Asians doing business badly in the region

Asians doing business badly in the region

By Sang Hun-choe

SEOUL, South Korea (AP): In decidedly undiplomatic language, a government trade agency is giving South Korean businessmen tips on doing business in Asia.

Some of its suggestions:

In China, don't trust promises made over drinks after working hours; get the deal on paper. In India, don't expect local businessmen to take responsibility when a deal goes sour.

The Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency surveyed dozens of businessmen who have worked in other parts of Asia and published their case histories and comments in investment guides for individual countries.

In its guide to China, businessmen are told to keep extensive notes on negotiations and double-check every document. Promises made by Chinese businessmen over drinks after work often don't jibe with the subsequent written contract, the agency says.

"They (Chinese) snare you and pull down your pants at the same time," the advisory warns.

In India, the group says, potential investors likely will get all kinds of conflicting statistics, few of which will actually help in that melting pot of multiple races, languages and religions.

"Responsibility is a virtue rarely found among Indian bosses," the group says. When a deal goes sour, it adds, some companies tend to avoid responsibility by saying that lower-level officials acted independently of management. Better to deal with CEOs from the start.

"Our aim is to help businessmen to avoid the same mistakes we have committed," the agency's Kim Sung-chul said. "You can avoid a lot of those mistakes once you understand cultural differences."

So far, the group has provided guides for China, India and Vietnam, distributing them only to businessmen attending orientation sessions for foreign investors.

The foreign countries involved "will not be happy to read our reports, but we don't intend to insult anybody," said Lee June- yong, another agency official. "We simply try to warn our businessmen of what actually has happened -- in clear and emphatic language."

Dinter Thullar, an official at the Indian Embassy in Seoul, said he suspected the guide to his country "is based on isolated, individual cases" and does not reflect "a general problem."

And a commercial attache in the Chinese Embassy said warnings about not relying on verbal promises and getting all contract terms and conditions in writing could apply anywhere in the world.

"That's basic in international trading," the attache said on customary condition of anonymity.

In its guide to doing business in Vietnam, the Korean agency says workers more than ever are heeding the Marxist exhortation: Workers of the world unite! The lesson is: Never slap local workers, unless you want a labor strike.

Physical abuse and attempts to change a lax work ethic have earned Korean bosses a harsh reputation and triggered labor strikes in Vietnam, Pakistan and other places.

The Korean manager of a Korean-owned shoe factory in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City received a suspended prison sentence in 1996 for lining up and beating employees with an unfinished shoe.

The trade agency advises that rather than ordering local workers around, Korean factory managers set an example by reporting to work first, picking up cigarette butts and cleaning the factory premises.

Another key business tip from the group, one that might find resonance among Washington lobbyists and fund raisers: Establish well-oiled connections with government and party leaders.

Korean companies take that advice seriously. Korean investors go to great lengths to earn an audience with foreign political leaders and make sure they pose for photographs.

Those photographs are later displayed prominently in their offices to impress local partners, low-ranking tax collectors and government regulators.