[SEOUL G20 BUSINESS SUMMIT]G20 plus B20, Do We Need Both?

With the City of Seoul decked out in its once-a-decade Sunday Best, the G20 Meeting on November 11 and 12 is certainly going to turn media attention to Korea. Alongside the official govern-mental and heads of state delegations attending the G20 a separate but related gathering of the world’s captains of industry will be taking place in Seoul at the same time. The importance of this is twofold.

First, the role of the super-large, trans-national corporations is as impactful as that of many national states. Financial institutions, for example, are subject to prudential oversight by their home authorities but since they have an extensive global footprint it is sometimes not clear exactly who the “home” authorities are. New products which may have a higher risk element may, as a result, be domiciled in a country where the regulations are more lax than others. This is known as regulatory arbitrage.

More than ever it is important that governments cooperate to align their governance of the borderless business milieu. So, to have the referees and the players in the same place at the same time is a pretty good idea and can help behind-the-scenes discussions.

Second, and from a more local point of view, to bring business leaders to Korea at the same time as the political leaders is good for this country.

Korea has become a far more open economy than it was a decade ago. But still there is a major marketing job to be done in order to continue to attract inter-national corporations to Korea. This is because of the way Korea is perceived.

Ask many CEOs of foreign companies operating in Korea what one of their major obstacles to growing their business is and they will answer it is the difficulty of persuading head office to have confidence in this country.

At this stage it is not possible to be totally objective. Personal views, favorable or unfavorable experiences in the past, recent news items on the television networks can all have a bearing on such choices.

In my previous experience as head of Invest Korea, I even met executives of companies who frankly told me their corporate memory was not favorable to Korea due to some event in the distant past, even though they themselves did not really know why and though they had no personal bad feelings.

It is not always realized by local officials just how much the foreign CEO living in Korea acts as an ambassador or a champion within his corporation for his business line and thus for the country. Often his most powerful arguments will be defeated by the kind of personal preconceptions mentioned above. And so the prospect of bringing his global chief executive or chairman to come to Korea and see with his own eyes is seen as the most effective means to counter any lack of confidence in this country as a place to invest and grow business.

So this week we have a wonderful opportunity to show to these global captains of industry that Korea’s buildings are shiny, our airport works wonderfully well, our streets are wide and clean, our people are proud and passionate and free, and our tires are not only well inflated but carry a safe tread for appropriate speed and good direction control.

Alan Timblick Head of the Seoul Global Center