Global Briefing

South Korea Plans Its Own Hong Kong

Cheju Island, considered the Hawaii of Korea, is a scenic paradise and favorite destination of honeymooners. But South Korean officials would prefer Cheju--50 miles off the tip of the Korean peninsula--to be more of a trading center, like Hong Kong. The Seoul government plans to invest some $3 billion over 10 years to attract high-tech firms. Among the enticements: any business that invests $10 million will get five years of tax breaks. Each South Korean will be allowed to spend $1,200 on duty-free purchases from Cheju each year. And perhaps most appealing to business--imports will be tariff free. "It can be an important port for exports to Japan and the U.S.," says Joon Yeob Han, spokesman for the South Korean embassy in Washington--who fondly recalls his honeymoon on Cheju more than 20 years ago.

SELLING SEPT. 11 PATRIOTIC GIFTS FROM ABROAD

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, gifts that celebrate the American spirit have been arriving in U.S. stores from around the world. Christmas-ornament maker Christopher Radko's rendition of the World Trade Center, called Heroes All ($34, right), was made in Poland of mouth-blown glass. Frederick's of Hollywood's America the Beautiful thong ($5) was manufactured in Hong Kong and printed in the U.S. Estee Lauder is selling an America the Beautiful compact that comes in enamel ($40) or encrusted with crystals ($75). The latter model is made in the U.S. using crystals from Austria. Some have questioned whether the items are in good taste, but their appeal is twofold: proceeds support relief efforts and the economies of U.S. allies in the fight against terror.

A Cure for Hospital Boredom

When Michael O'Neil was hospitalized for 10 days in 1998, he and fellow patients suffered "isolation, boredom, confusion and anxiety." So O'Neil, 30, founded Get Well Network, based in Washington, to make hospital TV screens interactive. At the click of a remote, patients can surf the Web, access e-mail and instant messaging, and play music or video games. Or they can just watch TV: the network offers pay-per-view movies and more than 40 TV channels. "Since we implemented it, we've noticed improvement in patient satisfaction," says Les Donahue, CEO of Williamsburg Community Hospital in Williamsburg, Va., which uses Get Well. The system is being updated to allow remote check-outs. It will also tell the transport department that the patient is ready to leave, and the cleanup crew that the room is empty.

From Our Readers

While your article on translation was interesting and eye-opening for those never involved in the translation/ localization business, you focused on the largest companies and clients and neglected the many smaller translation companies, which have recently weathered economic and political conditions better than some of the large companies. In addition, many people are not aware that a great deal of localization work is being requested by small to mid-size companies, not only for international use, but for domestic use to communicate with U.S.-based clients or to train and communicate with non-English-speaking U.S. employees. Translation and localization remain a creative endeavor, one that is hard to accomplish entirely with computers, which would seemingly save money at the risk of quality. There is still no easily accessible computer software that can think and construct a sentence like a human being. --Steven P. Iverson, President Iverson Language Associates Milwaukee, Wis.

A Rival to Formula One?

Formula One racing is popular around the world, with more than 350 million fans regularly watching it on broadcast TV. Some carmakers fear that Kirch Media, the German company that will control worldwide TV rights for the next 100 years, will use racing to boost its ailing pay-per-view channels. These carmakers, who sponsor racing in return for advertising reach, want to protect against that. So Ford, Fiat, Daimler-Chrysler, BMW and Renault have proposed an as-yet-unnamed rival racing circuit, to debut when team contracts are up for renewal in 2008. Kirch spokesman Hartmut Schulz insists, "Carmakers know they would not have a strong platform with a second series." But an industry insider says the automakers are "deadly serious" and are already trying to lure racing stars to their new league.

Who's "Developing" Now?
It's by now a commonplace that Europeans and Japanese enjoy better wireless service than Americans. But the U.S. lags behind even most developing countries in one respect: the growth of cell-phone subscriptions vs. that of hard lines. In developing countries, where it's usually easier to install wireless connections than to lay cables, the number of new cell-phone customers has been soaring for years. "They skipped a whole stage of evolution," says Michael Erbschloe of Computer Economics, a technology-research company in Carlsbad, Calif. That's good news for companies like Verizon, which is part-owned by Vodafone, the world's most popular wireless provider and a dominant player in Africa, where cell-phone subscriptions more than doubled in 2000.