Republic of Korea (South Korea), economic tiger of Southeast Asia is situated on 100 000 sq km of southern part of Korean peninsula. After division of Korean peninsula at the beginning of Cold War, South Korea has successfully progressed in direction to become one of the most prosperous and developed states today.
South Korea is a developed country ranked 12th in the Human Development Index, It ranks highly in education, quality of healthcare, rule of law, ease of doing business, government transparency, job security, tolerance and inclusion.
A world leader in innovation, as measured in the Bloomberg Innovation Quotient, South Korea is the world’s sixth largest exporter, driven by high-tech multinationals such as Samsung, Hyundai-Kia and LG.
South Korean political elites defined development of high speed internet infrastructure as Korean strategic goal in 1990s. As a result of that continuous policy, today ICT infrastructure is the key of their modern economy. South Korea is today the country with world’s fastest Internet connection speed. That infrastructure has enabled such rapid economic development in South Korea.
Beside well known successful ICT and automobile industry companies with headquarters in Korea, there are other industries where South Korea is one of the world leaders.
South Korea is the world dominant shipbuilder with a 50.6% share of the global shipbuilding market as of 2008. Notable Korean shipbuilders are Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, the world’s four largest shipbuilding companies.
Shipbuilding and cooperation in this area is one of the potential areas of cooperation between Croatia and Korea.
South Korea has export oriented and world-known construction industry.
One of the largest Korean construction companies, Samsung C&T Corporation, had built some of the biggest skyscrapers in the world such as Petronas Towers, Taipei 101, and Burj Khalifa.
Similar to Croatia, tourism in Korea is becoming one of the important pillar of fast growing economy. In 2012, 11.1 million foreign tourists visited South Korea, making it the 20th most visited country in the world. Recently, the number of tourists, especially from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia, has grown dramatically due to the increased popularity of the Korean wave.
Those numbers are comparable to Croatian 10,6 million foreign tourist visits in 2012. And define jet another interesting area of potential cooperation between two countries.
We strive to build new bridges and cooperation between our two nations and make geographic distance between Korea and Croatia smaller. Croatia with its potentials can become Koreans gate to EU.
Facts about South Korea
Total area size: 100.210 sq km
Population: 50.2 million
GDP per capita: $33.000
Currency: South Korean won
Goverment: Unitary presidential constitutional republic