The current economic crisis in Asia will have a greater effect on Oregon than many other states, according to University of Oregon business professor Richard Steers. Pacific Northwest companies ship 59 percent of their exports to 11 Asian countries, while the nation as a whole ships only 30 percent of its exported goods to Asia. Steers, UO viceprovost for international affairs, is an expert on Korean business and the co-author of "Korean Enterprise: The Quest for Globalization," Harvard Business School Press, 1997. He says deflation of the Korean won means "Koreans will sell more to us and they won't have the money to spend on American goods." Even so, he says, Korea may be the first Asian economy to turn things around. Korea was the first East Asian country to approach the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan. Steers says that was hard medicine for the Koreans to swallow. "The IMF is your worst stepmother. They will require stringent controls on borrowing and will pre-empt some of the government's economic power." Steers says the Koreans will work harder than anyone else in Asia to get their economy under control because that's the way business is done in Korea. SOURCE: Richard Steers, UO professor of management and UO vice provost for international affairs, (541) 346-3318; e-mail, <rsteers@oregon.uoregon.edu> -30- #T-6034/Day