- 저자
- KIM Hak-Su(Chairman of the Asia Economic Community Foundation)
- 발간호
- 2009-01
Korea’s New Asian Diplomatic Policy In March 2009, the Korean Government declared a “New Asian Diplomatic Policy” with the aim to facilitate friendship and cooperation with the countries in Asian region. “Northern Diplomacy” had been declared and carried out in the early 1990s by the Korean Government. However, it has been the first time for Korea to officially announce so-called “southern diplomacy.” Therefore, I believe that references to southern diplomatic policies by neighboring countries could provide us with valuable lessons. Firstly, in early 1970’s concerning the future of low-tech, labor intensive and polluting industries, Japanese society engaged in a heated debate on whether they be closed down or transferred abroad. It is known that Japan selected 3 countries as major cooperation partners for the southern diplomacy after studying economic potentiality, resource endowment, market size, and domestic industrial policy etc. Assisted by regionally specialized institutions such as JETRO and JAICA, and dispatched investigation teams of specialists to Southeast Asia. This was fully consulted and coordinated by related government organizations such as Industry and Trade Ministry, Finance Ministry, Transportation Ministry, and Foreign Affairs Ministry to gather information in each country. Probably it was an example of “and Concentrate Strategy”. The targeted three countries were Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. In some sense, transfer of declining industry to less developed areas increased Japanese foreign direct investment and at the same time supported the construction of social overhead capital around the transferring companies through official development assistance. Ranges of Japanese corporations from Azinomoto, Asahi Beer, to Toyota and Nissan Motors made inroads into Thailand. However, during the early days, most auto parts were directly imported from Japan. The Thai government took a firm attitude on the negotiation process with Japanese corporations in order to acquire auto part manufacture technology and succeeded in manufacturing some auto parts in Thailand. Actually the great part of foreign direct investment in Thailand was led by Japanese MNCs. As of the financial crisis in July 1997, among the total Thai foreign debt($90 billion) Japanese shares were as much as about $70 billion (77.7%), reflecting the high dependency on Japan. Malaysia carried out a “Look East” policy immediately after Prime Minister Mahathir’s inauguration about for 6-7 years (1980-1987), which was modeled on the Korean developmental strategy. Thus at that time the consultant of an industrial policy part in 5-year economic development plan was Korean, a Professor from Chung-Ang University, and about 50 high-ranking officials had been trained by the Central Officials Training Institute in Korea on the Malaysian government account. But afterwards, Look East Policy started gradually moving to Japan, the no-pollution, high-tech industry SONY, Hitachi, Mitsubishi’s Proton car model, etc, had begun to make inroads into Malaysia industrialization through Japanese government southern diplomacy. Indonesia had been a target country of Japanese southern diplomacy. But, in order to check Japanese reliance, in the second half of the Suharto presidency (mid-1990s), he assigned KIA Motors of Korea as the people’s car model. The Japanese government and WTO reacted against Jakarta. Because Indonesia is such a very large country, Japan`s investment together with Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Korea and so on, was worthy of close attention. Secondly, in 1992 Taiwan formulated the “Southern Policy,” similar to that of Japan. Before Taiwan made some concentrated investment in Central and South America combining with ODA and FDI in order to penetrate American market. Concentration was also spearheaded by the private sector to Fujian Shang in China. However, according to Taiwan’s Southern Policy, the Taiwan government selected Vietnam and the Philippines as target countries of southern diplomacy after close research and in depth studies. The large-scale investment to Vietnam and advancement into Subic Bay and Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines were results of Southern Policy at the government level. Thirdly, Southern Policy of Korea, “New Asian Diplomatic Policy” announced in March 2009, carries a declarative significance to emphasize a new policy concentration on this specific area. Above all Korea recognizes the importance of Asia. It is announced that first, Korea’s goal is to raise trade with ASEAN. Second, Korea will increase Official Development Assistance (ODA) to developing countries of Asia. Third, Korea will participate in regional economic integration such as East Asia FTA (EAFTA) of ASEAN+3, Comprehensive Economic Partnership in EAST ASIA (CEPEA) of ASEAN+6, South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and so on. Fourth, Korea will make a greater effort for Asian common interest on global issues including the global financial crisis, climate change, development and cooperation, anti-terrorism, etc., through solidarity with allied nations in Asia. Fifth, the primary vehecle of Korea’s promoting its New Asian Diplomatic Policy is utilization of summit diplomacy. However, most experts in diplomatic community understand the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) is merely building on the old policy rather than creating any new initiatives. In any case, southern diplomacies on the part of neighboring Japan and Taiwan were implemented comprehensively by experts, related agencies and authorities, and by the private sector, with active participation and debate. Therefore, it may be also worthwhile for Korea to look into these experiences as well.The Future of Korea-Asian cooperation Actually Korea-Asian cooperation already has begun not as top-down approach but community-building of bottom-up approach. Korean companies have made inroads into Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines without their government’s support. And they have executed business activity more competitively in the least developed ASEAN countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar than Japanese companies which have benefited from their government’s support. Korean companies’ horizons have already jumped beyond ASEAN. Korean entrepreneurship has been sweeping over the whole of Asia through automobiles, washing machines, TV sets, and so on, in India, high-speed highways and bus businesses in Pakistan, textiles and clothings in Bangladesh, toys, hats, pottery business in Sri Lanka, and even countries in Central Asia, Iran and Turkey. Malaysia’s model for its Look East Policy as well as the industrial model for Doimoi of Vietnam was Korea. Developing Asian nations are yearning for Korea at the government level. In these days Korean Wave joins this, and now the New Asian Diplomatic Policy is announced by the government, so Asia developing countries are harboring excited expectations. During the June 1-2, 2009, ASEAN-ROK Commemorative Summit Meeting, investment agreements that had been under negotiation were signed, and Korea and ASEAN have finished a framework for a free trade zone to succeed commodity and services agreements that took effect in June 2007 and May 2009, respectively. This statement has extensive policy significance such as ① raising trade to $150 billion in 2015 from $90 billion in 2008, ② increasing ODA to $400 million from $200 million, ③ dispatching 10,000 Korean Overseas Volunteers, together with inviting 7,000 ASEAN trainees to Korea for 7 years, ④ promoting ICT knowledge cooperation between Korea and ASEAN, ⑤ especially promoting green technology tie-ups, ⑥ addressing global issues such as climate change, food and energy security, global financial crisis, and so on, ⑦ addressing the North Korean nuclear issue by peaceful approach, with the six-party framework as soon as possible, ⑧ collaborating on international crime such as terrorism, etc. Therefore, the Korean government’s political will is committed to make a broad proclamation. Perhaps, next step should be to take a specific strategy and action plan concretely and effectively, taking overall aim and direction into consideration. For this, the academic world, experts in the private sector, and related government agencies must work together to come up with the best approach among the various alternative plans, through in-depth study, research and debate. Newly established “Korea-ASEAN Center” in March 2009 and possibly proposed “Korea-ASEAN Society” are expected to play an important role in promoting the Korea-ASEAN cooperation in future이 글에 포함된 의견은 저자 개인의 견해로 제주평화연구원의 공식입장과는 무관합니다.* Writer KimHak-Su(88hakskim@gmail.com) is a Chairman of the Asia Economic Community Foundation and served as the Executive Secretary of the UNESCAP and Under Secretary General of the UN that was the highest-level UN official of Korean before Mr. Ban Ki-moon.