[SEOUL G20 BUSINESS SUMMIT]Korea Needs to Lead the G20 Nations by Education Example

It’s debatable in which field South Korea has developed more rapidly: The creation of arguably Asia’s strongest democracy or its transformation into a liberal capitalist market. Certainly, the two tend to go hand in hand. While recognizing how far South Korea has come, one needs to consider how much further South Korea and most other G20 nations need to go to embrace free trade, which will benefit us all.

As much as the Republic of Korea pushes for various free trade agreements, it has done little to educate its population on the benefits and inevitability of free trade.

Korea’s smart phone market is good example. Today 5 million South Koreans use smart phones, making up 10 percent of total phone users. The world mind share leader in 3G and later smart phones has been Apple’s iPhone.

Yet South Korea’s governmenal authorities have labored to keep Apple products out as long as possible under the guise of product testing. While it publicly talks up free trade, critics accuse the Korean government of protectionist actions, including the enaction of laws that require locally developed technologies to be used in smart phones.

When I looked into iPhone and Samsung Galaxy smart phone components, I was startled to discover how much the two phones have in common. Since these component creators have their manu-facturing centers located around the world, it was impossible from my exami-nation to determine if, say, a German component had been manufactured in Germany, Malaysia, China or elsewhere.

In other words, it is not an entirely fair description to say that an iPhone is an American phone or a Galaxy is a Korean device.

This is not simply a reflection of Korean manufacturing. It represents how the real world operates. The ultimate losers are the national interests and companies that misguided bureaucrats try to foster and protect.

As Korea and other formerly developing companies have already discovered, manufacturing centers can be surprisingly mobile. Today, China dominates global manufacturing, but tomorrow the next leading manufacture centers could be India or even Vietnam and Thailand. As these kinds of wrong-headed policies work their unintended influences, technology and innovation will naturally migrate to friendlier environments.

Reading the newspapers, one would expect the G20 national leaders to ponder how to lead the world economy for the remainder of this century. But in truth, it is ultimately up to them to find the political means to catch up with what is happening under their feet.

South Korea, being a dynamic society, has repeatedly led by example. It needs to use this spot-lit opportunity to call for more than just trade liberalization. Korea should advocate better recognition of how already incredibly integrated the world has become. Korea should publicly pledge to better educate its citizens on how the 21st century effectively operates - and why narrow-minded nationalism is both antiquated and damaging to everyone’s interests.

Tom Coyner President, Soft Landing Consulting