Korea's Experience in Crisis Recovery: Lessons and New Opportunities

초록

Just as the economic growth of Korea before the crisis was uncovered that it was not ?miraculous? after all and had a lot of defects within it, the rapid recovery in recent years may also hide some vulnerabilities and defects that have not been cured and may pose yet another rounds of crises. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to ask in essence the following question: ?How real is the recovery of the Korean economy in the past five years? Skipping the causes of the crisis, which have been widely discussed and written, I will first describe briefly the recovery of the Korean economy after the crisis in 1997 as well as the factors that are responsible for a rather fast recovery in Section II. This will be followed by the analysis on reform measures in four sectors ?corporate, financial, public and labor - that have been adopted by the Korean government as well as on remaining problems that still have to be dealt with in section III. In section IV, I will list some general lessons from the crisis and from the recovery process. Finally as a conclusion, I will raise some issues that the Korean economy should consider seriously in its search for new opportunities in the last section.