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Why is South Korea such an advanced country?

60 years ago this country was among the poorest countries in the world, in fact it shared the same GDP and per capita income as many countries in Africa.

Today it is the 13th largest economy in the world and a high income nation by OECD standards. The proficiency of science and maths has started to overtake that of Britain and USA among it's secondary school students.

While Britain talks about internet access, the entire South Korea has access to high speed broadband and chances are if you're on a computer and you disassemble it you are bound to find some components in there that are made in Korea most likely by a Korean company.

Their cars are everywhere these days in big numbers and funny thing in the early 70s they hired a bloke called George Turnbull who in turn brought a Morris Marina to Korea to reverse engineer it.... today the company George Turnbull once was head off (British Leyland) has long since gone bust but Hyundai is one of the largest automakers in the world.

What do you reckon has been their secrets of success?

Scroll to see replies

Export-led growth.

Original post by g_star_raw_1989

Export-led growth.

this

Reply 3

TheHansa

The US supports them heavily and it's a pretty small nation so they need to focus on a high-tech economy rather than say, agriculture or extracting raw materials. They also have an extremely well funded education system.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 4

natchina

the genetic stock?

just throwing that one out there.........

Reply 5

calumsteele1

they have a decent work ethic

Reply 6

No Man

Good work ethic and relatively low population, which allows wealth to spread quicker/further.

India and China would be the same if they had the same sized population as South Korea.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 7

keyboard-warrior

they have such fast internet :daydreaming:

Reply 8

Joinedup

well there's no getting away from the fact that the americans wanted it to succeed in order to poke the eye of N Korea...

but basically they saw the policy that had worked for the Japanese and copied it - high tech industry producing export goods

Reply 9

fourdigit

I heard they have strong work ethics and like this, they work too hard and push themselves a bit too much.

I think people who have that personality are lovable, caring people. That's my opinion.

Reply 10

DannyBoy123

They were one of the first Asian nations to embrace globalisation so have been quite far ahead of the curve in terms of developing an export based economy.

Reply 11

lumberjack77

Its about RACE. sorry folks its true.

Reply 12

Made in the USA

Original post by lumberjack77

Its about RACE. sorry folks its true.

If it were just about race north Korea would be rich too. Capitalism is one of the reasons why it is such a properous country

Reply 13

Danen

Original post by Made in the USA

If it were just about race north Korea would be rich too. Capitalism is one of the reasons why it is such a properous country

This. democracy, capitalism and work ethic.

Reply 14

Danen

Original post by TheHansa

The US supports them heavily and it's a pretty small nation so they need to focus on a high-tech economy rather than say, agriculture or extracting raw materials

what do you mean supports them? yes , america is an ally and it would help s.korea if n. korea were to do somerhing foolish. btw america supports the people of n. korea too, via food aid.

Reply 15

Nick100

Original post by lumberjack77

Its about RACE. sorry folks its true.

If it's just about race why is North Korea such a steaming pile of ****? It isn't about race; it's about globalisation and free markets. America's aid has played a relatively small role; South Korea is not as small as some people here are making it out to be - it has a population of nearly 50 million, a GDP of over $1 trillion, and the total value of its infrastructure will be in the trillions of dollars - far more than the USA has sent it in aid.