Korea ‘Business Hub of Northeast Asia’ – Low Possibility

It is known that foreign companies operating Korea have negative opinion about the success of ‘Business Hub Nation in Northeast Asia’ being pursued by Korean Government.

It is the result of the survey for 52 CEOs of foreign companies performed from 1st of October to 31st October by the joint of Dong-A Ilbo and International Trading Research (Manager Hyun O-suk) of KOTRA.

It is the first trial that a media company assessed comprehensively the strategy of ‘Business Hub Nation in Northeast Asia’ from the CEO of foreign companies operating in Korea.

According to this survey, the CEOs do not have sufficient information as well as have negative opinion on the strategy of ‘Business Core Nation in Northeast Asia’. It reflects that the government did not perform the promotion to attract foreign capital.

The reason for the CEOs have negative opinion on strategy of ‘Business Hub Nation in Northeast Asia’ is that investment in Korea is not prospective compared to China, Japan or other countries.

According to the survey, the CEOs responded satisfactory only for two questionnaires of 10; they are satisfied only for ‘marketability’, ‘human resources’ and they are not satisfied from rest 8 questionnaires.

Particularly, they indicated three factors to be improved for Korea to be appear as ‘Business Core Nation in Northeast Asia’; the rigidity of labor market, administrative intervention and increase of labor cost.

The lower English ability compared to Hong Kong and Singapore is another factor for a foreign company to advance in Korea Market.

Another obstacle to attract foreign capital is inconvenient educational and medical facilities for foreign businessmen and their children.

In this survey, CEOs of 52 foreign companies operating from 9 countries (US, UK, Germany, Japan, etc) in Korea including President of Du Point Korea attended. The survey was performed by questionnaires and interviews.

Mi-Kyung Jung mickey@donga.com