According to the Associated Press:
North Korea allowed about 30 foreign government officials, central bankers and diplomats to tour the industrial complex in Kaesong. The foreigners were in Seoul, South Korea, for a conference of the Group of 20 countries.
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“This is an authoritarian regime with a very nasty way of punishing anybody … who is against the regime,” said Paola Subacchi, director of international economics research at Chatham House, an independent policy institute based in London. “There’s no transparency, no accountability, nothing that could make an international investor happy and willing to invest.”
But Subacchi said the complex’s expansion might bring positive changes to North Korea because it would provide jobs and help feed North Korean workers and their families.
Hong Yang-ho, South Korean chairman of the committee that oversees management of the park, estimated the complex would create jobs for about 120,000 North Korean workers if it is fully occupied with factories. About 40 percent of the complex is currently being used.
The industrial park combines South Korean capital and technology with cheap North Korean labor. Currently around 53,000 North Koreans are working in the complex at some 120 companies. North Korea is estimated to have received $80 million in workers’ salaries in 2012, an average of $127 a month per person, paid in U.S. dollars, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry.
The invitation to visit Kaesong was the first concrete step that the two Koreas have taken toward opening the complex to overseas investors since they agreed to restart the park in September.
The two Koreas also agreed to work toward attracting overseas investment and discuss other ways to improve business, including better communication and allowing people and goods to move more freely to and from Kaesong.
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Domenico Lombardi, a think tank director, said he would not build a factory in Kaesong if he were a businessman because of the risks and high uncertainty.
But he said it was a positive sign that North Korea was eager to show the park to foreigners.
“This is the first step of what a more open North Korea would be one day,” said Lombardi, director of the Global Economy program at the Center for International Governance Innovation, based in Ontario, Canada.
The next challenge for North Korea will be “making their own economy more accessible to foreign investors,” Lombardi said.
Read the full story here:
Inter-Korean Factory Park Tough Sell to Outsiders
Associated Press
Youkyung Lee
2013-12-19
