There is talk of a resurgence of Asian tigers and a new cycle of expansion in the Far East. And looking at the data, it doesn't seem so difficult to doubt it. There South Korea has grown up of the 6,1% in 2010: the largest increase among all OECD countries, an extraordinary result when compared to the 0,2% increase in GDP recorded in 2009. The strength of this Asian tiger is the foreign trade: In 2008 he was the seventh largest trader in the world.
Le small and medium-sized businesses they are the real engine of the country: they make up about 99% of Korean companies, employ almost 90% of workers and supply 50% of production. However, South Korea was greatly affected by the global crisis of 2008-2009. Three years ago, GDP fell by more than 15% and exports fell by 34%.
However, when the new prime minister, Lee Myung-bak, was elected, the Government established a National Competitiveness Committee and to this institution we owe a large part of the good results obtained by the country in the last two years. This is what emerges from a study by Doing Business, one of the research fields of the World Bank.
One of the most important reforms implemented by Seoul was a program of tax reduction. Many indirect taxes (on income and wealth) have been transformed into direct taxes (on the quantity of goods sold), contributing to an effective 14% reduction in the tax burden for companies. All this accompanied by a digitization of tax payments which facilitated the simplification process. In addition, the Korean government has unified contributions for pensions, health, unemployment and occupational accidents under a single item. These two reforms combined together resulted in a increase in revenue and the number of registered companies.
Another substantial reform was the creation of a single international and digital window to control traffic at customs. Financial institutions, customs, logistics companies and 23 government agencies collaborate in this system - it is one of the few 100% electronic clearance models. And it has brought the average time to export a good from 11 days to 8, and to import products from 10 days to 8.
In addition, the Korean government has implemented important legal reforms. There class action has entered into force and has been amended bankruptcy law, offering greater transparency and greater guarantees to creditors. In this way the number of companies that have opted for corporate reorganization has increased to 630 in 2010 from 36 in 2008. And above all the companies that have continued to operate after the reorganization have become 233 from 73 in the same period of time (2008- 2010).
Finally, the cost to start one start-up fell to 14,57% of per capita income – from 17% in 2008 – and the number of Spa it increased by 9% from 2009 to 2010.
In short, Korea seems to have all the numbers to launch itself again like a tiger in the world. L'Italy it could begin to look at the Asian country with different eyes and try to forge greater relations with it and, why not, perhaps get suggestions for some strategies to increase competitiveness.
