This winter South Koreans will be swallowing their pride to endure an unprecedented round of electricity rationing.
This winter South Koreans will be swallowing their pride to endure an unprecedented round of electricity rationing.
“THIS is an ethically perfect government,” South Korean President Lee Myung Bak reportedly told an unscheduled meeting of staff members late last month. The irony may not have been deliberate, but it would be difficult to interpret the statement otherwise.
EARLIER this month, when the Bank of Korea (BOK) revised downwards its economic growth estimates for the first quarter, some observers saw little reason for concern. Exports were continuing to do well, and after chalking up a remarkable nine straight quarters of positive growth, the economy in general seemed to be on a sound growth track.
SOUTH Korea is the fifth largest economic power in Asia, after China, Japan, India and Russia. It is also one of the leading nations in the world in automobile manufacturing as well as the production of LCD screens and semiconductors.
ARE South Korean industries about to face more disruptions at work sites this year? The inauguration of a tough- talking leader as head of one of the country’s largest trade union umbrella groups on Feb 1 certainly suggests this could be the case.
Park Geun-hye, daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee, won the December 19 presidential election. She has the support of the ruling conservative New Frontier Party, but as a woman in a deeply patriarchal society, she may have to work hard to assert her authority in government.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR:
My name is Dr Bruce Gale and I am a senior writer with the Singapore Straits Times. I studied at LaTrobe University (BA Hons) in Melbourne and later at the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies at Monash University (MA). My PhD thesis, which focussed on Malaysian political economy, was completed at the Malaysian National University (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) in 1987.
From 1988 to 2003 I was Singapore Regional Manager for the Hong Kong based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC).
I have written several books and articles on Southeast Asian affairs, including Political Risk and International Business: Case Studies in Southeast Asia (Pelanduk Publications, 2007). Books on language include Mastering Indonesian: a guide to reading Indonesian language newspapers (Pelanduk Publications, 2008)