoft Windows Vista and the future version of Windows Server, codenamed "Longhorn.The white paper can be downloaded at http://www.cisco.com /go/nac and http://www.microsoft.com/ nap. In addition, the two companies have revealed a general road map for bringing Cisco NAC and Microsoft NAP interoperability to market, including a limited beta program set to start later this calendar year. Customers will be able to start deploying the Cisco NAC-Microsoft NAP interoperable solution once Windows Server "Longhorn" is available in the second half of 2007. Cisco and Microsoft have crosslicensed the Cisco NAC and Microsoft NAP protocols to help ensure interoperability and to enable both companies to respond to future market and customer requirements. his is exactly what is needed in the market as businesses attempt to understand how to implement a network access control infrastructure in order to increase security amid an increasingly mobile work force and increasingly aggressive threat environment,said Zeus Kerravala, vice president of security and networking research at Yankee Group. "Microsoft and Cisco must work together on this, and I'm pleased to see these two companies make the investment and the engineering commitment for interoperability. Although both companies will continue delivering their individual solutions, customers now have a choice between Cisco NAC, Microsoft NAP, or the interoperable solution from both companies. The joint architecture allows communication and policy enforcement across Cisco NAC and Microsoft NAP, enabling an end-to-end solution to be built around the Cisco and Microsoft interoperability. Technology partners of the Microsoft NAP and Cisco NAC ecosystems can also refer to the joint architecture for building or marketing solutions that work within the joint framework. -- Hampex Launches Portable Terrestrial DMB Device T300PR Hampex will launch the T300PR, a portable TDMB receiver with MP3 features to the market soon. Hampex is a company that develops mobile hardware, software and a series of DMB receivers. The company developed a USB type DMB receiver and set-top box for a car last year and was recognized as an excellent technology company. Hampex plans to develop portable multimedia devices that support various functions like DMB and MP3 from the middle of September. The portable device T300PR has 3.5 inch LCD screen and focuses on viewing terrestrial DMB. It supports an external SD memory slot for recording and MP3 play. Also, it focuses on a simple, conspicuous GUI user interface to minimize complexity. It comes in two colors, polished Black and polished White. A developer from Hampex said "Hampex has the professional ability to develop mobile phones and DMB devices. The T300PR has an internal battery. It takes about three hours to fully charge. You can watch DMB for 7 straight hours and you can listen to MP3s for 12 hours." The weight of the product is very light, about 162g. Hampex offers a 512 SD memory card for customers who buy the T300PR. Also, Hampex will continuously offer firmware upgrades to support additional functions. Currently, Hampex is actively making progress with various distribution channels and OEM companies. The T300PR' launch is scheduled for mid- September.