Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nuthatch]

S.Korea Fears Beef Protests Driving Away Investors

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-korea-protests.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=south+korea&st=nyt&oref=slogin

[Ya-ta Boy]

It may be, but it is not the only reason foreigners are pulling out of the market. At best, it's a contributing factor. But I applaude the PM for trying to scare the public with this piece of information. It's never bad to remind people that there are consequences to their actions.

[aka Dave]

There's a lot of bad news in that article. Slowing growth, core inlfation, commodoties inflation (it's not just oil, it's lots of natural resources being gobbled up by China), and concern about political stability to deal with these challenges.

Investors probably could care less if Koreans don't eat American beef. What they're worried about is a crippled presidency that can't respond to economic issues because of the domestic uproar.

The worst part is, the inflation feeds on the depreciating won, which further increases inflation, because the won can't purchase oil and other commodities that the Korean economy requires. More inflation, weaker won, more inflation... etc.

Personally, I'd hope they'd clamp down on inlflation and raise interest rates, just cause I don't want to see the won go into the toilet.

[seoulsucker]

Wow...I didn't hear about the raid on the offices of the protest organizers. Are these guys still on the run?

[TexasPete]

There's so many reasons for people to NOT invest here, but turning on the CNN and seeing people bring down buses and light themselves on fire over BEEF has got to be driving more than a few people away. I read somewhere a while back that foreign investment is down $8B over the past 7 years but i can't find the source now.

[ulsanchris]

Do you think any businessmen in Seoul will be eager to invest and spend time in korea after witnessing these protests? The protesters even went inside a hotel next to the chosun ilbo's building and assaulted some of the staff. Do you think foriegn guests there are going to have a favourable impression of korea after that?

These protests are definitely not helping Korea.

[Ramen]

[it's full of stars]

^^^ What he said.

[endo]

[whatever]

[Ramen]

[regicide]

[Justin Kimberlake]

[Rteacher]

Based mostly on my own experiences as an anti-Vietnam war protester, I'm inclined to think that a relatively very small number of hardcore communist/anarchist agent provocateurs can strategically radicalize a large number of relatively innocent participants by violently attacking and provoking the police to attack the general mass of demonstrators.

The mass media then further distorts and amplifies what's going on...

[Adventurer]

Well, the government lost a lot of confidence among investors. It was supposed to be a business friendly government, and now it has very little support among its people, so that doesn't encourage investors to do anything but pull billions of dollars out of Korea. Korea is not a foreigner friendly country like some other Asian states which is demonstrated by the banking practices that are often anti-foreign. If you have anti-foreign banking practices, why would anyone want to invest? If your nephew tells you the locals don't respect contracts, and you're an American businessman that's not going to encourage you to invest. You will park your money somewhere else. Korea needs to become more business friendly, foreigner friendly, and fight against corruption. Or, it will go back to its former Global South standard, and it will decline. They will have no one to blame but themselves, if they don't give this president a chance to improve things. They should give 2MB a chance. I don't like him much, but Korea needs some changes.