Korea, IT Competitiveness at 7th among OECD Members

According to a research, Korean competitiveness of IT technology is known as the 7th of 28 OECD member nations excluding Luxembourg and Slovakia. On the 14th, Dr. Kwon Nam-hoon of Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI) under Ministry of Information and Communication reported the result of research in a discussion `The Assessment of Korean Competitiveness for IT Industry and Current Affairs`.

According to the result of Dr. Kwon`s research, US is the best in comprehensive competitiveness for IT industry among OECD nations. Korea ranks the 7th following Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Ireland, UK, etc.

According to categorical competitiveness, Korean IT industry ranks the second in the scale of export and specific development, the 4th in IT infrastructure, the 7th in size and relative importance and the 8th in innovation.

On the contrary, in the following categories Korea are assessed lowly; △ the 15th in human resource and in labor market △ the 16th in favorite system and industrial policy △ the 16th in financial and venture business creation.

This research collected and analyzed comprehensively statistics and government assessments for 72 categories that affect IT industry competitiveness such as IT infrastructure, technological innovation, labor market, etc. The research is differentiated by assessing national competitiveness in a particular industry from the national competitiveness announced every year by IMD or WEF.

In this year, Korean national competitiveness ranks the 27th in IMD and 28th in WEF.

Jong sik Kong kong@donga.com