UN Report: Korea’s Latest Successes and Shortcomings

The Korea Herald recently summarized a United Nations Industrial Development Organization report about Korea’s industrial competitiveness.  According to the report, entitled “Korea Mirrored in Statistics,” Korea still boasts the world’s 12th largest economy based on GDP, as well as possessing quite a few other interesting statistics.

Korea is still performing quite well in terms of economic performance.  For example, last year it was the largest producer of mobile phones, the fifth largest manufacturer of cars, and the third largest steel producer.  On the manufacturing front, things still seem to be going great.

Unfortunately, this kind of economic success has also brought with it a few negative side effects.  Social issues in Korea still seem to be neglected.  For example, Koreans on average work 2,090 hours per year, the second longest in the world – just behind Mexico.  Korea also ranked 30th in terms of government transparency, and its female employment rate is ranked 25th.

The original article from the Korea Herald can be found at:
South Korea Remains Strong in Industrial Competitiveness

Check out some other articles written by IPG Legal on Korea’s economic and social issues here:

• Korea’s Near Export Only Growth: Open the Service Sector
•  South Korea Ranks Low in Global Reputation Index: Why?
•  Korea’s Low Birth Rate: Problem that May be Impossible to Fix
•  South Korea Begins 7th Round of Negotiations with China on Free Trade Agreement

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Sean Hayes may be contacted at: SeanHayes@ipglegal.com.

Sean Hayes is co-chair of the Korea Practice Team and Entertainment, Media and New Tech Law Team at IPG Legal. He is the first non-Korean attorney to have worked for the Korean court system (Constitutional Court of Korea) and one of the first non-Koreans to be a regular member of a Korean law faculty. He assists clients in their contentious, non-contentious and business developments needs in Korea and China.

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