enue by about 20 percent. The Latest on Korea’s In September of last year, Robit signed an MoU with the Gyeonggi provincial Investment Environment government to invest a total of USD 10 million in Korea. Kakao Games attracts USD 129mn Nest M to be jointly launched in the first in investment half of this year. U.K. defense contractor Babcock Kakao Games Corp., the game devel- The recapitalization is expected to add to set up local entity in Korea oping unit of Korea’s leading mobile weight to Kakao Games` plans to go pub- messenger operator Kakao Corp., secured lic in the latter half. Observers estimate its Babcock International Group PLC, the KRW 140 billion (USD 129.2 million) market value to be between KRW 1 tril- U.K. defense contracting giant, is setting from outside investors including Korea’s lion and 1.5 trillion (USD 938 million). up its first South Korean outpost in the top game publisher Netmarble Games country’s southeastern port city of Busan. Corp. to strengthen its gaming business. Finnish drilling tool maker Robit Babcock Korea, which will be launched Other Korean game developers Actoz completes new plant in Korea in May, will initially operate under British Soft Co. and Bluehole Inc. added KRW Robit Plc, a Finnish drilling consum- staff before hiring Korean engineers. The 20 billion and KRW 10 billion, respec- ables manufacturer with global opera- Korean operation will offer comprehen- tively. Chinese tech giant Tencent also tions, has taken a big stride forward in the sive defense support, design and build injected KRW 50 billion and Premier Asian market by completing a regional marine and naval vessels submarines as Growth M&A private equity fund KRW production hub in Korea. well as provide maintenance and repair 10 billion. The company said it began operations services. The proceeds would be used to bolster of its new Hwaseong plant in Gyeonggi The 127-year-old company is expected its game lineup, improve developing Province after a ribbon-cutting event held to help upgrade Korea’s defense industry capabilities as well as expand global oper- on Feb. 8. by imparting its technical knowhow and ations and finance future investments for The plant has a floor space of 21,250 experience in naval defense. growth, the company said. square meters and comprises a production Babcock is currently involved in The investors are mostly those that site and a research building. Robit will Korea’s Jangbogo-III submarine project. have been in a long strategic partnership develop and produce high quality button The Korean navy had worked with with Kakao Games. Netmarble Games, a bits for rock drilling and casing systems Germany’s Howaldtswerke-Deutsche longtime client and partner of Kakao for ground drilling for Korean and other Werft (HDW) for the previous two proj- Games, has published all of its block- Asian markets. ects but turned to Babcock as it had more buster hits, including Marble of "The new plant is fully automated with experience in making large submarines of Everything and Seven Knights, through solutions provided by Swiss engineering over 7,000 tons. The 3,000-ton Jangbogo- the Kakao platform. Nam Goong-hoon, giant ABB, a leading factory automation III under construction is Korea’s largest chief executive of Kakao Games, report- company,” said a company official. attack submarine class. edly pitched the rights offering plan to Products will be rolled out in a stable and Founded in 1891, Babcock is a global Netmarble Chairman Bang Junhyuk at the consistent manner with the latest automa- engineering services organization that gen- G-star trade show in November. tion systems such as button insertion by a erates GBP 5.2 billion (USD 7.19 billion) Tencent and Bluehole have been part- robot and automatic painting lines. in annual sales. It offers engineering sup- ners of Kakao Games’ online game Robit’s Korean operation reported port services for a range of sectors includ- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. With KRW 26 billion (USD 23.8 million) in ing defense, marine and aviation. It is one Actoz Soft, Kakao published Dragon sales last year and expects the new plant of Britain’s top three defense contractors Nest, with the mobile version Dragon to create 94 new jobs and increase rev- along with Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems.

What's Trending S. Korea to create 800,000 jobs for becoming an aged society, with the senior official, expressing the hope that the plan seniors by 2022 population surpassing that of very young will serve as an opportunity to provide South Korea plans to create 800,000 jobs people for the first time last year. quality jobs. for its senior citizens by 2022 in an effort The number of people over 65 years The government will help each senior to deal with a fast aging population that reached 7.07 million in 2017, accounting citizen find a decent position through a may undermine the country's growth. for a record 13.8 percent of all citizens, customized service. According to the blueprint announced by according to data released by Statistics A recent study showed that seniors com- the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea. plain the most about the difficulties in get- government aims to increase new positions "It has become increasingly important ting access to relevant information and for people aged 65 or older from the cur- for senior people who have the ability and about the limited options for education and rent 467,000. will to work to become actively involved training in order for them to land a job or The move comes as the country is fast in society," said Lim In-taek, a ministry establish their own business.

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