Runaway Korean Enterprises Mainly Rely On Textile And Sewing Labor-Intensive Small And Medium-Sized Enterprises.

The first supermarket opened by Lotte Group in China is located in the Chengyang District of Qingdao. It will open in November this year.

Since the first Korean invested enterprise invested in Qingdao in 1989, more than 8400 enterprises have invested in Qingdao in the past 20 years.

However, those who came were famous for their absence.

A total of 206 enterprises were evacuated from Qingdao in 2000 after the first Korean enterprise was illegally evacuated from Qingdao.

The illegal withdrawal of Korean enterprises in China is far more than Qingdao.

At the beginning of 2008, more than 30 Korean executives escaped from Yantai's largest South Korean clothing company, the world's rigid clothing company, which attracted widespread attention from all walks of life.

In January 21, 2008, the Ministry of industry and resources of the Republic of Korea, the Ministry of foreign affairs, the Ministry of labour, the Ministry of justice and the Korean Association of industry and Commerce constituted the "coping with the withdrawal of the Chinese special group". Field investigations were conducted in areas with relatively concentrated Korean enterprises such as Qingdao and Guangzhou, in order to effectively prevent the further increase in the number of Korean enterprises withdrawn from China without permission.

Qingdao municipal Party school political science teaching and research department research group Qi Huai Gao, Wang Yi, Sun Tao, Mei Qiuling and others, through research, specially made the "Qingdao Korean enterprises withdrawal status analysis and countermeasures and suggestions" report, is the first positive response of the Chinese authorities.

Recently, the reporter interviewed the chief editor of the report, Dr. Qi Huai Gao, who has long paid attention to the economic and trade relations between Qingdao and South Korea.

Small and medium enterprises are the main force.

Twenty-first Century: how many "evacuations" are there in Korean enterprises in Qingdao?

Qi Huai Gao: because the statistics of foreign trade and economic departments and banking departments are different, it is difficult to make accurate statistics on the number of Qingdao Korean enterprises withdrawn.

At present, the more authoritative argument is the data of the export and Import Bank of Korea as at February 12, 2008. From 2000 to 2007, a total of 8344 Korean enterprises invested in Qingdao, of which 2.5% of the enterprises (206) had been illegally evacuated, especially in 2007, and the number of illegal withdrawals was up to 87, accounting for 42.2% of the total number of evacuated enterprises.

From the industry perspective, handicrafts (jewelry) production (63, 30.5%), sewing (16%) and leather (13.6%) and other traditional labor-intensive enterprises.

The percentage of employees with less than 50 employees is 55.3% of the total number of unevacuated enterprises.

Twenty-first Century: does this withdrawal have a great impact on Qingdao's economy?

Qi Huai Gao: at present, it is difficult for us to assess the impact of partial Korean enterprises withdrawal on Qingdao's economic development in the short term.

But two points can be made clear.

First, the "withdrawal tide" proposed by some South Korean media is too exaggerated and inconsistent with the facts. Two, the impact on Qingdao's economic development is twofold. We should dialectically look at it.

According to our survey, most of the Korean enterprises that are "evacuated" are labor-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises, mainly based on textile, sewing, shoemaking, leather, jewelry and toys. Their survival is based on China's cheap labor and preferential policies.

We don't have to worry too much about it.

Different development periods correspond to different development concepts, policies and measures and economic structure.

At present, the changes in China's business environment and the consequent cost increase are the thrust of industrial upgrading.

But we should also correctly understand the possible negative effects of "withdrawal", especially the vigilance of the illegal withdrawal of Korean enterprises and the group incidents such as workers' strike and petition.

There were such precedents in history, such as the strike of more than 600 workers in the shoe factory of Kaiser electric factory.

Twenty-first Century: according to your understanding, what is the view of Korea in this field?

What did you get from your research?

Qi Huai Gao: the survey conducted by the Korean business association in February 2008 about 350 companies shows that about 30% of the enterprises invested in China are planning to withdraw from China, and think that the environment of Chinese enterprises will be deteriorating by 85.8%.

In March 2007, the same survey was conducted to answer that the "deteriorating" enterprises only stayed at about 33%.

South Korean media said that these enterprises "fled at midnight", one is that the liquidation of Chinese companies "complicated procedures", the two is the need to return the original entry into China, all kinds of concessions.

We disagree with this view.

With regard to liquidation procedures, there are three procedures for liquidation of foreign enterprises, namely, general liquidation, special liquidation and bankruptcy liquidation.

The time and effort of liquidation is due to laws and regulations, not only for Korean enterprises, but also for other foreign-funded enterprises. Not only in China, but also in other countries.

In fact, China's current liquidation measures for foreign invested enterprises clarify the starting point and the longest period of the liquidation procedure, which is conducive to speeding up the liquidation process.

Therefore, we believe that the withdrawal of Korean businessmen is often due to the fact that the original company has become empty shell and has lost its use value.

"Evacuation" is difficult and punished.

Twenty-first Century: what factors led to the "withdrawal" of Korean enterprises?

Qi Huai Gao: there are three main reasons: first, the rise in labor costs.

The implementation of the labor contract law and the increase in labor wages have led to increased production costs for Korean enterprises and increased the burden on enterprises.

According to Yonhap, the average monthly salary of Chinese workers has risen to 200 to 250 dollars, while the average monthly salary of Vietnamese workers is only 60 to 70 dollars.

As a result, a considerable proportion of Korean enterprises are unable to sustain the soaring labor cost, hoping to withdraw from China. Most of them consider pferring the factory to Vietnam.

At the same time, due to the shortage of skilled workers in Qingdao's local population and the need for a large number of workers in the field, experienced skilled workers often turn to factories with better conditions, resulting in script src=> of labor force.