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A bridge to the future
The problems of the South Korean model should not be allowed to obscure either its achievements or its continuing strengths. True, over the past 40 years annual GDP growth has declined from about 10% to 4-5% (see chart 2). Business investment has halved from over 30% of GDP in the mid-1990s to 17% in 2010—but that is still 50% over the OECD average. Further declines in growth seem likely.
That is not surprising. As Kwanho Shin of Korea University and Dwight Perkins of Harvard show, every country’s growth starts to ebb as its income reaches about $10,000 a year. South Korea has kept going longer than most. If it can increase public spending a little to reduce inequality and poverty, boost its labour supply by encouraging more women to work and avoid compromising its educational standards and penchant for hard work, then it should be well placed to pull ahead of Europeans and catch up with America, too.
South Korea has long been a model for outsiders. President Kennedy’s chief economic adviser, Walt Rostow, wanted to use it as a testing ground for his theories about stages of economic growth. But Koreans do not see themselves as a blank slate, or as a new world power. They stress a long legacy of openness and innovation. Before the wars of the 20th century Korea was a bridge between the more closed worlds of China and Japan. It developed movable metal type two centuries before Gutenberg its last imperial dynasty benefited from checks and balances more extensive than in its Chinese prototypes. The more Korea brings these qualities of domestic innovation to the fore, the better its chances of blazing a new trail for itself.

A. 어휘
obscure 덮어 감추다, 무색하게 하다. ebb 潮水(조수)가 빠지다, 줄어들다.
compromising 떨어뜨리다, 양보하다, 굽히다. penchant 강한 경향.
pull ahead of 앞서다. catch up with 따라잡다.
stages of economic growth 경제발전 단계.
blank slate 빈 서판(가능성). legacy 遺産(유산), 유물.
movable metal type 금속활자. imperial 帝國(제국)의. dynasty 王朝(왕조).
its last imperial dynasty 大韓帝國(대한제국)을 의미.
checks and balances 牽制(견제)와 균형. extensive 광범위한, 포괄적인.
prototypes 원형. to the fore 前面(전면)에, 크게 부각되는.
blazing a new trail 새로운 길을 내다.