SOUTH KOREA TO PLAY ROLE MODEL IN ASIA By Bambang Purwanto

Jakarta, Sept 12 (ANTARA) - South Korea has been incredibly moving from a condition where it was considered poor in 1962 with a GDP per capita of US$87 compared to more than its current US$20,000 with a trade value of US$730 billion.

According to some experts, the remarkable achievement which was reached by South Korea only in four decades enabled the country to act as a role model among other Asian countries.

Dr. Moon-Joong TCHA, senior fellow of the Korea Development Institute which is the country's leading think tank said recently before visiting journalists from different countries that Korea was one of the most devastated countries in the 1950s.

In an effort to survive, Dr Moon said, South Korea, liked or disliked, had to beg foreign aid, particularly from the United States, to save the country from famine, malnutrition and hygienic problems while resources were utilized for import substitution.

There was no hope for exports to be a source of foreign exchange as exports reached merely US$40million in 1953, of which level as maintained throughout the decade, he said, adding that foreign and foreign aid and expenditure of the UN armies became a major source of domestic capital formation.

In a bid to deal with the problem, South Korea took economic take-off with outward-looking development strategy by building a working mechanism with each sector played a role for export promotion, he said.

"Then President Park (Park Chung-hee was a Republic of Korea Army general and the President of South Korea from 1961 to 1979) called the meetings with ministers, bankers and business people to check export performance almost every month," he added.

South Korea considered human resource was a locomotive in transforming from a labor-intensive to capital and knowledge-intensive economy, it considered very important giving people proper education including that in the field of language with which they were expected to be able to communicate well -- reading, writing, understanding and spreading information.

Those endeavors led South Korea to developing heavy and chemical industries in the 1970s when it started to produce iron and steel, electronics, petrochemical products, ship-building, machinery and automobiles.

He pointed out that the Korean economy then entered the stage of growth by innovation which is based on knowledge, creativity and exploration, and at this stage, innovation and institution are more important than economic resources.
However, the Korea economy is facing various challenges, and needs special efforts to overcome these to regain the growth momentum by improving institutional environment, enhancing core competency and integration to the world, he said.


Role model

South Korea should act as a role model in conveying (its experience) to other countries, especially those in Asia, said Kato Koichi, a member of Japan?s LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) , at a recent J-Global forum which was attended by journalists from different countries in South Korea on 5 to 6 September, 2010.

"We must share with them the processes of solution, and the mental development involved in the struggles. Of course, there is no single answer. Each country must define standards of affluence to match its on situation and needs," Kato said.

Discussions must emerge from the context of the light and darkness, the joys and the pains, inevitably created by economic development .

"Those debates will, hopefully in time, lead to the discovery of common qualities shared throughout Asia, with people's eyes coming to sparkle in the quest for true affluence. At that point, those qualities will emerge as the new global standard for prosperity," he said.

Meanwhile, Bernardo M. Villegas, Ph.D of University of Asia and the Pacific in Manila, said South Korea is the richest among the so-called emerging markets which are expected to dominate the global economy in the next decade.

South Korea is the only one among the four bigger economies of the last century considered as an emerging engine of growth. "The other three -- Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan -- have very limited domestic markets to make an impact on the global economy," Bernardo said.

Given this unique distinction, South Korea can use its clout in the G-20 to shape the future direction of the world economy, he added.

South Korea, though also faced by the challenge of a demographic winter, is not yet a tired economy like Japan that may face another lost decade as a result of the recent great recession.

"It has powerful industrial conglomerates like Samsung, Hyundai and Korean Electric Power Corporation that have strong presence especially in Asia. South Korean products have successfully challenged the once dominant Japanese exports," he said.

He pointed out that as an emerging market that already has the status of a first world economy in terms of per capita income, efficient infrastructure and high technology industries, South Korea can play a major role of mediating between the G-20 members that are already developed economies ad those that are still classified as emerging economies.
The G-20 groups South Africa, Canada, Mexico, the United States, Argentina, Brazil, China, Japan, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Turkey, European Union, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and Australia.