|
In February 1973, Lee Seong-tae, then 28, left for Frankfurt after being ordered by the Bank of Korea to learn about advanced finance systems. He returned home after a year of working at the BOK branch in Frankfurt armed with insights into the financial policies and practices of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Germany¡¯s central bank.
Thirty-four years later, On Sept. 28, 2007, Lee, now BOK governor, arrived at Phnom Penh International Airport to be welcomed by Chea Chanto, the governor of the National Bank of Cambodia. The two men signed an agreement the same day whereby the BOK will give the impoverished country¡¯s central bank advice and technological support. The NBC first requested cooperation in July.
The BOK plans to transfer know-how on payment and settlement systems and monetary and financial policies. It was the second agreement Korea¡¯s central bank BOK signed with a foreign central bank, following its signing of a similar agreement with the State Bank of Vietnam in 2004. Only a decade ago, South Korea was busy trying to import financial systems from advanced countries; now it has become an exporter of financial models in its own right.
Southeast Asian countries are paying attention since the South Korean model has succeeded in swiftly overhauling financial and capital market systems in the wake of the financial crisis in the late 1990s. Industry insiders expect that success to lead to lucrative exports of financial services in the near future.
The Korea Exchange signed an agreement with the Bank of Laos on Sept. 19 to help Vientiane establish its first stock exchange by 2010. KRX will help set up Laos' main bourse, provide a digital networking system and training personnel for stock trading, and give legal advice on the stock trading law. The assistance will be given for free for the time being, but KRX will receive shares of the Lao bourse once it is set up.
South Korea is laying the framework for the stock markets of latecomers in Southeast Asia that have just started establishing capital markets. The South Korean model will be adopted by Cambodia in 2009 and Laos in 2010, following the Vietnamese bourse that opened in 2000. Even some countries that already have their own bourses are interested in the South Korean bourse.
In September, some 31 securities firm CEOs from eight countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia visited Seoul for a two-week training program on the Korean capital market under the sponsorship of the Korea Securities Dealers Association.
The popularity of the Korean model is explained by the fact that it has become a kind of textbook example for Southeast Asian nations that have just started overhauling their own capital markets, due to its rapid growth after the Asian crisis. And the South Korean government is encouraging exports of financial infrastructure.
But a researcher at a civilian institute said, "It remains to be seen whether the government-led grant-type aid will lead to profit-making exports of financial services by civilians." Kim Soo-ho, an official with the Ministry of Finance and Economy, said, "As the assistance is in an initial stage, it is still in the style of grant-type aid. But once Korea's financial systems are established in such countries, Korean financial firms can naturally advance and make profits there."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
