Interview: Mr. Massimo Roj, Founder and Managing Partner, Progetto CMR

Founded in 1994, Progetto CMR has developed a significant experience in the planning and realization of Corporate Interiors. While concentrating on this core activity, its range of consultancy has gradually expanded. Integrated design has always been the strong point of its approach.
Clients are offered a qualified team of 80 professionals with different core competencies, organized into six divisions: Architecture (Building Design and Corporate Interiors), Engineering, Health and Safety, Industrial Design, Process Management, Research and Development.

As noted by Mr. Massimo Roj, founder and Managing Partner, Progetto CMR, the company represents the ability to think and design in an innovative way for the various scenarios and elements of the workplace, with customer satisfaction playing a primary role. For this reason, the company was ranked among the 100 Worldwide Best Architecture Firm in 2010.
“It works in partnership, guaranteeing constant high quality in the consultancy, integrating technological development and research in order to create a satisfactory and stimulating future,he noted.
Mr. Roj, studied at the Polytechnic University of Milan where he graduated in Architecture and has been registered Architect in Milan since 1986. From 1982 till 1984 he worked with Spinelli Architects in Milan contributing to the development of the MO-CO Building System for hospitals in Daytona (Ohio - USA), and Kuritiba (Brazil).
In 1984 he joined R. Morisi Architects working on the project for the San Benedetto del Tronto Stadium and for a Business Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From 1986 he worked with Architect Franca Helg in Milan for interior architecture and planning projects; at the same time, for 3 years, he held courses on "Architectural design" as university assistant at the Polytechnic University of Milan.
He noted that as freelance architect, he developed projects for private and public clients, both residential and commercial buildings, among which the restructuring of the baseball Stadium in Milan.
In 1988 he joined an international company specialized in space planning, where he was Project Manager and Project Architect in charge for projects for COMIT, Sun Microsystems, Eli Lilly, Bosch, Dideco, London & Edinburgh Trust Plc, and for the development of the most advanced Software Research Centre for Olivetti O.I.S.R. in Bari. He planned the reallocation project of an area from industrial to office buildings, as new headquarter for some companies of the Assicurazioni Generali Group, in Mogliano Veneto (TV).
“In 1994, I founded my own firm Progetto CMR in Milan where I am in charge as managing partner, opening offices in Rome, Athens and Tianjin, today the leading companies in office space environment,he said.
Mr. Roj developed architecture, space planning and interior design activities, dealing with projects such as: Coca-Cola, Honeywell, Eli Lilly, Ciba Vision, BIC, Montedison, Medtronic, Johnson Controls, BMG Ricordi, Digital, Pioneer, Iri Infoscan, Bayer, Gillette, Heineken Italia, Munchener Ruck.
He is Client leader also for Italian Government: Italian Chamber of Deputy, Presidenza del Consiglio dei Ministri and Lombardia Region, for whom he is responsible for the project of rationalization and reallocation of spaces and for the new image definition. He also developed industrial design projects especially thought for the office such as lighting systems and desks for the companies Artemide, Technolyte, Targetti, Martini, Luxo, Estel, Elitable, Las.
He has been speaker at different symposiums and teacher for several courses as a specialist in office habitat and office planning. Since 1996 he has been holding courses on Space Planning Architecture and Building Management at the Architecture Polytechnic University of Milan. Recently he has also started giving lectures at the University of Tianjin.
He also observed that the company is the Italian partner of the HOK European Architects Network. This partnership offers the knowledge of local and the appeal of working with well-established European practices supported by the delivery capacity of HOK's worldwide organization.
“Progetto CMR is formed from six operating areas: Architecture, Engineering, Health and Safety, Industrial Design, Process Management and Research and development. Thanks to our unusual multi-disciplinary approach, offers optimal space planning for the workplace providing full satisfaction of the user's requirements in terms of management, services and plant, and computer networks; and above all, a particularly well-management cost-containment policy,he said.
Speaking on the activities in Asia, he noted that at present the company is focusing on China, for both the public and private sector projects. With the cooperation of Italian and Chinese architects in China, the company has involved in various projects including a seven-star hotel in Jilin Province, a residential master plan in Tianjin, Cobra's new production plant in Beijing and a 30,000-seat stadium for the Songjiang group.
The company also won the competition for the 'Caohejing Hi Tech Park' in Shanghai, with an area of 170,000 square meters it is located west of the city. The project involves the construction of a commercial district which will house offices, a residential complex, hotel, a research center and related services.
Special attention to the environment has been taken into consideration in the design incorporating plants in order to reduce and save energy. the large amount of green space is the heart of the project. To lower the density of visible construction and significantly increase the area devoted to green, the project foresees the creation of 'hills' below buildings which require less direct light, such as businesses, shopping centers, boutiques, sporting centers, restaurants, bars and a lobby.
Mr. Roj noted that the company will hopefully win many more projects and make its presence felt in a difficult market which had immense potential.Today around 25 percent of the total income accrues from the Chinese market.
"The reason behind our success is the constant dedication both to our customers and to final users. My goal is to make customers' ideas and dreams a reality. However this is not sufficient in itself, as the spaces we plan are meant to be occupied by people. Whenever we imagine and design working and living spaces we always keep in mind who and how will inhabit them. These are economic concepts, not philosophic ones" he said.
He noted that offices and residential buildings are not exercises in style. For this reason he plans from the inside to the outside; that is to say, the building envelope is the result of an analysis of the needs and aspirations of the people living within it.

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Interview: Dr. Kim Yeong-seen, President of Korea Consumer Agency

The Korea Consumer Agency is a government organization, that was established in July, 1987, based on the Consumer Protection Act. Its founding principle is to protect consumer rights and interests, to promote a rational consumption life and to contribute to the sound development of the nation's economy.
The agency is contributing to national economic development through providing consumer redress, consumer information and education, guaranteeing safety and rights, and protecting consumers economic interests. It provides distinctive and professional services on consumer affairs as a public institution specialized in effectively promoting the governments consumer protection policies.
An interview with Dr. Kim Yeong-seen, President of Korea Consumer Agency, on the role of the agency and plans for the future.

>>Major three areas in which Korea Consumer Agency is pouring efforts this year include 1) providing information on sales price of necessity goods, 2) establishing and spreading green consumption life, and 3) strengthening underprivileged and vulnerable consumers.
We are trying to help our consumers to enjoy more options in choice and promote price competition among distributors eventually to stabilize prices at home by providing price information of about 80 necessity goods including tofu, instant noodle, milk sold in diverse retailer format such as department store, discount store, supermarket, and traditional market.
In addition, we continue to survey consumer prices at home and abroad to identify and improve issues. In 2009, our Agency surveyed and compared local consumer price for the same items at three different store formats of department store, discount stores, and specialty stores in 11 cities of G7 member nations, major three Asian nations, and Korea.
To establish green consumption life, an index of advanced consumption life, we plan to 1) develop an index for green consumption capacity and a model for green home as an 粗nergy-saving environmentally-friendly home 2) develop and promoting educational programs for taking the initiative for green consumption, and 3) provide quality information to our consumers by conducting quality comparison test of green-labeled products.
In particular, our Organization is going to focus our capacity on strengthening consumer protection for the underprivileged and vulnerable class including the elderly, children, the challenged, and multi-cultural family. For example, we conducted a variety of tests and research on children play equipment, safety status of elderly consumers, improvement of consumption environment of multi-cultural family, and quality comparison for products for the disabled. Also, we set up a task force for Consumer PR for the Vulnerable in Feb to aggressively back up consumer protection for the underprivileged.
>>Korea Consumer Agency is a public organization to comprehensively promote diversified consumer policies of the Government as well as carry out consumer counseling and redress activities by the Framework Act on Consumer.
Consumer policy in Korea is largely divided by pre-emptive damage prevention and consumer redress after the fact. For prevention, we carry out activities of consumer information provision and consumer education. And, for consumer redress, we do consumer counseling and redress activities.
In particular, if consumer complaints or damages take place during one's use of a merchandise or service, a consumer counselor carries out counseling and providing information such as where to contact by guidelines for consumer dispute resolutionand other relevant law. And, if consumer redress is necessary, the consumer complaint is transferred to Consumer Redress Bureau by item so that consumer redress is taking place with agreed recommendation to both parties of a consumer and a business operator.
The person in charge of the consumer redress in question conducts fact-finding activities and helps compensation process through the agreed recommendation by the both parties of the consumer and the business. And the whole process shall be completed within 30 days after when the complaint is originally made.
If the business or the consumer does not accept the agreed recommendation determined by the person in charge in Consumer Redress Bureau, a request for settlement is made to Consumer Dispute Settlement Commission. The Commission shall make a settlement decision within 30 days from the day of the request. And, the settlement functions as judicial compromise.
>>Framework Act on Consumers, completely revised in 2007, reflects new policy paradigm shift to establishment of consumer sovereignty from consumer protection-oriented policy in the past. The Act itself changed its name to framework Act on Consumers from Consumer Protection Act while our organization changed its name to Korea Consumer Agency from the Korea Consumer Protection Board
Also, Consumer Association Lawsuit and Collective ADR (alternative dispute resolution) mechanism were introduced for consumer redress for massive number of victims suffering small amount of damages. The revised Act recognizes Consumer Association Lawsuit in which an organization fulfilling certain level of requirements seeks for ban or stop on violating activities of business.
Also, the revision grants an exception in which the CDSC at KCA carries out collective ADR process including monetary compensation. In addition, the revision also stipulates consumer Safety Center set up at KCA to give preferential consumer protection to the underprivileged in terms of safety including children and states consumer safety provisions such as collecting injury information and issuing consumer alert.
Meanwhile, the Act on the Consumer Protection in the Electronic Commerce Transactions, etc introduces online Escrow system and makes it obligatory for businesses using private information received such as shipping company to secure personal information. Also, a revision is on-going in order to strengthen responsibility of the telemarketing intermediaries.
>>With the advance of Information, Communications, and Technology and spread of cross-border transactions and economic cooperation among nations and regions such as the FTA, it is highly likely for number of cross-border complaints and damages to grow further. In reality, the number of cross-border consumer disputes filed to our Agency for the past five years amounted to 1,795 cases in total, indicating an increasing trend.
At KCA, we have the person in charge of cross-border consumer redress in place in Consumer Redress Bureau in order to carry out real consumer redress activities in cross-border transaction more efficiently. In addition, we are actively engaged in activities to prevent cross-border consumer damages through analysis and PR of the current status of damages such as top complaint location, top consumer location, top dispute cause, and contents of dispute. Also, the KCA is seeking ways to resolve the disputes by strengthening multilateral cooperation with International Organizations such as OECD and ICPEN (International Consumer Protection & Enforcement Network).
>>In order to resolve consumer issues, consumers should play their part. But, more fundamentally, role of the business should be stressed. Companies should embrace paradigm shift in consumer protection, since management toward consumer protection and customer satisfaction is not a choice but a must with top priority for the business to survive.
Business can upgrade product quality by listening to consumer voice and understanding consumer needs through consumer dispute settlement and redress process. This will lead companies to come up with a new idea for product development and achieve product innovation.
Enhancing consumer confidence by resolving consumer issues is core to strengthened corporate competitiveness. Not only companies but also nations should recognize that preparing measures to resolve simultaneously-occurring cross-border consumer complaints triggered by the rising number of cross-border transactions is the best strategy to secure competitive edge for long-term. Only companies that can satisfy difficult consumers can survive in the highly competitive market.

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Interview: Mr. Ahn Byong-man, Minister of Education, Science & Technology

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology is striving to secure core basic & source technologies by fostering highly-competitive global talents and building innovative capacity of universities and research institutes with an aim to develop future growth engines.
Interview with Mr. Ahn Byong-man, Minister of Education Science & Technology.

>>The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MEST) is pursuing various reform policies to strengthen the national competitiveness in education, science and technology under the vision to promote education, science and technology as a building block to turn Korea into a global first-class advanced country.
The education policy is especially focused on strengthening autonomy of the schools and improving the public education under the goal of nurturing students' creativity and consideration for others so that they may grow to become talents who can unleash creativity based on their knowledge and show consideration for others.
In addition, the MEST is striving to secure core basic & source technologies by fostering highly-competitive global talents and building innovative capacity of universities and research institutes with an aim to develop future growth engines.
This year, the MEST will see to it that the policies implemented so far take a firm root in schools and research institutes and produce fruitful results for the general public.
>>The main purpose of the education reform is to improve satisfaction with the public education through enhanced autonomy, diversity and accountability of schools, which will ultimately help reduce private education expenditure and cultivate creative human resources.
To this end, the MEST is taking concrete steps such as diversifying school types to provide greater options for students and parents and introducing and establishing the "admissions officer system" that takes into consideration students' potential and aptitude in highschool and university entrance test.
The measures such as the National Assessment of StudentsAcademic Performance, Teacher Evaluation System and School Information Disclosure System are also being implemented for the purpose of enhancing the autonomy and accountability of schools.
In terms of R&D, which are the main sectors that you are concentrating on to make the country an R&D hub ? How are you cooperating with global research centers and experts?
Among many factors required to make Korea a global R&D hub, the Korean government is paying a lot of attention to nurturing quality researchers and laying a solid research basis.
In this regard, the Korean government is implementing the projects such as WCU (World Class University) and WCI (World Class Institute) that are designed to enhance national R&D capability and foster excellent researchers. Many outstanding overseas scholars are invited to Korea through these projects to help cultivate highly-competitive Korean researchers and build capacity of Korean research institutes.
On top of that, the Korean government intends to create International Science Business Belt as a global R&D hub which involves the establishment of Basic Science Institute, construction of a heavy ion accelerator, creation of a basis for the business and building of a global living environment.
>>The Korean government has continued to expand its R&D investment even amid the global economic crisis and implemented various measures including tax benefit and deregulation in an effort to support corporate R&D centers and encourage the enterprises for boosting their R&D investments.
With such measures in place, the overseas companies in Korea are expected to be offered greater opportunities to participate in the R&D projects of the Government or the private sector of Korea and to benefit from the supportive measures for the corporate research centers to the same extent as domestic companies.
Meanwhile, the Korean companies' awareness of the need for cooperation with academia or research institutes still remains low, despite the diverse government-level efforts to facilitate cooperation among industry, academia and research institutes to constantly expand the R&D investments and improve the investment efficiency.
The Korean universities or research institutes, given this circumstance, will be able to carve out a new niche market by jointly participating in the national R&D projects with overseas companies in Korea which have abundant experiences of collaboration with academia or research institutions.
>>In May 2005, "Space Development Promotion Act" was enacted in Korea, providing a legal basis to carry out national space program in a more systematic way. Based on this Act, the Government established Space Development Promotion Basic Plan (Space Vision 2016, 2007~2016) defining the national space program for the next ten years.
The Basic Plan laid out the concrete action plans for the development of satellite and launching vehicle technology and strengthening of domestic space industry, workforce, and infrastructures, under the goal of attaining the indigenous space capabilities and ultimately joining the ranks of advanced countries in space.
Our country is currently working on KOMPSAT (Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite) Project with a view to accomplishing independence of technology with respect to earth observation satellite bus with high-resolution by 2016.
Currently KOMPSAT-2 is in its fourth year of operation since 2006, and KOMPSAT-5 & -3 are scheduled to be launched into low orbit by 2011. Also under development is KOMPSAT-3A that enables night observation with its infrared camera. Though not successful, we have gained valuable experiences in launching vehicle technologies through the development and launch of KSLV-1 (Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1).
Moreover, Korea's first geostationary orbit satellite, COMS (Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite), has successfully reached its targeted orbit after being launched from the Guiana Space Center, France on 27 June 2010. This COMS is currently in test operation, with its full operation scheduled by the end of this year.

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Are you qualified to be a World Cup referee?

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