[The government’s effort to foster social enterprises to help people left behind in the economic growth. Participation of the civil society as a key success factor] The driver was the growing risk of social division as a result of accelerated economic growth Although the three East Asian countries took a different path of growth, all succeeded in growing up to become key economies. Naturally, fast growth has its own downside. It is not a coincidence that all three countries have problems with distribution of wealth among different social classes and geographical regions. 　 Government can play an important role in improving the situation but the civil society’s effort is also direly needed. Social enterprises are increasingly seen as a solution for the problem. Interestingly, the three countries share many commonalities including Chinese character-based language and a Confucian influence. Due to geographical proximities, the countries have interacted with one another for a long time, and they also share much of the same history. It should also be noted that the governments are playing a central role in all three countries and the development speed of civil societies are also much slower than in Western countries. As relatively well off countries, they also face demand to contribute to regional development from less developed Asian countries. 　 Social enterprises in the three countries will be an important focus of the Asia Future Forum 2010: Evolution of East Asian Enterprise. Assessment of the current status of social enterprises in the three countries will be made and discussions will be held on what an ideal East Asian enterprise should look like. Discussions on how the governments and large corporations should collaborate and what role they can play as global citizens will be made to find conclusive answers. 　 In Korea, social enterprises must earn government certification, and therefore, it is easier to assess the status of social enterprises in Korea. However, it is far more difficult to assess the number of social enterprises and how active they are in China and Japan because there are no clear direction policies for them. 　 According to Professor SIN, Oh-Kuyn of Kumoh National Institute of Technology, civil society in China has developed in the form of civil groups with stability. However, they became subjected to much stricter government control after the Tiananmen incident in 1989 and had to change significantly. Since 1989, civil groups were required to get approval for their establishment and management, as required by the new law of social group registration from the Chinese government. 　 Social enterprises in China exist with different forms as NPOs, NGOs, Co-ops, social welfare companies, and social service centers. There are also a number of social enterprises that are classified as commercial companies because they did not receive government approval. As China’s economic structure becomes more complicated, it has become far more difficult for the government to provide welfare services, oversee wealth distribution and conduct activities on social integration. At the same time, Chinese experts who have been educated overseas and worked with international NGOs have become greatly interested in the use of social enterprises as a means of tackling various social issues. Naturally, there is much changing dialogue on social enterprise in China now. In fact, there were already approximately 30,000 social enterprises that specialize in welfare in China as of the end of 2007. Kobe earthquake aid in 1995 led development of social enterprise Social enterprises in Japan exist in various forms like NPOs, general organizations, foundations and corporations etc. Civil corporations like workers collectives or civil activism based corporations, which had started from the 1970s could also be evolved into community business rejuvenating regions through community activities in the 1990s. However, the role of civil society was weak compared with the role of government in solving welfare problems traditionally. . Japanese civil society played an active role during the 1995 Kobe earthquake aid operation. Their achievement prompted the Japanese government to make it much easier to establish NPOs in Japan, which helped the growth of social enterprise in the country. The Japanese government saw how the civil society can contribute to crisis management during an unexpected earthquake and changed laws and policies to build a stronger civil society base and the civil society responded. As of 2009, 38,000 NPOs are operating in 17 sectors and many of them have social enterprise characteristics. Need for social enterprises as a means of job creation after the Asian economic crisis . The establishment of Korean social enterprises was led by the Korean government. In late 1990s, the Asian economic crisis greatly increased unemployment and aggravated poverty, prompting the government to launch public works projects, self-support businesses and social works projects to ease unemployment. However, the projects only resulted in short-lived, simple labor jobs despite significant government spending. Thus, the government opted for the creation of social enterprises. Establishment of social enterprises quickly became a preferred option for the government which needed to create stable jobs without hefty government spending. Overall, there were turning points in the proliferation of social enterprises in the three East Asian countries. In Korea, economic crisis catalyzed the emergence of social enterprises, and the crisis due to the Kobe earthquake opened the door to a proliferation of social enterprises in Japan. In China, it was the concern about social divisions that led to an increase in social enterprises. 　It is worthwhile to note that governments are playing a leading role in the growth of social enterprise in the three countries, despite of advanced economic structures in the three countries. The export-oriented economy of China and Korea is not capable of dealing with the social costs due to social polarization. Therefore, achieving social integration using social enterprises can have far reaching impacts on the economic growth of each country because it lessens the financial burden on the government by utilizing the capacity of the civil society. This also means that government needs to reassess its role in building the capacity of the civil society. At the same time, there is a growing consensus that social enterprises in East Asia should study each other to find solutions to problems faced by each, especially since they share similar cultural roots. There is also a growing voice calling for the three countries to collaborate in helping less developed countries. The social enterprises of Korea, China and Japan have their own unique merits. Korea established a policy framework for social enterprises which made it easier for them to collaborate with corporations. Japan has achieved numerous excellent cases on regional regeneration work led by their civil society. China has become an excellent experimental lab for the deployment of tailored aid programs for low development areas through collaboration with international NGOs. There are many reasons to closely examine East Asian social enterprises. With the benefits of community spirit, there may be a potential for East Asian social enterprises to grow more quickly and take on more significant role in the society when compared to the \West. Asia Future Forum 2010 will shed light on such possibilities and provide the participants with an opportunity to hear about the status and challenges of turning possibility into reality from experts on social enterprises in Korea, China and Japan PARK Sahng-Youh, Research Associate, Hankyoreh Economic Research Institute