Foreign Entrepreneurship Vital for Korean Economy
By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
In Silicon Valley, the tech-savvy territory of northern California, more than half the start-ups were founded by immigrants over the past decade, according to research by Harvard University. But in Korea, the corresponding figure is less than 1 percent.
"Korea needs to foster an environment more conducive for foreigners to start businesses here and this can create a lot of value," said Simon Bureau, chairman of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Korea (CanCham), in an interview with The Korea Times.
"Much has been said about the need to foster a better environment for foreign investments in Korea. However, not enough attention has been given to promoting foreign entrepreneurship."
According to the Harvard study, the immigrant-founded start-ups in Silicon Valley employed 450,000 workers and had sales of $52 billion in 2005.
Such facts were important enough for CanCham to organize a panel discussion to highlight what Korea should do to leverage the intellectual capital of foreign entrepreneurs, scheduled for Thursday at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in southern Seoul.
Among the panelists are Harvard-educated Chung Tong-soo, head of Invest Korea; Paul Hong, CEO of the Ho Lee Chow restaurants; David Pierre Jalicon, president of DPJ Partners; and John Milburn, president of CD Networks.
Hong is well-known for his successful operation of American-style Chinese restaurants, and now has five branches. Milburn is credited with bringing in 8 billion won in foreign investment for G-Market, the on-line consumer marketing giant.
Organizing the event was the sensible move for Bureau, who first came to Korea in 1986 to work for what is now SK Energy and later founded Vectis Corp., a company specializing in helping small and large companies move into foreign markets.
The 47-year-old Canadian entrepreneur, who has written a book on the globalization of Korean companies (drafted in English but to be published in Korean around Nov. 20), is confident that events like "From Expat to Entrepreneur" (scheduled for Nov. 22) will help influence the Korean government to improve policies for foreign entrepreneurs.
Information about the panelist discussion can be obtained by calling CanCham Korea at (02) 554-0245.