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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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 Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:14 am Post subject: |
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| excitinghead wrote: |
| Pluto wrote: |
So? How many foreign shares are on the KRX?
Moreover, Korea is a service based economy with more than its fair share of capital entering the country. Everything is fair game in a globalized economy and I reckon that Korea is coming out ahead with everything on balance. |
While I agree with the sentiment, Korea definitely isn�t a service-based economy. While most countries at the same level of development certainly are, Korea is quite unique in that it�s manufacturing sector is still the biggest sector of its economy, and what�s more it is HUGE. On top of that it�s currently facing a crisis, as Korea can�t compete with China on labor costs, and it still lags Japan in technological innovation. Korean business and the government are aware of the seriousness of the issue, but the latter in particular has yet to make the politically painful reforms that are required. The education sector needs to instill more creativity for one, and we all know how well that�s doing with all the high-school kids sleepily rote-learning multi-choice questions for the big University Entrance test in 27 days.
Knowing all this makes certain tensions in Korean society, and hence domestic politics, much easier to understand. I find it all fascinating myself, and partially because of the urgency of things: the consequences of doing nothing are pretty dire, and could see Korea slipping down the league table of economies from 11th to 20th or so in 10-15 years time unless some pretty radical changes are made pretty soon. Women's low position here making the birth rate one of the lowest in the world isn't helping things either!
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That's very true. Korea has been ahead of the RIB economies (BRIC - China) but Brazil and India moved up and knocked Korea down a couple pegs. (Amazing Russia is behind Brazil. Sad.) I think Korea kind of maxed out at 11.
But like I've said elsewhere, reunification if done the way the Chaebols would want, will bring South Korea a very cheap labor pool in the north and natural resources. Of course, there's a huge ass infrastructure to rebuild but if the Chaebols just cherry picked it might serve them well. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:53 am Post subject: |
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From the FT several weeks ago. |
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Pluto
Joined: 19 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2007 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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| excitinghead wrote: |
| Pluto wrote: |
So? How many foreign shares are on the KRX?
Moreover, Korea is a service based economy with more than its fair share of capital entering the country. Everything is fair game in a globalized economy and I reckon that Korea is coming out ahead with everything on balance. |
While I agree with the sentiment, Korea definitely isn�t a service-based economy. While most countries at the same level of development certainly are, Korea is quite unique in that it�s manufacturing sector is still the biggest sector of its economy, and what�s more it is HUGE. On top of that it�s currently facing a crisis, as Korea can�t compete with China on labor costs, and it still lags Japan in technological innovation. Korean business and the government are aware of the seriousness of the issue, but the latter in particular has yet to make the politically painful reforms that are required. The education sector needs to instill more creativity for one, and we all know how well that�s doing with all the high-school kids sleepily rote-learning multi-choice questions for the big University Entrance test in 27 days.
Knowing all this makes certain tensions in Korean society, and hence domestic politics, much easier to understand. I find it all fascinating myself, and partially because of the urgency of things: the consequences of doing nothing are pretty dire, and could see Korea slipping down the league table of economies from 11th to 20th or so in 10-15 years time unless some pretty radical changes are made pretty soon. Women's low position here making the birth rate one of the lowest in the world isn't helping things either!
If anyone�s interested, I go into all that in much greater detail on my blog here:
http://thegrandnarrative.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/manufacturing-childcare-and-salarymen-why-korea-is-a-such-fascinating-place-to-study/ |
I certainly can't say you're not well informed. I was just taking the POV from the service based Hagwan industry. My mistake.
It really seems that Korea needs some political leadership in order to diversify its economy. Of course that would require foreign investment.  |
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