The purpose of this thesis is to study theoretically the international competitiveness and to analyse the present situation of the international competitiveness in Korea Export Industries, and to present the best policies for the international competi...
The purpose of this thesis is to study theoretically the international competitiveness and to analyse the present situation of the international competitiveness in Korea Export Industries, and to present the best policies for the international competitiveness.
In the 1960s, Korean economy expanded by about 2.4 times, growing at the rate of 8.3 percent and achieved sharp expansion in export trade. As the results we have achieved remarkably high economic growth, the average 10% annually. But in 1970s, the world economic environments began to change rapidly World wide recession generated by the second oil crisis, and increasing resourse nationalism. and the spread of neo-protectionism made the export and economic growth slow down. Nowadays it is no longer possible to expect continuous export expansion without strengthening the international competitiveness. In 1980s, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and other developing countries threaten our export more and more, especially the prominence of the China on the world export market stage has really caused the decrease of our export amount, so the competition against China will be expected to become very keen in the near future. Under these circumstances, I think it is very meaningful to analyse the problems with which our export industries have been confronted.
This thesis consists of four sections. In section Ⅰ, the purpose, method, and scope of this study are dealt with. Section Ⅱ deals with the concepts of the international competitiveness, its determinants and the method of estimation. As the international competitiveness depends on a variety of factors, price and non-price factors, therefore, it is difficult to establish a uniform concept of the international competitiveness. But the concept of the international competitiveness will be defined by the definitions developed by B. Balassa. Also section Ⅱ deals with the actual conditions of the international competitiveness of Korea Export Industries. The first part deals with the growth process of Korea Export Industries and the present situations of Korean comparative advantage industries. In the second part, the empirical analysis of the international competitiveness of Korea Export Industries was attempted by B. Balassa's, "Revealed comparative Advantage Index" method and "Constant Market share Analysis" . And the third part the analysis of non-price factors.
Section Ⅲ and Ⅳ deals with many problems with which Korea Export Industries have been faced in the international competitiveness. According to this analysis the major causes of export decrease in 1979 were attributed to the weakness of the competitiveness and to the worsening of the terms of trade. Recently, the competitiveness of our export industries has become remarkably worsened, as the rise of productivity was not able to keep up with through technical progress, change of worn-out equipment and rationalization of management, compared with various prices rise pressure, such as increasing of raw material prices and wages.
Therefore, we must promote the price competitiveness of exporting goods through the stability of export prices, promotion of productivity, approprite operation of exchange rate and timely stable security of raw materials etc, and also must strengthen the non-price competitiveness of exporting goods by improving the quality, developing the new goods, investing in R & D, contriving design, strengthening service and export marketing activities, and stablizing raw materials supply and demand.
As long as Korea maintains the international competitiveness in Export Industry, Korea can look forward to contineous rapid economic growth through the export in 1980s.