The presidency of the G20 must allow Seoul to play in the big league
Next year, South Korea will chair the G20, the group that includes the twenty largest economies in the world. She is so proud that the story would that President Lee Myung-bak has generously sprinkled his victory with Korean journalists on the flight back from Pittsburgh last September.
But the G20 is especially for Korea the opportunity to switch permanently to the big boys. Member of the OECD since 1996, it still suffers from an image of countries whose development it would get rid of. The prospect of the chairmanship of the G20 now gives him the means to take the step that separates the camp from rich countries.
The government does not say. But the past of heavy industry in Korea, automotive, shipbuilding, which earned him once beautiful success in foreign markets, it sticks a little too much skin.The "green growth" advocates now she must give him the tools to turn the page. "It's a gamble on new technologies and innovation," said Lee Dong-keun, Deputy Director, Department of Economics.
Behind the Japanese
The automaker Hyundai knows, like many Korean business leaders, he launches into this race with a long lag behind the Japanese. "But we are confident and ready to fight," he said. "The technology is a challenge that we face at the same time as we are moving increasingly towards service activities with high added value," added Chung Tong-soo, head of Invest Korea, the national agency promotion of foreign investment in the country.
The government were eleven service activities he wants to deregulate, including banks and health.Two very promising market for foreign investors, which ensures the state, are also associated with major projects related to green agenda of President Lee Myung-bak. The details of their participation have not been finalized, but they are "in December," says Yoo Beom-sik, director of international cooperation in the presidential committee for Green Growth. And until the country increasing the economic zones. No fewer than six are currently under construction.