Alibaba’s Jack Ma: Being richest is ‘great pain’

SHANGHAI (AFP) ― He may now be China’s richest man but Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, has admitted in a U.S. television interview that being so wealthy is actually causing him “great pain.”

Ma has seen his fortune balloon to $19.5 billion after Alibaba’s record-breaking $25 billion initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in September, according to data compiled by Forbes magazine.

On Tuesday, the company chalked up a new record ― $9.3 billion of sales conducted through its platforms during Singles Day, its 24-hour shopping promotion and the world’s biggest online retail event.

But a successful stock listing and vast fortunes have caused him stress, Ma said in an interview with U.S. business news channel CNBC.

Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma. (Yonhap)

“This month I’m not very happy ― I think too much pressure,” Ma told the broadcaster. 

“Maybe the stock goes so up, maybe people have high expectations on you, maybe I think too much about the future and have too many things to worry about,” he said.

Alibaba’s share price has been on a steady uptrend since it debuted in New York two months ago. It closed at $114.54 on Tuesday, representing a nearly 70 percent gain from its offer price of $68.

Ma said that people often tell him that being rich “is good” but admitted he found being the wealthiest man in China difficult.

“Yeah, it is good, but not the richest man in China. It’s a great pain because when you’re (the) richest person in the world, everybody (is) surrounding you for money,” Ma told CNBC. 

He added that people now looked at him differently when he walked down the street and added: “spending money is much more difficult than making money.”

His remarks echoed what he told state media in early October when he said being named China’s richest man is “meaningless.”

“My happiest days were when I used to earn 90 yuan ($15) a month,” Ma once told state media.

He is looking at the possibility to establish a foundation to spend money “in a business way” and may even compete with U.S. billionaire Bill Gates in the field of philanthropy, according to CNBC.

Ma was ranked as China’s most generous person after he donated a 1.4 percent stake in his firm to set up a charity focused on the environment, health care and education, according to a survey by wealth publisher Hurun in late October.

When we are too connected

Young Seoulite Park Min-jun makes sure his phone battery is always fully charged. The last thing he wants is for his phone to die, cutting off his access to KakaoTalk ― the leading South Korean messenger app.

“I always carry an extra battery with me,” the 30-year-old beauty industry worker said. “Also, whenever I see power outlets I charge my phone batteries. I feel really anxious when I don’t.”

Park, who openly admits that he is a “smartphone addict,” is one of 40 million South Koreans who use the devices and some 350 million people who suffer from digital distraction worldwide. 

South Korea, one of the world’s most wired countries, is struggling with a growing number of cases of adults and schoolchildren who are addicted to social media and smart devices. 

Eighty percent of the nation’s population owned smartphones as of this year, and the number of users doubled to 40 million from 2011 to 2014. 

According to research by Saramin, an online recruitment website, 1 in 3 working South Koreans are addicted to the devices, finding themselves unable to focus and getting distracted at work ― which ultimately makes them less productive.

According to neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin, such multitasking in the digital age ― social networking, chatting via messenger apps, listening to music while composing an email at work ― deprives human beings of the highest forms of thought their brains are capable of, such as critical thinking, ingenuity and insight. 

In fact, these mental functions are only possible when one is undistracted and one’s mind is focused, according to his best-selling book, “The Organized Mind.”

But things are worse for South Korean children. More than 8 percent of the 1.56 million school children surveyed last year by the Gender Ministry turned out to be at high risk of addiction to smartphones, suffering from sleep deprivation and even skipping meals to stay online. 

In the age of information overload, the digital gadgets and SNS ― which together generate the culture of multitasking ― are adding another layer to the already disoriented lives of Koreans: busy, overworked, distracted and connected, but lonely. 

According to a local body of psychiatrists, smartphone addiction works in the same way as other addictions, such as game addiction or alcoholism. 

It consists of repetitive use of something one enjoys doing, over time, and eventually stimulating a reward circuit in the brain. 

“Such rewarding experiences generate the release of the brain chemical dopamine, the happy hormone, telling the brain, ‘Do it again and again,’” said psychiatrist Yun Ho-kyung of Korea University Ansan Hospital. 

“You are linking whatever you are addicted to ― SNS, alcohol or drugs ― to your pleasurable reward.”

However, Park, whose job requires meeting a lot of people but who spends most of his weekends alone to save money, said his smartphone addiction is a “part of himself” that he does not want to get rid of.

“I am busy earning money and making ends meet,” he said, adding that one needs either time or money to be well-connected off-line. 

“And it costs money to hang out with people on weekends. My phone makes my life less lonely. Multitasking helps me forget that I am alone.”

Park said he rarely shares anything on SNS. Rather, his pleasure mostly comes from reading other people’s narcissistic posts on Facebook and “feeling relieved,” he said.

One of the most “pathetic” Facebook posts he remembers is when one of his friends wrote, “I worked out so hard at the gym today. But here I am, eating ramen at night. Aren’t I pathetic?”

“She obviously wasn’t really concerned about her fitness. She just wanted to hear something like, ‘What are you talking about? You are so fit. You don’t even have to work out,’ or ‘Someone (so fit) like you deserves a bowl of ramen.’ You want that kind of support and recognition,” he said. 

“Whenever I read such posts I feel relieved because I feel I am not as pathetic as they are. Somehow I haven’t reached that level yet. I am lonely, but I am still content without asking to be pampered on Facebook.”

Kim Jun-ho, another Seoulite in his 30s, is the opposite of Park. Three months ago, he decided to stay away from his smartphone as much as possible. What motivated him was a dreadful movie date.

“I was just starting to see this girl back then. And I think it was our third date,” he said.

“And right before the movie started ― it was dark and everyone was already in their seats ― she got up all of a sudden and started frantically looking for a power outlet in the theater, inconveniencing other people. Turns out, her phone was dead and she was desperate to recharge the battery.” 

Kim said it was a huge turnoff, and in some strange way, he felt insulted. She was there to see a movie with him, but charging her phone was more important.

“I don’t know if this makes any sense. But anyway, I stopped seeing her and decided to stay away from smart devices as well. I felt like if I didn’t, I might end up being like her. And I knew I didn’t want that.”

A Seoul-based therapist who did not wish to be named said it is hard for most South Koreans to avoid smartphone addiction and thinks this is partly a result of the country’s notoriously long working hours.

“Spending time with others off-line requires your physical, not virtual, presence,” he said. “I tell my clients to make time for their friends and family, and do things with them off-line, but for a lot of them, it’s nearly impossible. They are always at work. So without smartphones, they’d feel very much isolated.”

Asked when Park feels the loneliest, he said it’s the moment when the number 1, labeled on each and every KakaoTalk message, disappears on his smartphone screen. 

The number is automatically erased when the text has been seen by the recipient. 

“Sometimes, the 1 disappears but you don’t get a reply,” he said. 

“For me, that’s the loneliest feeling.”

By Claire Lee (dyc@heraldcorp.com)

S. Korea, New Zealand strike free trade deal

BRISBANE (Yonhap) -- The leaders of South Korea and New Zealand said Saturday that their countries have struck a free trade agreement that will help boost mutual trade.
"The FTA will provide a basis to further expand and develop bilateral investment and trade," South Korean President Park Geun-hye said in a joint news conference with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key in Brisbane on the sidelines of a summit of the Group of 20 advanced and emerging economies.
Key also described the deal as a win-win agreement.
The agreement came more than five years after the two countries launched negotiations.
The two sides agreed to remove tariffs on more than 96 percent of all products traded between them within 20 years of the deal taking effect.
The deal should allow South Korean companies to compete in New Zealand on a more equal footing with other countries. Prior to the deal with South Korea, New Zealand inked free trade agreements with 15 countries, including China, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
South Korea and New Zealand plan to hold a legal review before formally signing a deal on the free trade agreement early next year, according to South Korea. The deal is subject to parliamentary ratification in both capitals before taking effect.
 New Zealand agreed to immediately remove tariffs on South Korean washing machines and tires, and eliminate tariffs on auto parts, heavy construction equipment and refrigerators within three years of the deal coming into force.
The two sides agreed to exclude rice, a key staple food for Koreans, and other sensitive agricultural produce, including apples, garlic and chili peppers, from the deal.
The deal could help boost South Korea's exports to New Zealand, which heavily relies on imports for most industrial products, South Korea said.
South Korea is New Zealand's 41st-largest trading partner and New Zealand is South Korea's 44th-largest trading partner.
Bilateral trade between the countries totaled US$2.8 billion last year.

Also Saturday, Park shared South Korea's experience of lifting regulations with other global leaders at a retreat session of the G-20 summit.
Park also said she will reduce regulations that do not relate to people's lives and safety by 20 percent by 2017.
Park has been pushing to lift or ease all but core regulations to help reinvigorate Asia's fourth-largest economy, calling unnecessary business restrictions "our archenemy" and a "cancer."
The summit, which runs through Sunday in Brisbane, brings together U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top world leaders for talks on a wide-ranging agenda, including anti-corruption, development and trade.
The G-20 economies represent about two-thirds of the world's population, 85 percent of global gross domestic product and over 75 percent of global trade.

Assembly panel passes Canada, Australia FTAs

The National Assembly committee on foreign affairs approved Korea’s free trade pacts with Australia and Canada on Thursday, following a bipartisan agreement to ratify the much-delayed motions by Dec. 2. 

The treaties’ ratification has been stalled in the parliament amid concerns about their possible impact on livestock and dairy farms. 

After weeks of negotiations, the governing Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy announced that they would pass the deals at a plenary session next month. The announcement came after the rival parties reached an agreement with the government for promising farmers more state subsidies and low- interest loans.

The breakthrough comes as President Park Geun-hye is set to visit Australia Friday for a two-day G20 meeting.

(Yonhap)

“The lawmakers’ promises to lower the interest rates on our loans have convinced us to support the FTAs, although we are going to go over the details,” said Lee Gang-heoun, a spokesman for the four dairy and livestock farmers’ associations that were opposed to the free trade pacts.

Farmers were not present at the talks, but had called for reductions in the interest on government farm loans as a condition for supporting the free trade agreements. Australian and Canadian farm products in Korea are expected to financially strain Korean farmers after the deals come into force, according to researchers at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy.

The pacts are likely to come into force in December, initiating the first round of tariff cuts. The second round of cuts will begin days later on New Year’s Day.

The two successive cuts are expected to benefit Canadian and Australian beef exporters facing U.S. competitors in the Korean market. South Korean manufacturers contending with their Japanese counterparts in the Australian market are also expected to celebrate the decision for similar reasons. Japan is nearing ratification of a free trade deal of its own with Australia, which is expected to enter force early next year.

Exporters had worried that prolonged negotiations in the South Korean parliament would push the accords’ approvals to next year. Tariff cuts would have been delayed in such a scenario by as long as 11 months, with the first round of cuts beginning whenever the deal was passed, and the second round not coming into effect until Jan. 1, 2016.

The free trade pact with Australia, signed in April, is projected to increase South Korea’s gross domestic product by 0.14 percent in 10 years after ratification, according to the KIEP. The treaty with Canada, finalized in September, will expand the nation’s GDP by 0.04 percent during the same period, KIEP predicted.

Farmers appear to be resigned to the inevitability of more FTAs with larger economies that enjoy comparative advantages in farming.

“We know they’re coming, but we want some kind of minimum assistance from the government to help us continue our lives,” said Son Jeong-ryul, chairman of the Korea Dairy and Beef Farmers Association, earlier this month.

By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)

Korea, China conclude FTA deal Park, Xi agree to urge N.K. to abandon nuke

South Korea and China wrapped up 30 months of negotiations on a free trade pact on Monday, a deal expected to open a new chapter in the economic cooperation between the two countries.

The announcement was made after South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping held a talk in Beijing on the sidelines of the two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

“I am pleased to announce that South Korea and China have practically reached an agreement on the free trade pact at the summit today, after more than two years of negotiations,” Park said.

“I hope that (the two countries) can quickly work out the details and swiftly push for procedures to sign (the deal) and allow it to take effect,” she said. Xi also stressed that South Korea continues to be a good neighbor and partner of China, and urged it to strengthen efforts to further develop bilateral exchange and cooperation, officials said.

South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye shakes hands with President Xi Jinping in front of national flags of the two countries during a meeting at the Great Hall of the People, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings, in Beijing, Monday. (Yonhap)

The signing of the agreed minutes on the free trade deal took place in the presence of the two leaders, said An Chong-bum, Park’s senior aide on economic affairs.

“The South Korea-China FTA is the most significant economic deal since their establishment of diplomatic ties in 1992,” An told reporters. “It will provide an occasion to drastically develop bilateral economic ties,” he added. The deal is South Korea’s 13th free trade pact. China, the world’s second-largest economy with a population of 1.3 billion, is South Korea’s largest trading partner.

The two sides will engage in technical consultation within this year, complete a draft of the agreement and hold a legal review before formally signing the agreement early next year, Cheong Wa Dae said. Both governments need to obtain parliamentary approval before it takes effect. 

During the meeting, the two leaders also agreed to bolster efforts to prod North Korea to give up its nuclear program and to resume the long-stalled talks on denuclearizing Pyongyang, said Ju Chul-ki, senior presidential secretary on foreign affairs.

Xi also expressed firm opposition to North Korea’s nuclear program and reiterated that Beijing, Pyongyang’s traditional ally, fully complies with the United Nations Security Council’s resolution on the communist regime, the official said.

The leaders also agreed on the need to hold a trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting between South Korea, China and Japan within this year to seek ways to pursue peace and stability in the region.

Park arrived in Beijing on Sunday afternoon to attend the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim countries.

Her meeting with Xi was in the spotlight as they were widely expected to announce the conclusion of the FTA deal during the talks. She is also set to meet U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday.

During a previous meeting in Seoul four months ago, Park and Xi agreed to conclude FTA negotiations this year.

Trade ministers of the two countries held last-minute talks to reach a deal before the summit between the leaders. The main bone of contention was tariff cuts. South Korea had requested a wider range of cuts on industrial products, while China had made similar demands regarding agricultural and fisheries products.

Early Monday morning, the two sides agreed on a total of 22 chapters that would lift trade and investment barriers in various economic sectors ranging from services and finance to communications. Negotiators, however, agreed to exclude rice, a major agricultural product for both countries, from the deal.

Under the agreement, the two countries are obliged to lift tariffs on more than 90 percent of imported goods over the next two decades. Bilateral trade in 70 percent of farm and fisheries goods will be liberalized, officials said. South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, is expected to save annual tariffs worth $5.4 billion, according to officials at the Trade Ministry.

South Korea and China started negotiations on the FTA in May 2012 and have held 14 round of negotiations since then.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)

S. Korea-China FTA to create largest economic bloc in Asia

SEJONG, Nov. 10 (Yonhap) -- The bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between South Korea and China is expected to greatly help boost the countries' economic development while creating the largest economic bloc in the region, experts and government officials said Monday.

The countries declared a de facto conclusion of their FTA negotiations earlier in the day.

Once implemented, the Korea-China FTA will significantly boost bilateral trade between China, the world's second-largest economy, and South Korea, the fourth-largest in Asia, they said.

The newly concluded FTA with China will mark the 13th of its kind signed by South Korea, but the experts and government officials here said it will be, by far, the largest.

Already, China is South Korea's largest trading partner, accounting for 26.05 percent of South Korea's overall exports in 2013, according to latest customs data.

The United States, by comparison, imported US$62.1 billion worth of South Korean products, accounting for 11.09 percent of South Korea's total exports in the same year. South Korea implemented its bilateral FTA with the U.S. in March 2012.

"The reason an FTA with China will be more significant than the one with the United States is China's physical proximity to South Korea, which means the countries' bilateral trade has so much more potential to grow following the implementation of the FTA," an official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said, asking not to be identified.

If implemented early next year, the Korea-China FTA is expected to help boost the countries' annual bilateral trade to US$300 billion in 2015, according to the ministry. This will mark a 39.5 percent hike from $215.1 billion in 2012.

South Korea's trade territory, represented by the combined gross domestic product of countries with which South Korea has a free trade pact, will be expanded from the current 61 percent to 73 percent.

"This basically means the same portion of the global population will have access to South Korean products under free trade agreements," another ministry official said.

"It also means all South Korean products that benefit from the country's existing FTAs will be such an advantage for 73 percent of the world's population."

   Under the proposed FTA, South Korea and China have agreed to eliminate their import tariffs on over 90 percent of all products traded between them, making it the highest-level FTA signed by China.

Woo Tae-hee, South Korea's deputy trade minister, later noted the political impact of the Korea-China FTA may be as great as its economic impact.

"It is not a matter of which side will benefit more from the FTA because I believe the agreement will have a political impact on the entire Northeast Asian region and the Korean Peninsula. I believe the FTA will also help secure peace and stability in the Northeast Asian region," he told a press briefing.

"The Korea-China FTA is expected to become a chance for the country to act as a linchpin between countries in the region as they move to boost their economic cooperation and form an economic bloc in the Asia-Pacific region," he added.

The countries are expected to initial the agreement after the proposed deal undergoes a legal review, called legal scrubbing, that could take up to three months, according to officials.

The FTA needs to be formally signed before it can be sent to the countries' respective legislatures for ratification.

bdk@yna.co.kr