Published: Thu, 05 Jul 2007 19:59:48 +0000

From Reuters:
Foreign direct investment plans lodged with South Korea fell for the fourth successive quarter in the April-June period, data showed on Wednesday, denting the Asian nation’s ambition of becoming a regional business hub. The commerce ministry said foreign direct investment commitments fell 35 percent to $1.76 billion for the second quarter from a year [...]
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I hate to say it, but this is good news for me. Until South Korea starts to enact fair trade practices, they will see this continue. I have been talking about this for years now! South Korea places 100% tariffs on foreign cars and makes it impossible for foreign companies to do business in South Korea. Foreigners will NOT continue to invest in a country that is so close minded and protective.

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The next town up from me (Kumi) has a lot of international business people there. When I change trains I often talk to them. Most of them hate comming to Korea because of the lack of English skills which is the international language and when they entertain clients they push Korean culture on them. Also they said Koreans are very xenophobic. Some companies have to pay money to hire an interpreter which cost them money and often the interpreter is deficient in English.

I've got to agree with Gangster here, as I am an "international business guy" here in Korea. That being said, I'm here because I enjoy being here, but with a lot of the folks I deal with it's a struggle for them or the company. I'm in the middle of trying to start my own company here now (was with Yahoo for 7 years before that) and the Korean government makes doing anything here a major pain. It's almost like they don't want me to bring my money into this country. When I was at the immigration office filing for a business visa the lady acted like every moment she spent answering my questions was killing her. They have a counselor group as well to answer most of your questions, but when I told the lady not to worry and that I would go speak to a counselor she told me "no!" and when I said "why?" she said "because I don't think you need to, I already answered any questions you might have".

Haha... WTF?!

I'll figure it out one way or another though and make it work. I'm going to post a blog about the whole ordeal and see if maybe I can help the next joe or jane behind me out.

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