People are thinking about the next changes in our global society. They are interested in what will be the next world economic engine. Internationally,, there are many predictions about the shifts in new world economic powers. “Which countries will lead the world’s economy? Which countries will give new dynamic power to the world economy? Which countries will carry out the next worldwide economic engine?” These are questions related to their predictions. Because of this interest, “Post BRICs” is considered as the proper concept by many people.
BRIC has been a very famous economic concept for us as a new world economy power. BRIC stands for four countries: Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Most people think, the next worldwide economic engine is very closely related to these countries and their economic impact. In 2003, Goldman Sachs, a worldwide investment bank and security company, announced that the four countries will be the new developing countries, and they are valuable as an investment. After they announced this to the world, many people invested in these countries over their national borders, and the BRIC’s hurricane began to grow throughout the world. It was a most impressive flow into the world economy. Moreover, the BRIC’s concept has been representing the dazzling investment areas and economic developments. That is to say, BRIC began to become a synonym for promising countries in the future.
However, the development speed of those countries has been much faster than many people predicted. The degree of investments is excessive, and these countries are regulating foreign investments. The BRICs market has emerged into a new concept called the Red Ocean. A Red Ocean is a market in which many competitors are competing severely with each other. However, they are losing the power to attract other countries’ investors. Therefore, many specialists are starting to find and make new powerful economic engines. It is now the ‘Post BRIC’ era. The concept started to appear in 2007.
This year, the WEF (World Economic Forum) held the Davos Forum in Switzerland. The Davos Forum is very well-known as a conference related to important economic issues. During the last Davos Forum, many experts came from many countries, shared their opinions about prospecting the world economy, and discussed the direction about how the world’s economy has to go further in development. What did they discuss this year? The theme of the forum this year was “The Shifting Power Equation”. It is a very meaningful phrase, because, we are standing in front of a turning point of the world’s economy. The meaning of the phrase is that the central region of the world’s economy will not be in the United States and Europe any more, but in other regions including the Post BRIC’s countries. That is why the world has been emphasizing the importance of the Post BRICs in our global society. Many expert economic institutions predict several countries are able to be members of the category - Post BRIC. They also have hypothesized about new concepts of economics surrounding these countries. They have combined various countries in some parts to constitute Post BRIC.
For example
VRICs (Vietnam, Russia, India, China)
BRICKS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Kazakhstan, Republic of South Africa)
IBSA (India, Brazil, Republic of South Africa, Argentina)
TVT (Thai, Vietnam, Turkey)
E7 (Brazil, Russia, India, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey)
NEXT-11 (Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey, Vietnam),
SAINs (Republic of South Africa, Argentina, Indonesia, Nigeria)
PoST-VM (Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, Vietnam, Malaysia)
VISTA (Vietnam, Indonesia, Republic of South Africa, Turkey, Argentina)
As you can see, some concepts include the new membership of many other countries that have been added to the BRIC original countries. However, it is most important to understand that there are many newly developing countries out of these categories. Many experts are evaluating them in light of the new Post BRIC concepts, powerful world economy engines. However, some countries are stressed more than others. This means there are countries that need foreign aid, and will help us when we have vested in their countries. The most noticeable countries are the following.
First, there is Vietnam as a representative example. Lee Jae-min, an overseas economic research institute for The Export-Import Bank of Korea insists that it is the most promising country among Post BRICs countries. Furthermore, in the same culture cluster, Korea can be more interested in Vietnam. It has a large labor population with a high quality, but cheap workforce, affluent natural resources. From the year 2001, the high rate of economic growth has continued to last, and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says officially that the economic growth will continue.
Another example is Turkey. Turkey has also achieved a high rate of economic growth. Moreover, the national income per a person is increasing from 2,622 dollars in 2002 to 5,126 dollars in 2006, which is twice as high as before. Many experts think the reason why Turkey is developing so rapidly is the geopolitical advantage between Europe and Asia, high quality of workforce, and relatively excellent social infrastructure for foreign investors.
However, Post BRICs countries have some deficiencies. KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency) pointed out a few of these points. “Post BRIC’s countries have a higher rate of risk than non-Post BRIC’s countries on investment. Moreover, many economic institutions have predicted the future of Post BRICS on the basis of potential conditions rather than from obvious evidence. It means the prediction is depending on very fluid states and impossible to know definitely through reliable data alone. Even though they are showing very high rates of economic growth, there are not enough sufficient infrastructures to support foreign investment in these countries easily. In addition, domestic political problems are possible, which tends to make people not invest actively, as in the case of the current Thai situation. Finally, according to the evaluations which were compared with the original BRIC’s countries, these countries have a relatively smaller market. Nevertheless, it is obvious that if investors are adjusted to these countries, it will give them fortune and positive opportunities.”
In the current world, it seems there are inevitable and endless competitions among a number of countries. It is an obvious fact. In these circumstances, many countries are considering which countries they have to invest more and develop conditions of a way to live in a globalizing world to survive. Globalization is very harsh. In the 21st century, survival is decisive on a nation’s position in the world, and which countries can advance new bright markets faster than other countries. It is very significant to Korean people because our national economy almost completely depends on trade with other countries. In other words, they are affecting the Korean national economy.
We are stepping up to the door of a worldwide economic power. Although there have been many difficulties in front of us, we have been evaluated, and have performed well in our roles. However, it is obvious that the time which is coming will be more important. Many people agree on this opinion. Because of this reason, we have to keep other countries valuable markets in mind, but we have always been late, and behind our competing countries. Today, keeping our attitude towards economic powers is no less necessary for us and our future. That is why we have to take an interest about it, and it becomes a matter of primary and grave interest. When other countries start to have insight about Post BRICs, we already have to be there. It is an obvious fact that BRICs countries already overflowed. Therefore, we must take a position for Post BRICs. Stare at it! In front of us, the sun named Post BRICs is rising.