Investigate and analyse the financial system of South Korea, Its level Essay

Investigate and analyse the financial system of South Korea, Its level of development,The efficiency of its financial markets,an - Essay Example South Korea established a central bank in 1950 that was given the mandate of regulating all the other banks in the country, printing and circulation of the currency in South Korea as well as making laws and regulations that would govern other financial institutions in the country. The minor banks in South Korea had a function of extending credit services to businesses and other medium and long term investment projects (pg 48). Today, the financial system of South Korea has grown and continues to improve remarkably over the years. South Korea is located in the north-eastern Asia and it is bordered by the Yellow sea to the west and Democratic Republic of Korea to the north. South Korea has four distinct seasons and in 2011, the population was estimated to be 48.75 million people with the annual growth rate in population estimated to be 0.23%. South Korea is characterized by low birth rate and high life expectancy at an average of 82 years for women and 75 years for men but the literacy levels are high with compulsory schooling for the first 9 years. This has greatly been affecting the economy of South Korea because most of the population is made up of the old people. The major religions in South Korea are Christianity, Buddhhism, Shamanism, Confucianism and Chondogyo. Politically, South Korea has a well organized government by the president, the parliament and the judiciary. Power was well laid out in the constitution that was appealed in 1987 (Kim & Black, 2004). South Korea has had a well performing investment sector especially in agriculture and other medium and long-term investments. This sector has been an integral part of the economy of South Korea and the banks even offered loans that would be channeled towards these businesses. They contributed to the growth of South Korea’s GDP that has improved though it had staggered for some time due to hard economic times that South Korea went through for some time (Lau, 1996). The depository sector of the fin ancial system has also been improved over the years where unlike the times when banks were solely owned by the government, the people have been allowed the freedom to have shares in the banking sector and the banks have started offering depository services for their customers (Lee, 2004). This has strengthened the financial system of South Korea and has ensured that there is constant growth in the sector. In the recent years, South Korea’s financial system moved from the government ownership to more widespread powers where people were allowed to participate directly through the purchase of shares. This was contributed to by the increases reforms and strategies that were geared towards attainment of stability in the financial markets. Over the past 10 years, The GDP of South Korea has experience fluctuations in GDP with a 9% growth in 2009 and 6.1% being recorded in 2010. This was due to changes in economic situations globally and changes in the level of exports in the country over the years. South Korea’s financial system has improved significantly and it has even gone ahead to sign business agreements with North Korea that are aimed at improving the exports in the country hence ensuring the country a growth in the GDP and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) (Zahid,1995). The growth of the financial institutions in South Korea have been so much affected by the aging population, strict labor laws, poor management of the institutions, underdevelopment of the

Culture Expos Project Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Culture Expos Project - Research Paper Example market. In assessing the Filipino culture, the study hopes to suggest some strategies to attract and fulfill the needs of this particular market. Filipinos are natives of the Philippines, a country in the Asia Pacific region near Hong Kong and Malaysia. Historians have noted that the Filipinos have a mixed culture due to their mixed ancestry. The earliest generations of this culture are Malays who came to the Philippine islands for settlement (Halili, 2004). They scattered all over the country, and because the Philippines is an archipelago, the Filipinos speak different dialects or local languages (Agoncillo, 1974) but like their Chinese neighbor, manage to maintain a national language also called Filipino. Chinese inhabitants are also all over the country but they settled in the Philippines merely for business, hence the Filipino of today also bears some Chinese ancestry. In 1521, the Philippines was discovered by Spanish colonizers led by Magellan (Halili, 2004). This started the c olonization of the Philippines by the Spaniards whose settlement lasted for more than three centuries (ibid.). This long history of colonization has a great impact on the Filipino culture. Nevertheless, the cruelty of the colonizers kept a distance between the natives and the former. Rizal, the Philippine’s national hero whose name is acclaimed in some Western countries like Germany, noted in his writings how the Spaniards, especially the rulers of the Church treated the Filipinos with lambasting words, unjust imprisonment and disappearance, denial of property, among many other acts of injustice (Capino, Gonzales, and Pineda, 2005). The Philippines was liberated from the Spanish regime when the Americans came in 1901. Unlike the Spaniards who did not teach their language for fear of being overpowered, the Americans, through the Thomasites taught English to the Filipinos and promoted education, especially free elementary education. The Thomasites were the first American teache rs who came to the Philippines to teach the Filipinos (Halili, 2004). The Americans noted the lack of education and the poverty that loomed in the Philippines after the Spanish regime. They attempted to improve the living conditions of the Filipino by sending some scholars in the U.S. to study (ibid.). Those Filipinos may have inspired others to come to America, thus explaining the wide population of Filipinos in the U.S. at present. When the WWII broke up, the Philippines was invaded by Japan and along with Filipino soldiers, some American soldiers were tortured by the Japanese to march several miles from Bataan Province to Manila (ibid.). This is known today as the Bataan Death March, in which some soldiers died of hunger and thirst. After four days, when additional American troops were sent to the Philippines, the Japanese invaders were ousted, making the Filipinos free from another threat of colonization. The different settlers in the Philippines impacted the Filipino culture, m aking it a combination of the Spanish, American, and Japanese culture superimposed by the Malay ancestry it has. Filipinos nowadays have healed from their past and seen on American television, for instance, Charice Pempengco, ultimately project easy adaptability with other cultures. Their clothes are a cross between Western and Asian influences. They have developed a cultural adaptability style that tends to accept differences and unify