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“Korea 2020” consists of 28 essays on Korea’s future edited by McKinsey & Company Inc. ; Random House Korea: 25,000 won ($ US 35 ) 177 pp. |
By Kim Ji-soo
Staff reporter
The names of the writers of the essays in this book are big enough to make the reader grab it to see what they have to say about Korea and its outlook a decade later. With a preface from Dominic Barton, managing director of McKinsey & Company and an overview from Michael Schuman, a correspondent for Time, the book provides a look at the succinct but sharp challenges that Korea has to face from writers ranging from Stephen S. Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley; Sharon Lim, vice president of Research at Morgan Stanley Asia; Joseph S. Nye Jr., political science professor at Harvard University; to Guy Sorman, French scholar and presidential adviser to President Lee Myung-bak.
Largely divided into the themes of economic competitiveness, Korea's place in the world, and technology and society, the writers largely urge more openness for the local economy as well as society, and more higher-end investment in research and development (R&D). Roach and Lim specifically stress that Korea must continue to investment in R&D, revamp the services sector and promote regional development. Writers also call for a more flexible market including for women in the labor force, as Cait Murphy, former assistant managing editor of Fortune notes. Murphy points out that there are only 8.1 female managers for every 100 males in management (the OECD average is close to 30 percent). The wage differential between men and women here is twice that of the rest of the OECD countries. Murphy concludes that: "too much talent is left in the kitchen."
Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore notes that despite its outward "globalness," Korea needs to heighten its sensitivity to other cultures. Sorman notes Korea as a society needs to open up more to foreign languages (like France adopting English in some science and economics programs to raise it to world-class levels) and foreigners. In sum, this book offers a good read to people interested in what Korea needs to tackle in the decade ahead.
The book is available in both Korean and English. Royalties from the book will be donated to World Friends Korea, a public-private partnership volunteer organization which is Korea's equivalent of the U.S. Peace Corps. |
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yistory@koreatimes.co.kr
