Korea’s Improving Business Climate

Deloitte and Touche, the British accountants, publishes the Deloitte Competitiveness Index (DCI) of the world’s 25 rich countries as business locations, and Korea is forecast to climb eight notches from this year’s 13th to number five by 2010.

According to the report titled “Trading Places” released by Deloitte, based on six sub-indices, Korea ranked fifth in terms of human capital and openness, 11th for enterprise, 15th for macroeconomic stability and innovation, and 17th for investment, placing the overall ranking at 13.

The United States topped the list as the best place to run businesses in, followed by North European countries such as Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. Germany ranked fifth, followed by the U.K., with Japan and France coming eighth and 12th, respectively. India and China’s rankings were 22 and 24, respectively, with Russia at the bottom.

This report predicted in its five-year outlook that the U.S. would maintain its good performance, but the rankings of Germany, the U.K., Japan, and France were forecast to drop to six (by one level), 12 (six levels), 10 (two levels), and 15 (three levels), respectively.

In particular, Korea was forecast to jump as many as eight places from this year by 2010, which puts the country in the fifth ranking, higher than that of Germany and Japan. China and India were estimated to rise to 23rd and 19th by one and three notches, respectively.

The consulting firm’s DCI, unlike the national competitiveness indices of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), is unique in that forecast of the next five years are provided based on past 20-year trends (1984 to 2004).

pisong@donga.com