Nail salons， restaurants， cafes and other signs of consumerism were unheard of in rigidly
controlled North Korea up until just a few years ago... today they are slowly emerging
in one of the world′s last bastions of Cold War socialism. That′s because of a growing
middle class or North Korea′s Nouveau Riches － as they are called － Not only that，
they are also learning Western－style economics， business， and finance. The final of my two－part
series. Singapore. With a population 5－point－5 million and growing， the modern city－state
off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula is one
of the world′s major commercial hubs. Global businesses trade round－the－clock
and investors can transact with any part of the world within the same working day.
It is to this vibrant market economy that a group of newly emerging capitalists are
heading to learn and experience a real market economy： they are the rare but fast growing
business professionals of North Korea. At the forefront of this new phenomenon is
Geoffrey K. See， founder of Choson Exchange， a non－profit that provides economic， business
and legal training for North Koreans and support entrepreneurship in the reclusive state.
See was inspired to create Choson Exchange during his trip to the hermit kingdom in 2007
as a business school student in the U.S. The Singaporean was surprised to meet North
Koreans his age who had keen interest in business and economics.
Since then， his offices in Singapore， Beijing， and Washington have facilitated
more than 9－hundred North Koreans for the two－way exchange program.
Most of their trainees work at state companies or institutions in North Korea... others are
upper－middle class North Koreans who run， or hope to run， small enterprises， typically
restaurants or cafes. The sessions in Pyongyang involve a foreign
expert usually in the field of entrepreneurship or marketing.
They volunteer as workshop leaders and lecture on western business practices.
″The idea is that if you create more unique， interesting snowflakes you would get higher
price from her. So I would teach them that you are competing with other businesses and
you need to innovate， do something different to grab my attention. ″
Choson Exchange also brings North Koreans out to Singapore to train them.
North Korea′s most aspiring business people tour Singapore′s fancy shops， meet business
leaders as well as policymakers. They compile field reports of the shopping
district using technical marketing frameworks， learn online research， and create product
brands. What Choson Exchange is especially focused
on is the newly－emerging small and medium sized enterprise segment in North Korea that
generates half a million to a million dollars of revenue.
″These are relatively autonomous entities very often they are linked to state owned
enterprise but the managers that run it are left to decide to more or less how they want
to run the business， they keep a larger share of the profits.