Although South Korea is recovering relatively quickly from the worldwide recession in the wake of the U.S. financial sector crisis, it must address major structural weaknesses if it is to sustain growth over the long term. The Korean manufacturing sector is one of the world’s strongest and most efficient, but the services and (much smaller) agriculture sectors remain weak. Former senior South Korean economic policy official Byongwon Bahk argues that only by benchmarking the near miraculous success of its manufacturing sector can Korea convert traditionally weak sectors into new sources of job creation and foreign currency earnings. He will explain the necessity of, and obstacles to, inducing capital, technologies, and marketing from advanced companies in advanced countries; supporting R&D activities and education and training in weak sectors; and opening weak sectors to domestic and foreign competition.

Byongwon Bahk, a former senior South Korean government official, is the Korean Studies Program’s 2009-2010 Koret Fellow. During the past decade, he was in charge of the management of Korean macro-economic policy at the Ministry of Finance and Economy, including as vice minister. Most recently, he served in the Blue House as the senior economic advisor to President Lee Myung-bak. He received a BA and an MA in Law from Seoul National University, an MA in Industrial Engineering from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Korea, and an MA in Economics from University of Washington.

This event is supported by a generous grant from the Koret Foundation.

About the talk:

Korea's National System of Innovation (NSI) is characterized by a group of 'strong large firms and weak small firms'--innovative large firms able to exploit technological and market opportunities abroad, and laggard small firms. Under the liberalized environment that emerged rapidly after the 1990s financial crisis, coordination and networking of innovative actors and resolution of mismatches in the system of innovation have become urgent issues in Korea's bid to become active in knowledge generation and to effectively utilize technology from abroad.

Lim shall discuss the characteristics of and changes in the Korean NSI, a system which has experienced a radical shift to adapt to the global environment after the 1997 financial crisis. His 3-year research project on the Korean NSI is part of an international research project published as Small Country Innovation Systems (Edward Elgar).

About the speaker:

Chaisung Lim has focused his research on management of technology in catching up with advanced country firms in his capacity as leader of the Research Institute for Global Management of Technology for Catching Up (GMOT). He has participated in committees and project teams providing consultation on industrial and technology policies for the Korean and Turkish Governments. He is currently a Professor at the Miller School of MOT and the MOT/MBA program at Konkuk University, Seoul. He received the PhD in Technology Management at SPRU at the University of Sussex. He previously worked for the industrial analysis division of the Korea Development Institute, a leading think tank in Korea.