Lessons from South Korea Experience in the Automotive Industry

The Automotive Industry in the most of the developed and developing countries, which are active in this field is considered to be the engine of the industrial sector, and its product is deemed as sign of growth and national identity for any country in toto. In Iran, the growth and development of automotive industry for attaining its optimal position and competitiveness, have always been the main goals and desidrata of strategic planners in this industry. Hence, reviewing the automotive experiences of leading countries, such as South Korea in the context of industrial activities, could provide useful pattern for formulating the future planes of this industry in the country per se. In this paper, an attempt is made to investigate the structure and operation of automotive industry in the South Korea. The results prima facie indicate that the process of automobile manufacturing in South Korea, is a compiled and coherent program which availed the unsparing support of the government in the initial stage and gradually by its proportionate and stepwise progress, the extent of government finance diminished and the share of private sector in this industry enhanced, so that at present, it is distinguished as one of the automotive industrial hubs in the world and its manufacturing products are competing with most sophisticated car industries of the globe, sine qua non.
It is worth to note that, although comparatively the automotive industry of Iran is almost in the same age as it is the South Korea's one, but due to lack of any comprehensive and coherent strategy on automotive industry in Iran, its products are laying behind the South Korea and can not compete with her in the market sui generis.