KDI 한국개발연구원

요약 Challenged by increased international competition and new
information technologies, the Korean economy is now at another
critical juncture in its development. The supposed sources of
Korea`s apparently mythical economic growth -- successful
mobilization of capital and labor -- are anyway depleting, while
easy learning from or adaptation of foreign technologies are
becoming increasingly more difficult or not good enough to meet
the mounting competitive pressure of the lobal market. In
quantity, Korea`s human resource base is highly impressive,
stacking up well against even the most advanced countries of
the world today. However, human capital in Korea in wanting
seriously in two crucial dimensions : first, creative high-quality
workforce with self-motivated learning abilities, and second, the
institutional or social capital essential for a synergetic
networking(specialization and exchange)among individuals and a
wide spectrum of economic or social entities. The long-term
growth potential of the Korean economy will essentially depend
on how successfully the Korean people manage to improve in
these two areas.

Ironically, the task will be extremely formidable, because it
tasks the most of aforementioned two types of capitals, which
the Korean society is now mostly lacking. If Korea fails at this
task, it may still manage to make one of those
reasonably-industrialized nations of the world, or at worst, end
up making another Soviets-like debacle story, as Krugman
speculate it could(Krugman 1994). Should Korea succeed,
however, what may be later called the 'human-capital-driven
stage of development' could be ushered, whereon Korea can
stride toward what possibly constitutes the ultimate vision of the
information age -- that is, the vision of attaining a truly
'human-capitalistic' society where the creative, caring and
collaborative minds command the utmost values as the ultimate
source of economic productivity as well as their own personal
well-being.