BBC – South Korea as a Place to do Business in Scrutiny (Oct 6)

South Korea has been judged to have one of thefastest growing economies in the region (findings of OECD) The country which is famous for electronics and ship building has 2/3 of its population earning more money than they did two decades ago.

Issues: Too little is being invested in education and theres a problem with aging population.
Reform of the public pension system is urgent. Koreas reputation as a place to do business has come under scrutiny yet again the nation. Corrupt practices and family run conglomerates.

Opportunities: Praises the government system for the push privatization of its banking system which makes it more profitable and financially sound.

Simon Littlewood, President of Asia Now Quotes:
“The need to improve transparency in corporate government arises from the fact that 42% of listed companies in korea are now in the hands of foreign investors.”

“In terms of growth, South Korea is not a Tiger anymore, the days of double digits are probably gone. There was a brief recession in 2003. Growth this year is gonna be probably 3.6 or 3.7% not particularly high, comparing with Vietnam thats 12% and China thats at 10%.”

“Theres an urgent need to stimulate demand and decrease the reforms required to increase export competitiveness take quite a while. There was a fairly obvious attempt to stimulate demand by making short term borrowing available that lead to all kinds of issues.”

“There are other challenges that Korean economy has to face including for example the need to increase spending on RND because innovation will reduce cost it will continue market reform becausereducing cost is key to export competitiveness and also the equality of development some parts of Korea are well behind Seoul andthey need to spread that out.”

Duration : 0:3:40

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