Rate of New Businesses Eclipses Bankrupt Firms

The entrepreneurial spirit, always present in Korea, is growing partly due to hard times but also because many businessmen have great expectations for future prosperity.
While the rate of bankrupt companies is rapidly shrinking, newly-born business groups are arising seven times more than extinct ones.
According to material presented by the Bank of Korea(BOK) on January 15, the number of new legal companies born last month in Korea's seven major cities marked 2,093, 295 more than that of November 1998.
On the other hand, companies going belly up shrank to 300 in December 1998 far fewer than the 1,176 of January 1998.
A source from the BOK asserted, 'With low interest rates and more loans available, it is certain that the number of bankrupt groups will be reduced. More venture groups means less unemployment.'