The KABC Online Second Chance Korea Business Forum
Strategic decision-making for
foreign companies doing business in Korea
8.00am – 9.30am Thursday 30 November 2023 at the Online Seminar Room (Zoom)
Date Change: Note the December session will be held on December 14th at the British Embassy
Korea achieved 1.4% YoY growth in Q3 after two quarters of 0.9% growth. Does that mean the economy has turned a corner? Not necessarily, since all the major indicators were low, consumer expenditure up only 0.5% YoY, capital investment at 0.3%. These were all lower achievements year on year than Q1 or Q2. The difference was technical in that exports grew (we know they actually contracted but in constant prices they rose) and imports did not grow at all. In October the first month of Q4 exports rose 5.5% YoY. Have exports turned the corner? Not really, the value of exports in October was only 0.5% higher than in September and semiconductors still declined. For the first 20 days of November the increase is only 2.2%. So we start our November session asking how the year is going to end?
But the main session was about strategic decision making for foreign companies doing business in Korea. How should the managers in Korea respond to these issues or advise head office? In this session we looked at three main areas:
- How does geopolitical shift affect South Korea?
- How much AI should we invite into our companies?
- Is “Korea as a safe haven for investment in East Asia” a strategy for our business?
The first topic relates to de-risking and the President’s swing towards closer relations with the US (and Japan), but also to the strong efforts to retain relations with China and any risks this brings.
The second topic dealt with the question of how we interface with AI at both the narrow AI level and the generative AI level in terms of business structure and business practice? On regulation of AI, the US is making an executive order, while China proposes its own global standard, the EU has an AI act and Korea appears to be joining the UK with a “light touch.”
The final topic was one we generated in previous sessions on the premise that Korea could be seen as a safe haven (or de-risked haven) for business in East Asia and to what degree is it appropriate for our companies to adopt it, or profit from it?
These issues provoked interesting responses.
Please join us on line for a great discussion.
Yours sincerely
Tony Michell Ph.D
Managing Director, KABC Ltd.
Registration
The organisation that anticipates change and is always ready (something odd about the character which breaks up “organisation”)
We are always awake, quickly understands the value of information, and always thinks about and prepares strategies to respond to it.
