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.