South Korea: Where Investment and Business Blossoms
Country Background
• Name of Country: South Korea
• Neighboring countries: China to the west, Japan to the east and North Korea to the north. Southern half of the Korean Peninsula, bordering the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea.
• Territorial size of South Korea: 96,920 sq km
• Population size: 48,860,500
• Political system: Democracy
• Current prime minister: KIM Hwang-sik
• Political party in power: Democratic United Party or DUP
• Form of law: Combination of European civil law, Anglo-American law, and Chinese classical thought
• Economic system: high-tech industrialized economy
• GDP and GDP per capita: $1.574 trillion; $32,100
• Major natural resources: coal, tungsten,
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Currently, the FTAs with Chile, Singapore, EFTA, ASEAN, India, and the EU took effect, and the FTAs with the US and peru await ratification. Invest Korea provides the following percentages: the countries mentioned above account for 61% of global GDP, 46.2% of global trade, and 39.7% of global population. As Senior Commercial Officer, John Fogarasi argues in his video presentation Why Korea? Korea is a country of nearly 50 million people, with the 15th largest economy in the world. Its economy is nearly 1 trillion dollars and is in the same GDP lead as Australia, Mexico, and India. In addition, South Korea’s GDP per capita is over $19,000 leaving them in a remarkable position in the world’s economy. Apart from Japan, Korea has the highest GDP per capita in Asia. Invest Korea’s statistical data shows that Korea recorded a 6.2% economic growth in 2010. “From 1997 to 2010, nominal GDP rose over 500 times from USD 2BN to USD 1,007BN” (Invest Korea). All these statistics show that Korea has had an amazing turnover over the years, from being on the level of some of the poorest nations of Africa in the early 60s with a GDP per capita over 100 dollars to becoming 15th in the world economy. “From 2000 to 2010, over 610,000 companies were newly founded with an average of 56,000 companies set up every year for 11 years” (Invest Korea). They argue that global companies are using the korean market as a “test bed” for their products. What this means
As well as the fact that their trade deficit is 4,899 USD millions, with a reasonable interest rate and inflation of 1.8% economically they are doing quite well when being compared to the U.S. As a matter of fact their inflation rate is not the same but with-in the same range for most years throughout the last 10 years. (Trading Economics, South Korean Balance of Trade, n.d) (Aneki.com, Ranking and Records, United States vs. Korea South) (Inflation.eu, Worldwide Inflation Data, Inflation South Korea 2012, n.d) (Global Rates Com, Fed Federal Funds Rate, American Central Bank’s Interest rate, n.d) (UN Data. A World of Information, Per Capita GDP at Current Prices USD, South Korea) (Index Mundi, Unemployment Rate South Korea, Historical Data Graphs per year) (U.S. Inflation Calculator, Current U.S. Inflation Rate 2003-2013,) (Inflation.eu, World Wide Inflation Data, Historical Inflation south Koreas – CPI Inflation)
Following the Korean War and the rebuilding of their societies, both North Korea and South Korea’s economies have depreciated and fluctuated. With their different economic systems, one using the military and the other using trade, they both have received different results.
Along with the importance and power of the country itself, people must also consider the power and importance of transnational corporations created in the Asian Tigers, especially the South Korean Chaebols (Daewoo, LG, Hyundai and Samsung). These TNCs still play a large part in the global economy, with these brand names being known around the developed and developing world. It is unlikely that any TNCs from currently developing economies will be able to rival these existing TNCs because of set-up costs and levels of technology needed to produce products which are on par with existing ones. Equally, the existing TNCs have the advantages of brand loyalty and economies of scale which newly formed companies will not yet have. In this respect, certain features of the Asian Tigers are heavily linked to, and will continue to play a large part in the future of the global economy.
Thus far, I have laid out some of the most important arguments in the extant literature on the East Asian Miracle with particular reference to South Korea. In this section, I integrate the preceding two sections on the existing literature and propose an alternative theory. In brief sum, the existing developmental state literature, including that specific to South Korea, argues that the developmental state causes economic growth through export-led industrialization. I reverse the order of two links in that theoretical chain. Specifically, I argue that the developmental state does not give rise to export-led growth. In fact, it is the inception of the export-led growth strategy that gives rise to the developmental state, which emerges as a
South Korea and the United States have different ideas on a lot of things. Looking into South Korea’s way of life puts a different perspective on how someone across the world lives their life a little differently than me, even though they could be in the same financial state. My research will look at the comparison of their family and social life, Government, Religion, education, economy and health care,and how it differs from the U.S. The U.S. Population is 318.9 million and South Korea’s 50.22 million. The life expectancy in South Korea is 81.37 years old, and The US doesn’t differ much with it being 78.74 years old. There is a lot less free time in South Korea with people working an average of 2071 hours and here an average of 1788 hours. The unemployment rate there is also a lot smaller than here with there being all kinds of jobs for any level of work experience. South Korea has gone through a great economic rise in the last 50 years going from one of the poorest countries to the fifteenth largest economies.
North Korea, also referred to as the bridge between Japan and China, is located in the eastern part of Asia. North Korea is half a pennisula, particularly the northern half, in the Korean Peninsula. North Korea, is a bit smaller than Mississippi, and about eighty percent of its land it mountainous (Kummer, 19-20)
For example, the Kaesong Industrial Complex, an economic co-operation zone where South Korean companies hire North Korean workers, is spreading awareness of South Korea’s economic and technological progress through North Korean society. North Korean workers are paid well to work with South Koreans, producing goods that are far superior to anything produced by North Korean
2) Strategic Location: Korea is the closest area on the Asian mainland to Japan, making it a strategic location for maintaining a direct land border with other Asian countries and making Manchuria into a sphere of influence.
North Korea, officially the Democratic People, known as The Republic of Korea, is East Asian country of Pyongyang. At its northern border are China on the Yalu River and Russia on the Tumen River, in the four northeastern corner the country("North Korea - New World Encyclopedia," n.d., p. xx).
After the division the difference in their politics, also made them have distinct economy. North Korea being a self-reliant regime, which means that, everything lies within the hands of the leader Kim Jong-Il. They have very limited foreign relation with the West; majority of their trade is with Republic of china and Russia. Therefore North Korea has an isolated economy that mostly relies on itself with no advanced technology; For example, number of internet users is less than 0.1 percent throughout North Korea. Moreover, factors like military expeditions and crop failures (due to destructive farming practices, lack of machinery, and poor soil quality) have drained countries revenue, which in turn affected the economy. Consequently, leading to bad living conditions for the citizens, Lack of revenue initiated an economic crisis that have made people suffer from malnutrition and deprive from good living
At the end of World War II, Korea was a poor former agricultural colony of Japan. But the rapid growth of Korea’s industrial economy has been remarkable. The economy of South Korea is now the third-largest in Asia and the 13th largest in the world by GDP as of 2007. To trace back the economic development of South Korea, the former president Park Chung-Hee played a pivotal role, and was credited for shifting its focus to export-oriented favoring a few large conglomerates. Unlike his predecessors, Park showed a strong commitment to economic development, believing good economic performance as a primary means for enhancing his political legitimacy. Under the President Park Chung-Hee’s era, the government played a dominating role in a
North Korean is a country that located in East Asia in the northern half of the Korean peninsula. On the north, it is bordered by China on the Yalu River and Russia on the Tumen River. At its southern border, South Korea is
North Korea’s economy is a centrally planned system. Although, there have been limited attempts at decentralization, Pyongyang continues to follow a centrally planned system as of 2015. Despite the collapse of communist governments worldwide in 1991, North Korea still remains isolated from the global economy[2]. Why is North Korea’s economy in such bad shape? The government tightly controls international trade and investment. Limited foreign participation is accepted in the economy through special economic zones. The financial sector is tightly controlled by the state. Calculating North Korea’s GDP is close to impossible, since they take very little part in public trade. Because of the lack of trade, real output is hard to nail down, resulting in a wide discrepancy of externally calculated GDP. Also, North Korea doesn’t publish their national income data. Due to this, the CIA and other well known associations and banks can only measure their purchasing power parity. Between
Many people are hesitant about investing in South Korea since they are currently in a state of war with North Korea, and incidents involving military occur from time to time to increase tension between two countries. Although South Korea’s political violence resulted in an increase in risk, the country itself shows general peace and stability due to an armistice agreement that has lasted for around 60 years. South Korea did not have a single history of political violence directed against foreign investors, and they were able to accumulate USD 19 billion of foreign direct investment in 2014. Foreign direct investments have become essential part of the Korean economy as the foreign invested companies in Korea now account for 13% of sales, 12% of all
Our modern world of business is one that is wealthier than its ever been before, and countries seem to be experiencing ground breaking economic growth, however this was not always the case and many countries have fought very hard to reach the economic success they have today. With billions of people on earth, there are billions of wealthy, and billions of people living in horrible poverty. For a long time, Korea was considered a country full of extreme poverty, suffering the effects of war, with very limited resources to survive. Many wondered if Korea would ever be able to blossom with its struggles in the early 1950s. More than 60 years later, South Korea’s economy has grown immensely and become a prominent figure in the international market, with one of the world’s best economies. The biggest question with South Korea is: how did one of the poorest countries in the world manage to escape the desperate grips of poverty? And achieve such incredible success, what efforts and strategy were made to bring Korea out of poverty?