Korea

Over the past four decades, Korea's impressive economic growth was part of what has been described as the East Asian miracle. Intensive growth transformed Korea into the 12th largest economy and trading partner in the world. It was driven by high savings rates and investment and a strong emphasis on education, which boosted the number of young people enrolled in a college or university to one of the highest levels in the world (81.3% in 2004). During those years, Korea's industrial structure was drastically transformed. Major industries were diversified to include automobiles, petrochemicals, electronics, shipbuilding, textiles and steel products. By applying lessons from centuries of development in the West, Korea was able to make a similar transformation from an agricultural to manufacturing and on to a service-centered economy in just 50 years time. The GDP growth rate was 9.5 percent in 1999, 8.5 percent in 2000, 3.8 percent in 2001, 7.0 percent in 2002, 3.1 percent in 2003, 4.6 percent in 2004 and 4.0 percent in 2005. Thanks to the GDP growth driven by boosted exports and increased investments in plant and facilities, Korea emerged as the world's 11th largest economy in terms of GDP size in 2004, reaching US$680.1 billion.

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