October 22, 2009

Asia, a newly rising force in the world economy, is leading the global recovery from last year's financial-market meltdown and ensuing economic recession. Korea is part of the Asian locomotive and at the center of the region's fourth-largest economy is the city of Seoul, the national captial. Although the crisis, which was sparked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, has hit hard some of the financial centers in the West, it has not harmed Seoul's potential as an international financial center, city officials said.

Rather, the crisis has offered the city an opportunity to expand further.The officials noted that the city's ranking in the Global Financial Centers Index went up.Seoul, which ranked 53rd in the March installment of the index, shot to the 35th spot out of a total of 75 cities assessed in September.