McKinsey Quarterly country report on South Korea features five essays that examine the country’s present and future:
As the “Asian miracle” continues to unfold, perhaps the most intriguing—and least understood—of the region’s fast-growing economies is South Korea. During the four decades following the Korean War, it evolved from one of the most abject states in the region to one of the most vibrant, a manufacturing powerhouse that has virtually eradicated poverty, malnutrition, and illiteracy. In a region of fast growth, since the 1960s Korea has increased its per capita GDP more quickly than any of its neighbors.
Despite these successes, the country remains largely unknown to outsiders. It attracts few foreign tourists, and English speakers are still rare. Geographically, Korea finds itself squeezed among three titans: China, Japan, and Russia—a position that confers great challenges and, potentially, great benefits. Economically, the country is poised at a critical juncture. While its mighty manufacturing engine powered it to great heights in the last century, to thrive in the new one it will need to develop an equally strong service sector. South Korea has already shown that it’s willing to invest; it spends a bigger percentage of its GDP on research and development than Germany, the United Kingdom, or the United States do (exhibit).
The essays that follow offer probing looks at these issues. Morgan Stanley’s Stephen S. Roach and Sharon Lamm and McKinsey’s Richard Dobbs and Roland Villinger offer separate takes on Korea’s economic challenges. Christopher Graves, CEO of Ogilvy Public Relations, provides a marketer’s view of the steps Korea could take to build a national “brand.” Shen Dingli, a professor at Fudan University, distills five strategies for continued prosperity. Bill Emmott, former editor-in-chief of the Economist, addresses the country’s geopolitical position, with a prescription for turning geography into an advantage.
Give it a read — registration is free.
(HT to reader)
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Looks very interesting. Thanks for the link.
Here’s an interesting editorial in the FT, that compares livability of London with Seoul.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b423b1b4-532e-11df-813e-00144feab49a.html
I’ve never been to London, but Seoul doesn’t seem so bad after reading this.
That FT article, it’s funny. Looks like the writer has a case of a common affliction which affects those who have been away from a London home to a different world. The route from Heathrow (especially if it’s not through the new terminal 5) back to your London flat always hits you first. With the old terminals permanently undergoing cardboard flanked constructions papered with HSBC ads giving you annoying run-down on the global culture, from the arrivals floor full of milling crowd who have all just arrived from different parts of the third world, to the delays on the old rickety underground.
However, with a few pints down at the pub with your mates from all over the world, you recover in no time, and find that there’s no place like smelly old London.
The articles are interesting, thanks.
London is on my list of “no want/no go”. There are better, less expensive, nicer places to go that do not have such an onerous security apparatus as well. Heathrow is enough reason not to fly there too.
I love visiting London, I’d hate to live there. You could only live a decent lifestyle there if you had money to burn. Heathrow is a crap airport, Inchoen is far better. Last time we visited we went for lunch with my parents at the airport, 4 sandwiches, two beers, one water, one coffee and the bill was about 50 quid!
All my mates in London always complain about everything, the weather, how expensive everything is, their job and it does get a bit boring. I would much rather live in Seoul than London despite Seoul’s problems. If I had the money I’d move back to the Oxford area, very beatiful, much cheaper than London (though still pricey), good communication links, fantastic bookshops, great restaurants.
Oxford or Oxfordshire? The traffic jam is attrocious into Oxford town centre. Get 2MB there as mayor. He’ll bulldoze and drag a river from somewhere for waterways. Might not sit well with the Oxford Green Party.
I find that those who grew up around London don’t complain. However, most of those who have come to in their adult years from smaller towns do.
In answer to your question Yuna I’d like to live in one of the villages just outside Oxford. Woodstock is a pretty little town, you get the country vibe yet your still very close to the city. A friend of mine used to live in Woodstock and we cycled to the city centre in less than an hour, obviously a bus or car is quicker. A good way of avoiding the traffic in Oxford is to use the ‘Park and Ride’ facilities, why more people don’t I’ll never understand.
If I lived in Oxford itself I’d buy a canal boat and live on the Thames or one of the tributaries (Cherwell is nice too), there are some really nice houseboats around there and it would beat paying half a million pounds to live on a terrace house street near The Meadows.
Neighbours with David Cameron before he moves down to London, eh?
I stayed for a little while near Witney.
Incheon airport is quite nice, but I wasn’t so taken when they built that new terminal, and put in the train. And speaking of trains, what a big dull thud that subway to Incheon was. That was the builder’s dream – getting a Million USD / day from the Government as a subsidy. Now it’s been sold to Korail for a Billion USD, so they can put KTX service in there – a much better idea so people can come right from the south, but they should have built express tracks. You can’t have the local and the KTX sharing the same tracks. Does nobody think ahead ? Unfortunately it’s like a lot of things in Korea – no planning, other than who is getting the subsidy cash.
“Unfortunately it’s like a lot of things in Korea – no planning, other than who is getting the subsidy cash.”
That’s quite a charge.
The guy who wrote the FT article (#2 above) also had an interview in the Chosun Daily over the weekend. He was impressed by the Han River (now it has a few trees about) and the ability of people in Seoul to speak English (better now than in Hong Kong, which he thinks is getting worse for English), but was not so impressed by the shopping (Apkujong-dong) and general ease of walking/getting around. I think he must have gone to Hyundai Dept. Store and thought they don’t do much to change their layout, etc. compared with places in Tokyo. Also he thought the subway information was difficult to understand compared with other subway systems such as Tokyo, London, etc. (I always thought Seoul’s system was pretty easy to understand so not sure why he thought that)
He was not very impressed by the slogans for Seoul – Hi Seoul and Sparkling Korea – he couldn’t understand what type of image they were meant to be projecting. Can’t remember much else, and sorry I don’t have any link to it as I saw the paper version.
“He was impressed by the Han River…” – which is mostly unimpressive
“…and the ability of people in Seoul to speak English” – hahaha
“(better now than in Hong Kong…)” – a ridiculous claim
“but was not so impressed by the shopping (Apkujong-dong)” – his only reasonable observation?
“…and general ease of walking/getting around.” – getting around 서울 is cake.
“Also he thought the subway information was difficult to understand compared with other subway systems such as Tokyo, London, etc.” – totally wrong
From the FT article:
“…stations are being overhauled into gleaming hubs …”
“…itself into a major passenger and logistics hub…”
Is the writer being sponsored by “the” hub ?
The writer of the Fin Times piece mentioned above is Tyler Brûlé (damn that’s hard to type), the (in)famous editor of the (in)famous Monocle magazine (or: Style, Style, Style, Economics, Politics, Retail and more Style – and handmade 일본 wool socks for eating your noodles in, of course). The next-to-latest issue featured a healthy ‘special insert’ on Seoul. The city was praised and promoted as very much a ‘watch this space’ type of place.
It’s great news – First come the gays, then the girls then the industry, or in this case first come the Asians, then the gays then the girls then the industry.
I don’t find it surprising he got a good impression. I just got a out-of-the-blue text from a British friend visiting Korea on her orchestra tour, and she said “She’s loving it” – and we hadn’t even kept in much contact.
So it’s perfectly reasonable he got a good impression. He’s not teaching English in Hupo.
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