Korean Economic Development

Abstract

South Korea has enjoyed spectacular growth over the last thirty years, moving from one of the poorest countries in the world in the early 1960s with a per capita income of only $100 to the fifteenth largest economy by 1993 and tenth in terms of total trade. It is arguably the most dynamic economic progress made by any country during the twentieth century and has been achieved by close co-operation between government, business and banking sectors within the country. This astonishing growth rate has changed Korea from a poverty-stricken, war-torn nation based on an agricultural society, to a highly industrial power often heralded as the ‘second Japan’. Korean companies are amongst world leaders in such diverse industries as automobiles, semiconductors, chemicals, shipbuilding, textiles, steel and computers. In fact, Korea’s largest corporations such as Samsung and Hyundai already rank in the world’s top 25 largest companies in terms of sales.

Gold buys no Experience.

Korean proverb