Contemporary South Korean Economy Challenges And Prospects

South Korea's post-war economic success is a well-known story. However, its development in the past two decades is relatively less investigated. By reviewing key economic issues in South Korea's economy today, this book offers an input to the research of contemporary South Korea, in particular the country's economic development and its external economic relations.This book provides an analytical overview of key issues in contemporary South Korean economy. The timely and in-depth study presented in the book examines the main reasons behind South Korea's economic slowdown in recent years, the economic and social impact following chaebol's growing business expansion, free trade agreements with China and the United States, the development of income inequality, the ageing demography and the Korean government's policy response to overcome the current economic difficulties.

Korea has played, and will increasingly play, an important role in the future development of the South East Asian region, including the expansion of regional economic cooperation and interregional trade. Indeed Korea has been a leading proponent of the idea of ASEAN+3. Clearer understanding of this economy, its major contemporary policy and reform issues and its future, are of particular interest from both regional and global perspectives.

This volume brings together work by international scholars to provide a unique analysis of the past, present and possible future trajectory of Korea's political economy from a distinctly Marxist perspective. The volume differentiates the Marxian approach to the political economy of Korean development from the Keynesian, social democratic approach that currently dominates the critical literature. In doing so the volume provides a unique view of the development of the South Korean Economy.

This book studies the Suzhou Industrial Park, a flagship project between the governments of Singapore and China, in a holistic manner, by highlighting not only its economic progress but also the developments on the social front such as its neighbourhood centres, schools, housing and talent attraction. The success of the Park should be assessed keeping in view not only its economic achievements alone, but also its ability to attract residents to live and play in it. Making the Suzhou Industrial Park economically and socially attractive is thus a perennial challenge and remains key to the continued success of the industrial park.This book details Suzhou Industrial Park's latest effort in industrial upgrading and transformation in terms of new growth areas as well as the challenges faced. It examines the social achievements of the Park, which are critical in enhancing the overall attractiveness of the Park and distinguishes it from other industrial parks in China and elsewhere. It also highlights how the experiences of the Suzhou Industrial Park is being replicated not only in the Jiangsu province, but also in other provinces and autonomous regions in China.

This book provides a unique and refreshing look at the Korean economy over the past 60 years. While most books and articles on the Korean economy would be technical or specifically address some aspect of Korea, this book takes an overarching view of Korea’s economic development. It assesses Korea’s economic take-off in the 1960s and 1970s, but also views the problems of ‘economic egalitarianism’ since the late-1980s to today. The book begins by listing and dispelling a number of important myths of the Korean economy and concludes by providing eight important ‘lessons’ derived from Korea’s experiences for developed as well as developing countries.

Introduction -- ch. 1. China and East Asia production network -- ch. 2. The internationalisation of China's Renminbi -- ch. 3. The internationalisation of Chinese enterprises -- ch. 4. Cross-strait economic relations: Taiwan's perspective -- ch. 5. CEPA and Mainland-Hong Kong's economic relations --ch. 6. China-Asean economic relations remain resilient despite rising challenges -- ch. 7. Ever-bonding Sino-Korean economic relationship but questionable contribution to regional integration -- ch. 8. China and Japan: great economic integration without a bilateral free trade agreement -- ch. 9. The political economy of East Asia economic integration.

This book purports to investigate and compare the economic development experiences in both Taiwan and South Korea in last two decades. Taiwan and South Korea’s economic development after WWII is a well-known story. However, their development after the successful post-war industrialization has not been comprehensively studied. The book examines whether the three factors —the role of private business, government policy, and foreign influence—that had contributed to Taiwan’s and Korea’s post-war development, are still relevant during the post-industrial development era. Researchers in the fields of global political economy, Asian economic development and East Asian studies will find this book a fresh and invaluable contribution to the literature. The book will also be of value to policy makers in developing countries in drafting their national development policies, diplomats conducting economic diplomacy with Taiwan and South Korea, and business people planning to expand their business interests in Asia.