Posted September. 21, 2000 14:16,
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development(UNCTAD) predicted that Korea would follow a course different from Southeast Asian countries by maintaining 5-6 percent annual economic growth for the coming 20 years.
Disclosing this in its annual report published Sept. 19, the UNCTAD report said that the Korean economy is made up of less than 10 percent of farming population out of the total work force and that its per capita income is commensurate with two-thirds that of the average European nation, thus entering a new phase of economic development.
The report further pointed out that Korea`s economic crisis was similar to crises experienced by Austria, Finland, Italy and Germany in the 1950s and that its economic growth rate recorded an 8 percent annual average from 1973 to 1992, but that the growth rate would be somewhat slackened thereafter, as being experienced by Japan.
In association with Korea`s dependence on domestic demand and foreign markets, the report also pointed out that Korea needs to learn lessons Japan learned in the 1990s, which gave rise to problems with its export-oriented economic development and from Western European countries` experiences after World War II.