[Editorial] Is National Competitiveness Being Ignored?

Although Korea maintains its ranking of 2003, the 15th spot, on the list of national competitiveness rankings, which is released by International Management Developers (IMD) based in Switzerland, the details of the list bode ill for the future of our country. Korea was overtaken by China last year, has been overtaken by India in this year’s report. Compared with the ascension tendency of the other Asian countries, only Korea’s competitiveness continues to be in a state of stalemate and stagnation.

In particular, the labor-management relationship and university competitiveness remain at the bottom, ranking 60th and 59th respectively, suggesting a clear solution for this problem. By increasing the level of university education, and stabilizing the labor-management relationship, we can expect a considerable increase in our national competitiveness level. In contrast, we will only be faced with the serious situation that causes us to be anxious only about the structural crisis of our society.

The problem is how to solve this problem more effectively. First of all, every relevant person should share in the spirit of crisis. The government should concentrate their administrating power on this particular field with high priority. Though the goal is to increase and stabilize the level of university education and labor-management relationship to a global level, the current situation inside the country makes it difficult to take an optimistic view.

The labor-management relationship should seek mutual survival and law-abiding order through cooperation and negotiation rather than avoiding power confrontations, extremity cornering, and unlawfulness. It is time for the two sides, labor and management, to take responsibility for the problem.

University education should be also altered. In order to reduce the gigantic outflow of foreign currency due to the rush of overseas studying, the large-scale opening of the education market is indispensable.

In fact, the red light for national competitiveness was turned on a long time ago. If it is ignored more, the proper healing period can be missed. Accordingly, the priority of the national administration after the general election should be to see the country from a wider standpoint, not a limited view. That is the kind reformation that can save the whole country.