In our latest interview segment one of the world’s most accomplished economists has called on Korea to avoid polices that seek to prevent inevitable market developments and to focus instead on economic flexibility and the fostering of its immigrant workforce.
Our Park Kun-woo has more.
South Korea has seen on-year increases in exports for 9 consecutive months, leading to rosy economic prospects for trade.
Despite a positive outlook, pundits point out difficulties that could distract the country from seeing further positive results.
I sat down with Professor Anne Krueger, the former First Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, to get her take.
“Korea is in a difficult situation because of the trade war between the U.S. and China no doubt about that. I think Korea is in difficulty because obviously there’s some things where the Americans are concerned about the military secrets some of which could be important and they don’t want any of that to go to the Chinese too easily too soon. And if there are some of those components then there will be some troubles without doubt because right now the U.S. is pushing that very strongly.”
She provided more detail on how South Korea should react to such uncertainties.
“There are a lot of uncertainties with regard to world trade that Korea like anybody else is subject to only because Korea is more dependent on trade, it may be more important here to do it. The only problem is that all you can do about it is make sure that the domestic economy is healthy, to make sure that it’s flexible and to make sure that the markets can adjust as they need to and not try to regulate and prevent things from happening because fighting markets is not a formula for success ever.”
She also spoke about the need for policies to allow more immigrants to come to Korea, to improve economic growth.
“Korea has not allowed very many immigrants. The countries that have are doing better. One of the reasons the U.S. economy is doing so well is we still have the immigrants in and it may very well be that Korea wishes to change, at least somewhat, immigration policy and bring in more foreigners with either the skills or just the jobs that need to be filling.”
The professor was in Seoul last week for the Seoul International Finance Conference where she took part as a keynote speaker and addressed South Korea’s significance in the region.
“How important is Korea in the global economy as Asia’s financial hub?”
“Seoul is already the financial center for Korea. Korea’s economy is healthy. I think there would have to be some opening up even more of the capital account and a few other things but on the whole I feel things are done. I think the likelihood that things can work out very favorably is very good.”
Park Kun-woo, Arirang News.
Source : Arirang TV, https://www.arirang.com/news/view?id=272728
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