Friday, April 25, 2008

Seoul, Beijing, Tokyo Eye Joint ATM Network

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Summary
BOK has suggested standardizing ATM machines in Korea, Japan and China to promote cultural exchange among nations. This will benefit travelers by lowering the current expensive ATM withdrawal fees. Although it will take at least two years of time and costs lots of money, it seems to be very worthwhile as the travelers can save money when they are using ATM machines in other countries and this will help stimulating the cultural exchanges among these three countries

Opinion
Korea, Japan and China have been having very close relationship since thousands years ago and now they have such a crucial influence on one another culturally, economically and even socially.
Considering their close interaction, I believe BOK’s suggestion is a brilliant idea because it will benefit all three countries by accelerating cultural exchange among these countries. When travelers go overseas, because they are allowed limited amount of cash to carry with them and carrying too much cash isn’t safe, most people use ATM machines to withdraw money with their credit cards. Of course there’s a change booth at the airports and banks but as I mentioned before, travelers normally don’t prefer to carry too much cash and ATM’s the best option when they need immediate cash.
However, the ATM withdrawal charge is too expensive and this could be one of the biggest obstacles to vitalize travelers’ consumption. If the three countries decide to unify their ATM network system and lower the ATM fees, we can expect more travelers to travel each others’ countries and as the data shows, rapidly increasing travelers will become more likely to spend more money while they are traveling overseas.
Therefore, I believe that is a very efficient and beneficial suggestion to both travelers and those three countries’ economy because the gains from making people to spend more money by lowering the ATM fees will be much bigger than the earnings from high ATM charge.

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