The economy of South Korea

"The moon rises over South Korea's bustling capital."
Source : National Geographic

January 18, 2010

South Korea is an East Asian country that covers half of Korea’s peninsula. Seoul is the capital city where 20 million people live. It is the second largest metropolitan city in the world. The official language is the Korean and the currency is the won.

(source: https:/.../space/showimage/South_Korea_Map.gif) South Korea's economy was small and mostly agricultural well into the mid-20th century. However, when President Park Chung Hee came into power in 1961, he favored new investments and tried to eliminate corruption which was a way of doing business before. South Korea’s economy depends on the chaebol – which are “large, conglomerate family-controlled firms of South Korea characterized by strong ties with government agencies”. Samsung, Hyundai, Daewoo are some of the most well known chaebol. Over the past 50 years, South Korea has been able to transform itself from an agriculture-driven economy to a manufacturing and service-oriented economy. Over the past 30 years, South Korea's economic growth has been spectacular. During these years, South Korea changed its industrial structure to one that now includes products like: automobiles, petrochemicals, electronics, shipbuilding, textiles and steel. South Korea has the 11th largest economy in the world and has a goal to increase its annual economic growth to 7% and double its per-capita income to $40,000 by 2017. “The International Monetary Fund estimates Korea's economic growth at 4.8% in 2007 and 4.6% in 2008. Factors of concern however include a rapidly aging population and increasingly apparent structural problems, for example, the rigid labour regulations, under-developed financial markets, and the lack of regulatory transparency.” A country that invests in education, technologies, developing its resources, encouraging investments, imports and exports,