By Oh Doo-jean
Global Student Reporter
According to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and international organizations, an advanced country is defined as one that possesses a certain amount of economic power. In this simple respect, Korea, now ranked 13th in the world in terms of economic size, deserves to be called an ``advanced country.''
But in reality, they do not treat us as such for the reason that we still fall behind in terms of a social system, national consciousness and sense of value. Alongside with this, we have to maintain and improve the level of law and order, not to mention economic power.
Then what can we do to enhance the state of our nation?
First and foremost, we must broaden and improve our social capital, such as our level of law adherence, relations between labor and capital and government regulations.
It is because as a critical element of global competitiveness, these invisible rules will become more important as we move ahead.
Last month, the Ministry of Justice launched a law and order campaign in association with companies, the media and volunteers as part of its efforts to raise public awareness on social capital.
``Invent law and order. It will never fail under no circumstances and I am sure that this will be the foundation of wealth-generating society,'' said Pekka Hallberg, incumbent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Finland during a conference. He emphasized the importance of investment on law and order especially when a country undergoes a drastic change in its social and economic structures.
In an effort to upgrade the level of law observance, Finland has launched anti-corruption drives, and consequently they are now known as the number one country when it comes to national transparency and global competitiveness.
In his opinion, the tradition of obeying the law in one nation could be a driving force to overcome economic crisis since it has contributed to accumulating social trust.
What we can expect in this perspective is, once we are recognized as a law abiding country, we can expect to see soaring numbers of foreign investors that are willing to invest in the Korean market.
We can generate a lot of profit and improve our global competitiveness. This is why developed countries are striving to establish an advanced system and invariably have a high level of social capital.
Korea is still hovering around the bottom of the ranking among OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) nations when it comes to law observance rate. A couple of years ago, Transparency International announced that Korea ranked 42nd out of 102 contenders. The ranking was based on a Corruption Perceptions Index standard. If we really want to be recognized as an advanced country, it is essential to secure a foundation of law and order since it is becoming more critical element to global competitiveness.
Therefore, establishing a legal system capable of cracking down on corruptive practices, and maintaining a transparent decision making procedure and ethical public service tradition would be the foremost task to join in the world's leading countries.
Now is the time for us to raise our awareness of law and order so as to secure our national status.