Exportled Development in Korea: Policy Implementations and Challenges

There are several keys explored to explain the effective Korea’s export-led development model. Korean government promoted the private sector’s specialization in most of the strategic industries although subsidizing them by public financing. Although the Korean economy suffered setback in 1980, 1998, and 2009 for external shocks and internal problems, there always remained strong fundamentals to help the economy spring back up thanks to the achievements through R&D and human resources. The government-business communications and the industry-academic-research centers tripartite collaboration more facilitated the model than brought in improper or collusive relationship. Korean export industries have intensive forward and backward linkages with the other domestic sectors. Although the Korean economy has been highly dependent on trade, its vulnerability to external shock has not materialized seriously because its export structure is diversified.