Fifty years after its independence, T&T stills lags behind South Korea in terms of its development, says Prof Clement Sankat, Pro Vice-Chancellor, University of the West Indies (UWI). "In the early 1960s, South Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. When I visited South Korea, what I saw was spectacular. I reflected on South Korea's advances in 50 years. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), today South Korea has the 14th largest economy in the world. These are lessons for T&T and benchmarks for us," Sankat said. Sankat was speaking yesterday at the Korea-Caribbean ICT/E-Government Forum at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain.
A delegation from South Korea was present at the forum and the delegation was headed by Kwangsoo Chang, assistant minister in the Korean Ministry of Public Administration and Security. While South Korea is at position 19 on the Global Competitiveness Index for 2012 to 2013, T&T stands at position 84, he said. "We must focus on productivity and clearly, there is much to be done in T&T. South Korea is a country with an economy that is in the top 20 in the world," he said. Sankat said South Korea has some of the biggest brand name companies in the world. "They export mobile telecommunications equipment. They have brands like Samsung and LG, which are in the world's top 100 companies. South Korea has done all this without natural resources," he said.
He used South Korea's education system as an example of the kind that supports a modern economy. "People ask why South Korea is such a success. It is because of the state's involvement in financing education. It is a country with compulsory primary education and universal secondary education: 90.5 per cent of students who leave secondary schools end up in post-secondary education Also, leaders like Samsung and LG are involved centrally in the education system. The education system is linked to the economy and today they have a knowledge economy," he said.
