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Essay / My suggestions to President Moon regarding the Korean economy
Our country is proud to be an extraordinary example of a war-ravaged and extremely poor nation remarkably transformed into a high-income economy. We are now the 11th largest economy in the world, but growth rates have recently been on a slowing trend. This shift toward low growth is concerning, not because of the numbers themselves, but rather because they reveal the structural limits of our current economic arrangement. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"?Get the original essay To a large extent, South Korea's exceptional economic performance from the 1970s onwards can be attributed to the commitment of countries to maintain strong fundamentals: human capital growth, high savings, strong institutions and relatively well-managed fiscal and monetary policies. Another feature often highlighted is its high level of economic openness, which in turn allowed domestic industries to access cheap raw materials, massive markets and cutting-edge technologies, through which economic growth based on high productivity was achieved. But the problem with this type of strategy is that the country becomes disproportionately dependent on trade, and therefore very vulnerable to global demand and supply shocks. Korea's GDP growth forecast is around 2.9%, but Korea can regain momentum by taking steps to reshape and diversify its sources of growth. There are essentially two pathways: demand-side stimuli and supply-side productivity increases. President Moon, you are actively pursuing the first solution with increased public spending, expansion of public sector jobs, redistribution policies and minimum wage increases. However, the two paths are not mutually exclusive and, in fact, the latter strategy has the potential to generate more sustainable growth effects. Therefore, my first recommendation is that, alongside your policies to increase income and consumption, a simultaneous pursuit of supply-side innovation should be carried out. The most effective way to achieve this would be to increase competition and therefore stimulate innovation by reducing barriers to foreign investment, supporting start-ups and SMEs by encouraging entrepreneurship and tackling to the chaebol monopoly. President Moon, we live in a globalized world. The fate of a single country's economy does not entirely depend on its own activities, but is critically influenced by the circumstances and actions of other states. Therefore, my second suggestion is to make efforts to promote regional economic integration, especially with underdeveloped ASEAN countries, to further utilize and strengthen the global value chain. Great potential lies in the heterogeneity of factor endowments across Asian economies, as this can result in an international division of labor. Furthermore, now is the time to improve regional cooperation to address financial crises, building on our experience that such crises cannot be contained or resolved within the confines of a single country. Finally, I propose a more active diversification of commercial partners. Although market mechanisms should be able to naturally direct trade flows, the government should intervene if too many eggs end up in one basket. The methods..