Korean collegians less entrepreneurial than Chinese

By Choi Sung-jin

Ma Huateng of Tencent, Lei Jun of Shaomi and Ma Yun of Alibaba - these Chinese moguls set up ventures in their 20s and became billionaires. There are no Korean counterparts. 

The Korea International Trade Association (KITA), in part, explains why. In a recent survey KITA conducted on 534 graduate and undergraduate students of Korea, China and Japan, up to 40 percent of Chinese students said they would start businesses after graduation, compared with 6 percent of Korean respondents. 

As the reason for starting businesses, most Chinese students said they "wanted to do their own business," while most Koreans cited "difficulties in finding jobs."

Among the businesses they want to engage in, Koreans most frequently cited catering with 32 percent, while the Chinese found the IT sector most attractive at 20 percent. 

"Korea's younger generations are most afraid of failure after starting businesses but their Chinese counterparts are anxious to keep their ideas and items from being preempted by others," said Park Yeon-woo, chief of KITA's corporate competitiveness division. "It is urgent to restore entrepreneurial spirit and create a competitive system for startups."