POSITION PAPER ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMITTE ____________________________________ REPUBLIC OF SOUTH KOREA is a sovereign state in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula.] The name "Korea" is derived from Goryeo, a dynasty which ruled in the middle Ages. Its neighbors are China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. South Korea lies in the North Temperate Zone with a predominantly mountainous terrain. It covers a total area of 99,392 square kilometers and has a population of 50 million. The capital and largest city is Seoul, with a population of 9,794,304. Archaeology indicates that …ver más…

South Korea was one of the few developed countries that were able to avoid a recession during the global financial crisis, and its economic growth rate reached 6.2 percent in 2010 (the fastest growth for eight years after significant growth by 7.2 percent in 2002), a sharp recovery from economic growth rates of 2.3% in 2008 and 0.2% in 2009 when the global financial crisis hit. The unemployment rate in South Korea also remained low in 2009 at 3.6%

Economic Rankings | Name | Year | Place | Out of # | Reference | World Intellectual Property Organization – Patents | 2005 | 4 | 20 | [6] | The World Factbook – Exports | 2009 | 8 | 194 | [7] | IMF - GDP (Nominal) | 2009 | 15 | 179 | [8] | IMF - GDP (PPP) | 2009 | 12 | 180 | [9] | IMF – GDP per capita (Nominal) | 2009 | 37 | 180 | [10] | IMF – GDP per capital (PPP) | 2009 | 30 | 181 | [11] | World Economic Forum – Global Competitiveness Report 2009–2010 | 2009 | 19 | 133 | [12] | International Telecommunication Union - number of broadband Internet users | 2006 | 1 | 181 | [13] | The Economist Intelligence Unit – e-readiness | 2008 | 15 | 70 | [14] | World Bank – Ease of Doing Business Index | 2009 | 19 | 183 | [15] | Legatum Institute – Prosperity | 2009 | 26 | 104 | [16] | World Economic Forum – Enabling Trade Index ranking | 2008 | 27 | 125 | [17] | The Economist