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Felix Abt

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Felix Abt (born 15 January 1955, Switzerland) is a Swiss business affairs specialist on North Korea and Vietnam.[1]

Abt was one of the first foreign entrepreneurs[2] to seek to do business in contemporary North Korea, where he lived between 2002 and 2009, and developing and operating businesses. He co-founded and directed the Pyongyang Business School, where he was involved in capacity building[3] related to business administration for senior executives of North Korean government agencies and enterprises.

Abt published a memoir titled A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom in 2014.[4]

Career

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Before he rejoined the ABB Group in 2002 and moved to North Korea, Felix Abt had been working from 1990 for companies in countries and regions such as Vietnam, the Middle East and Africa.[5][6][7]

In 2002, Abt was appointed resident Group Representative in North Korea by the Swiss-Swedish ABB Group, an electrical power and automation technologies company.[8] On 19 May 2003, he signed a memorandum of understanding on the implementation of a large high-tension power grid project by ABB with North Korea's Ministry of Power and Coal Industries, in presence of the Swiss foreign minister, the Swedish ambassador to the DPRK, and the Minister of Power and Coal Industries, "in an effort to solve North Korea's serious problems in the power sector, highlighted by its worn-out generation and transmission facilities".[9][10][11]

In late 2003, Abt became an agent of several multinational corporations in business fields such as infrastructure (ABB), mining (Sandvik) and textiles (Dystar) on whose behalf he realized multi-million USD sales.[12]

Abt also acted from October 2005 to February 2009 as managing director of the Pyongsu Joint Venture Company, the first foreign-invested joint venture in the pharmaceutical field.[13][14] During this period it became the first North Korean pharmaceutical factory to reach international quality standard (called Good Manufacturing Practice or GMP) certified by the World Health Organization and the first North Korean company to win contracts against international competitors. It also set up its own pharmacy chain in the country.

Abt was the founding president of the European Business Association (EBA) in Pyongyang,[15][16][17][18] set up on 28 April 2005, a de facto European Chamber of Commerce.[19] Among other things, the EBA has organized the participation of European companies at trade fairs[20][21] in North Korea and has been hosting visiting delegations such as members from the European Union parliament and EU ambassadors to the DPRK.[22] As EBA's president, Abt strongly lobbied against economic sanctions by Western powers hurting legitimate foreign business activities in North Korea.[23][24]

Concurrently, Abt established the Pyongyang Business School.[8] The school has organized regular cycles of postgraduate seminars[25] on strategic management and business administration for senior executive officers of North Korean ministries and enterprises from 2004.[26]

Together with Volker Eloesser,[who?] Abt was a co-founder/investor of the first foreign-invested software joint venture[27] by the name of Nosotek, established in 2007.[28][29][30]

Abt set up an online art gallery introducing North Korean painters and promoting North Korean fine art in 2008.[31][32][33]

In 2009 Abt left Pyongyang for Vietnam, but is still involved in North Korean issues. In 2014, he published a book about his experiences, A Capitalist in North Korea.[34][8]

Because of his investment strategies in North Korea, Abt has been called a "controversial figure" and a member of a "secretive group of Western investors" in North Korea.[35] The investors, including Abt, use a strategy called "China Plus One" where a company "can still claim that the products were 'Made in China," says Abt, if less than 50 percent of the product is made in North Korea.[35] For example, the highest-paid factory workers in North Korea earn $75/month compared to the lowest paid in China at $270/month. The product can still be labeled "Made in China", and thus exportable to countries around the world when using the "China Plus One" strategy.[35] This strategy has been criticized for exploiting laborers in North Korea who experience human rights violations.[35]

References

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  1. ^ "Despite Reforms, N.K. Replete with Animosity against Capitalism"[dead link], Yonhap News Agency, 17 March 2004.
  2. ^ "Western Firms doing business in N. Korea", The Washington Post, 5 November 2006.
  3. ^ Swiss governmental Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Pyongyang Business School, swiss-cooperation.admin.ch; accessed 21 September 2014.
  4. ^ Felix Abt (2014). A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom. Tuttle Publishing. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  5. ^ ABB Management Information, Appointments Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, ABB update 20/2002, page 5.
  6. ^ Felix Abt website: "About us" Archived 24 November 2009 at the Wayback Machine, felixabt.com; accessed 21 September 2014.
  7. ^ Felix Abt profile, plaxo.com; accessed 21 September 2014.
  8. ^ a b c O'Carroll, Chad (16 January 2013). "Meet The Man Who Lived And Worked In North Korea For Seven Years". NK News.
  9. ^ NORTH KOREA THIS WEEK NO. 243: Topic of the Week[dead link], Yonhap News Agency, 22 May 2003.
  10. ^ "MOU signed between DPRK and Switzerland" Archived 13 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Korea Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang, 19 May 2003.
  11. ^ "DPRK SIGNS POWER GRID DEAL WITH ABB: Swiss Foreign Minister Visits Pyongyang" Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, The People's Korea, Pyongyang, 19 May 2003.
  12. ^ "Making Money in Pyongyang - This is No Hallucination" Archived 5 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine, Asiabizblog.com, 10 September 2008.
  13. ^ Drug company urges aid donors to buy “local”, The Korea Herald, Seoul, 30 March 2007.
  14. ^ "PyongSu Pharma J.V. Co. Pyongyang, and what it stands for. Introduction to humanitarian organisations" on YouTube
  15. ^ European Business Association (EBA), Pyongyang, Founding Ceremony on YouTube
  16. ^ "European firms in N. Korea running business association: chairman"[dead link], Yonhap News Agency, 6 May 2007.
  17. ^ "Driving the streets of post-Stalinist Pyongyang is just like time travel", The Daily Telegraph, London, 11 November 2006.
  18. ^ EBA Pyongyang homepage Archived 30 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine, eba-pyongyang.org; accessed 21 September 2014.
  19. ^ "Pyongyang business group celebrates first anniversary" Archived 20 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine, The Korea Herald, 28 April 2006.
  20. ^ "Strong Showing of EU Companies at 3rd Pyongyang Autumn Int'l Trade Fair", The Seoul Times, 10 October 2007.
  21. ^ MANY EUROPEAN COMPANIES ATTEND AUTUMN TRADE FAIR IN PYONGYANG: REPORT[dead link], AsiaPulse News (Yonhap), 18 October 2007.
  22. ^ "European business delegates to visit Pyongyang in October"[dead link], Yonhap News Agency, 25 September 2005.
  23. ^ "Businessmen accuse U.S. of indiscriminate sanctions" Archived 7 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Korea Herald, Seoul, 18 September 2006.
  24. ^ "Optimism alive despite political tensions. European business group in Pyongyang sees N.K. as an attractive FDI destination"[permanent dead link], The Korea Herald, Seoul, 26 June 2006.
  25. ^ Pyongyang Business School on YouTube Slide Show, 28 July 2009.
  26. ^ "Graduates prove North Korea is now open for business", The Financial Times, 18 August 2005.
  27. ^ "North Korea - doing business in a demanding environment", Magazine Insight Asia Pacific, German Asian-Pacific Business Association, Hamburg, September 2009.
  28. ^ "August 2nd, 2009 at 10:13 am (...) He is also Vice Chairman of the board of directors of Nosotek, a co-founder, and a shareholder", nkeconwatch.com, 29 July 2009.
  29. ^ “Nosotek is the first European-invested software development & research company in the DPRK, with the head office in Pyongyang.”, Interview with Mr. Ju Jong Chol (Vice President of Nosotek), Interview Blog, Germany, 15 April 2008
  30. ^ Nosotek IT JV, Pyongyang, North Korea - the first Western IT venture! on YouTube video; accessed 21 September 2014.
  31. ^ Pyongyang-painters.com introducing renowned painters as well as new talents from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) Archived 18 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, pyongyang-painters.com; accessed 21 September 2014.
  32. ^ North Korean art makes a show in Vietnam", nkeconwatch.com, 19 June 2009.
  33. ^ "First ever North Korean painting exhibition in Nha Trang" Archived 18 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine, The Saigon Times, 10 June 2009.
  34. ^ Abt, Felix (2014). A Capitalist in North Korea: My Seven Years in the Hermit Kingdom. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 9780804844390.
  35. ^ a b c d Justin Rohrlich (29 March 2016). "Why a Secretive Group of Western Investors Are Bullish on Business in North Korea". Vice News. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
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