By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Local foreign residents say doing business has been made easier for them, but living conditions _ mainly transportation, education and medical services _ have worsened over the past year.
A recent Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) survey of 253 foreigners working in investment firms shows that 74.7 percent of the respondents are satisfied with the overall local business environment, up 3 percent from last year.
``KOTRA and the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy have worked together since 2004 to improve some of the weak areas with which foreigners had trouble,'' said Yoo Ye-jin, an assistant manager of the Investment Service Team at KOTRA, referring to the one-stop investor support center, Korean language classes and financial services. ``However, poll results indicate that we should further work on helping foreigners' outside of work conditions.''
The satisfaction of overall living conditions fell from 74.4 percent last year to 72.7 percent this year, showing a consistent decline over the past three years.
Foreigners were most happy with visa services at 32 percent, which is still about 6 percent lower than a year ago, and they were least pleased with transportation with just 7.5 percent saying it's satisfactory.
``The subway is first class _ nothing to complain about, but the buses don't run on schedule and are extremely packed on poor weather days,'' said a German expatriate working in Korea.
Michael Conforme, CEO of Human Capital Development, who lived in Korea on and off for 17 years agreed, ``The subway is fine, but the bus system _ especially how they moved the lanes down the center of the road _ seems to be dangerous and causes more traffic.''
After transportation, housing and education received the lowest marks at 14.2 percent and 13.4 percent, respectively.
``Housing costs are ridiculous here with the system that takes all the money up front,'' said Conforme. ``Unless you're in Korea on a good expat package, the cost is a challenge for many.''
A June survey by global human resource consultancy Mercer said Seoul is the third most expensive city in the world for expatriates to live.
To this, KOTRA says it's working on taking some of the burden off foreigners by tweaking the existing system with select realtors.
``It's hard to change the entire tradition, but we're seeing that high rent plus high living costs in general is a lot of pressure,'' said Yoo. ``This also includes tuition for families with children.''
She said those from Europe complain over the lack of French, German and British schools in Korea compared to the number of American schools.
``Members from the European Union Chamber of Commerce Korea (EUCCK) have showed regret over this and said the imbalance is probably one of the reasons why the tuition is so high,'' said Yoo.
Song Byung-ok, the head of KOTRA's Invest Service Team, said efforts will be made with related government and nongovernmental institutions to focus on the problematic areas.
``There are issues, but what can you say,'' said Conforme. ``When in Rome, do as the Romans do.''