Andray Abrahamian recently wrote a new book, Being in North Korea, about exposing North Korea to western-style capitalism through a non-governmental organization he set up in Singapore. At seminars and workshops in both North Korea and Singapore, he managed to acquaint young North Koreans to some "principles of buying and selling, marketing, designing, doing research, mapping strategy and, finally, profiting and maybe even getting rich" in a very communist-dedicated country. While managing to teach these eager North Koreans about the basics of western-style capitalism, he also was able to covey some important messages such as "some things would not be possible without the internet" and that there should be a balance of content, "80% applicable, 20% bad news." In his book however, it is not clear where he did his writing, nor how much of what was taught was put into practice by North Koreans.
The book also goes beyond personal experiences from the author and tells the story of Orascom. Orascom is an Egyptian giant that came into North Korea to build the country's 3G network. The company was unfortunately unable to repatriate profits, so the arrangement fell through, leaving North Korea's 'first major investment by a renowned, global corporation' a failure. Being in North Korea is somewhat vague throughout in terms of business and human rights as to not step on the toes of the North Korean government, but it does make it clear that North Koreans do 'have a vague sense that they are missing out on something huge.' North Korea claims that they will 'break through the cutting edge,' but Abrahamian does not believe it will happen if its people are still cut off from the outside world's knowledge and information.
It makes me wonder if North Korea may break out of its socialist shell within my lifetime.
Rare Insights On Business In North Korea From Being In The Hermit Country
2 comments:
I think that technology will be a key factor that will ultimately push North Korea to modify their socialist approach. Considering the global crisis due to the pandemic, governments are moving toward technological advanced and sustainable economic systems. The North Korean government will need to adapt to more flexible economic policies favoring global investors or else a severe economic crisis can be expected. Problems like no global internet access to the general public reflect the government's conservative approach. It’ll definitely take a revolution for North Korea to break out of its socialist shell.
I definitely agree with Muhammad, I think that North Korea will eventually have to come out of its shell and adapt to a more sustainable system. This system, however, might not be fully capitalist but maybe a combination of socialism and some aspects/parts of capitalism, a market economy might emerge for instance. Other than technological advances and the current global crisis, I think that we can clearly see that indeed the youth has some interest in a less isolated and government-controlled economy. Maybe they will eventually overturn Kim Jong Un's leadership and get their power back as a people. That however may not happen during our lifetime, only the future will tell.
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