Export powered Korea’s economic growth from the 1960s to the early 1970s. Lacking technology, capital, and resources, Korea had to rely on the labor-intensive manufacturing sector to achieve an economic growth rate that averaged around 10% annually. But international conditions forced Korea to shape its industrial landscape around the heavy industry. The Korean economy took off in earnest with the promotion of the heavy chemical industry in 1973. Today’s economic prosperity for Korea wouldn’t have been possible if not for the nation’s farsighted directive.
