Korea has tried to transfer the Korea’s development experiences to developing
countries. But internationally the Korea’s development experiences are
understood as a part of ‘the East Asian Model of Development’. There are
similarities and dissimilarities in the development experiences among Japan,
Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and China. It seems that Korea claims the
uniqueness of ‘the Korean Model of Development’ without clearly establishing
differences with the other East Asian developing economies. This paper offers a
difference of ‘the Korean Model of Development’. Korea is unique among the
East Asian developing economies in having several large private business groups
which can compete with those of advanced countries on equal terms in the
technology industries like the machine, electronics and chemical industry. In
addition to the historical heritage of the small-farm society since the second half
of 17th century, the industrialization during the Japanese occupation and the cold
war environment after World War II, the Korean government policies of export
driving, heavy chemical industrialization, R & D inducement and encouraging
competition among large firms made Korea’s large private firms start new
industries continuously and become entrepreneurial. The fact that the Korean
government was able to foster large private entrepreneurial firms in
manufacturing industry could be a point differentiating ‘the Korean Model of
Development’ from ‘the East Asian Model of Development’.