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Strategies & Market Trends : JAPAN-Nikkei-Time to go back up? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Real Man who wrote (643)	12/31/1997 4:43:00 PM
From: GROUND ZERO™	Respond to of 3902

Vi, Thanks. (-.....-) GZ

To: Real Man who wrote (643)	1/2/1998 8:35:00 AM
From: chirodoc	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3902

looks like korea may rebound before japan!!!! S.Korea's Kim Dae-Jung Vows to Revive Economy By Jaekwon Lim SEOUL, South Korea (Reuters) - South Korea's president-elect, Kim Dae-jung, vows to revive the ailing economic tiger in two years with the help of the International Monetary Fund -- but he also warned of difficult times ahead. "Many hardships are in store for us in the new year," Kim, 74, said. Crowds gathered in downtown Seoul for the bell-ringing ceremony to chime in the new year, but economic fears pervaded as another year of economic uncertainty began. "Inflation will flare up, unemployment rise and numerous companies collapse," Kim said in his New Year message. South Korea is expected to see flat to negative economic growth in 1998 with more than a million workers laid off in its first experience of austerity since the oil shock of the early 1980s. "(The economy) is standing at a crossroads between catastrophe and rebirth," Kim said. On New Year's Eve, he wrote his solemn thoughts into Chinese characters for public display: "Calm the Country, Salvage the People." Asia's largest tiger economy was ravaged by major corporate collapses last year that culminated in a crippling financial crisis. The IMF, along with global industrial powers, came to South Korea's rescue in December. The price for the bailout package, approaching $60 billion, was a massive restructuring of the economy. "We must use this opportunity to carry out reforms that have been delayed by internal resistance and barriers," Kim said. "I am convinced of economic revival that will make the IMF control no longer necessary in 1999." South Koreans have high hopes for Kim's new government to solve their economic problems. The Korea Economic Daily said Thursday that eight out of every 10 South Koreans believed the economy would recover through a successful restructuring. Kim has already spearheaded many reforms since winning the presidency last month, although his official five-year term does not start until Feb. 25. With the country facing major defaults on its debts, the IMF and donor countries, impressed by Seoul's reform efforts, have sped up rescue loans and foreign lenders have started to roll over loans to the cash-starved country. "By any objective measurement, examining what Korea has done has been quite remarkable. They have complied fully with their commitments," said a senior U.S. diplomat in Seoul. South Korea's once-closed capital markets are now open to foreign investment and the shackles of state guidance of the economy are disappearing fast. "This country has a unique opportunity to run the country through a de facto government of national unity," the U.S. diplomat said. Outgoing President Kim Young-sam's disappearing act surprised no one in South Korea amid mounting public anger and criticism of his administration for its poor economic management. "Kim Young-sam was a total failure as the nation's president," said Shin Myung-soon, political professor at Seoul's Yonsei University. But stakes are also high for Kim Dae-jung, particularly as he has yet to persuade South Korean workers to accept layoffs as a critical part of the economic reform. "We must admit we cannot get away with not having a flexible labor market," he said in his New Year speech. Labor unions, which had backed Kim Dae-jung in the past as a standard bearer for South Korean dissidents, are resistant to Kim's layoff plans, blaming family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebol, for much of the economic mess. The militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) said in its New Year statement that these chaebol should be dismantled to pave way for new professional business groups. The KCTU, which boasts a 550,000-membership, also said it would oppose layoffs. Outgoing President Kim Young-sam's earlier attempt to introduce layoffs