Foreign nationals living in South Korea are contributing to its economy as business owners and entrepreneurs, and they said their prospects are being boosted as South Korea hosts this year's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.

Foreign nationals make up nearly 5 percent of the country’s population, or around 2.73 million people, according to Yonhap News Agency citing government data, and people from China account for around one-third of the foreign population.

Located at an apartment complex in Incheon is an unmanned stationery shop owned by Jolly Cheng from Hong Kong.

It's open to the public every day from 6am to 11pm, and her job is to monitor the surveillance cameras to catch anyone trying to steal from the store.

Her store was targeted by burglars earlier, with the lock of the self-checkout machine pried open and cash stolen.

Cheng said the presence of CCTV has helped deter crimes since.

“Now that I have been doing this for a while and watching surveillance footage, I rarely encounter thieves. [Koreans] are very disciplined. They take and pay for what they want. Even when they can't pay, they won’t take away the items, and instead, put them back and leave.”

The number of unmanned stores across South Korea is estimated to have topped 10,000, the Chosun Daily reported earlier.

Cheng, who has lived in South Korea for almost two decades, said operating an unmanned store helped save costs as wages could account for half of her expenditure.

“It spared me from hiring any employees... and I could also have another job at the same time. As a foreigner, my Korean isn't fluent enough to have frequent communication with South Koreans. So I’m not too keen on hiring someone to work for the store.”

Wang Xuan, who’s from the mainland, said she faced challenges trying to break into South Korea's beauty industry.

She offers personal colour analysis services mainly to tourists from China and other parts of Asia. That involves assigning individual flattering colours that can assist people with their choices of clothing, make-up and accessories based on their complexions and skin tones.

“Our business currently not only provides regular personal colour analysis, but also offers training to become a consultant and issues certificates. To certify individuals as consultants, we have to be accredited officially by South Korean authorities. It took us a lot of time and effort in handing in information and getting it approved," Wang said.

She said people have travelled from parts of China like Hebei and Anhui provinces to South Korea to study personal colour analysis, with the hope of opening up their own business at home.

Wang added that the Apec summit gave the beauty industry a boost.

“The meetings brought the world’s focus on South Korea, and inevitably had an impact on [the industry of] personal colour analysis – a key aspect of Korean beauty. During the pandemic, the South Korean government worked hard to promote personal colour analysis as part of the Korean beauty brand, as South Korea’s beauty industry is quite developed.

"I think it is a rising industry because most people have a certain pursuit of beauty.”

Earlier media reports indicated that the Apec summit in Gyeongju was expected to generate 7.4 trillion won, or HK$40 billion, in economic benefits.