South Korea has an area of only over 654.38 million square kilometers and a population of only over 50 million. As a country, its land area and population are even less than that of a province in China (for example, Zhejiang). Most of South Korea is mountainous, with few plains. In other words, not only are resources scarce, but the land is also quite barren. Nevertheless, South Korea has unexpectedly become one of the most developed countries in East Asia. So how did it catch the economic express and become one of the richest countries in East Asia?
In fact, in the 1950s, the economic level of South Korea was even worse than that of North Korea.
Because the north is closer to the Central Plains dynasty in history, the core regime of the Korean Peninsula will mostly be established in the north because it needs convenient access to advanced means of production. In the past, the foundation in all aspects of the north was relatively good. After Japan invaded the Korean peninsula, it will build industrial infrastructure in the north, whether for the convenience of aggression or for development. On the other hand, in the north, the treatment in the south is not so good, and ancient agriculture is still the mainstay, resulting in the situation that workers work in the north and farmers work in the south.
However, the agricultural model has always been an unstable way of development, and history books will tell us that it is subject to the weather and is easily affected by natural disasters. In addition, South Korea's land is not fertile, and the per capita arable land is narrow (less than one acre). In fact, the economy has completely collapsed. Not to mention how much land South Korea can use to restore its economy once it has experienced the baptism of the Korean War.
At this time, South Korea is already in dire straits. At this time, President Li Chengwan not only did not take the initiative to find a way to solve the problem, but even pinned all his hopes on American assistance. As a result, it can be imagined that South Korea during Li Chengwan's period was clean and white, with poor people, high unemployment rate and per capita gdp less than 100 US dollars. Not to mention that it is less than half of North Korea, and it ranks poor in the world. ?
South Korea slowly got on the right track in the 1960s.
196 1 year, park chung-hee, then commander of military supplies in Busan, launched a military coup, overthrew the then democratically elected government and set up a national reconstruction summit. Park chung-hee, who has just set up a new government, knows that if left unchecked, South Korea will be more seriously derailed from the world and he will be ousted. Therefore, park chung-hee, which holds real power, began to implement a series of reform measures. South Korea's economic rise is largely due to park chung-hee and his policy support.
At that time, in order to change this situation, park chung-hee hoped to get Americans and Japanese? Financial support? . It is worth noting here that park chung-hee asked for it? Financial support? The one with Li Chengwan? Financial aid? Completely different in nature. Park chung-hee didn't completely ask for relief money, but asked them to help invest in South Korea.
Park chung-hee once stressed at the report meeting: Want to introduce the necessary foreign capital? In the end, these eight words saved Korea.
The road to attracting investment in park chung-hee is relatively smooth. First of all, because the United States has been stationed in South Korea, it doesn't have much opinion on helping South Korea promote economic development. The U.S. government has also helped South Korea attract a batch of funds to invest in factories, effectively increasing the employment rate of Koreans; As for Japan, South Korea took the initiative to reduce part of Japan's reparations and naturally brought in Japan's capital injection. Coupled with the relatively high unemployment rate in South Korea, the labor force is particularly cheap.
Therefore, more and more American and Japanese capitalists come to Korea to set up factories.
After the increase of the national employment rate in Korea, the industry has also been greatly improved, and the national tax revenue has also come up.
After the Korean government became rich, it began to subconsciously support some national enterprises (mainly industries). With the support of foreign technology and capital, and the need of healthy competition with foreign-funded enterprises, these national enterprises have also developed rapidly, such as Samsung Electronics. Of course, in order to ensure the rise of national enterprises to be more stable, the Korean government has also adopted some tariff policies and some welfare policies to escort the development of national enterprises.
It is with so many advantages that Pohang Iron and Steel Plant, the symbol of heavy chemical industry in Korea, was built in 1970s. The completion of this project has greatly inspired the fighting spirit of the Korean people, and the development path of Korean industry has been smoother and smoother since then.
Of course, this kind of excessive support has both advantages and disadvantages. The government and enterprises are very close, which finally makes? Bribery It has been puzzling South Korea and has become a chronic disease in South Korea, but it is undeniable that South Korea has grown up by these advantages.
In a word, all the problems seem to have been solved by industrial-driven Korea. For example, the economy has caught up, and the per capita gdp has soared from less than one hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, and this time is only thirty years. The economy has gone up, the industrial structure has taken shape again, and natural military forces have gone up. After all, military strength is based on economic support and national defense industry.
Since then, South Korea has jumped into this ranks? Four little dragons in Asia? One.
But created? Hanjiang miracle? South Korea, which once triumphed, did not stop, but chose to move on, and it began to transform into a new industry (tertiary industry) with the times. At that time, South Korea saw the extreme shortage of the entertainment market in China and began to promote the development of the entertainment industry. South Korea has created some extremely popular stars in China through entertainment, which is a low-cost and high-recycling method. These stars have formed a joint effect and spawned a new industrial chain.
From poverty to developed countries, South Korea skillfully used the limited resources of national and international relations and successfully turned its bad cards into good ones. Now, Korea has become an example for many countries to learn from.
But the fly in the ointment is that South Korea still has limited resources and poor living conditions. Let's take their diet as an example. Koreans can only achieve self-sufficiency in some staple foods, and it is difficult for fruits and meat to meet their own needs. Therefore, South Korea mainly imports water, vegetables and meat. But because it is impossible to land, air transportation is too expensive and sea transportation is too slow. Therefore, for Koreans, eating fresh meat and fresh vegetables is a very luxurious product, so we often see that some Koreans will take revenge to eat meat desperately when they travel to China.