South Korea Ranks 19th in Potential Competitiveness

The potential national competitiveness of South Korea ranks 19th in 2004, up from 23rd in 2000, the Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER) reported Monday.

The JCER, at the request of the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, conducted research on the potential national competitiveness of 50 major nations.

The U.S. remained the most competitive nation from 2000, followed by Singapore in second and Hong Kong in third.

South Korea ranked fourth in information technology (IT), after the U.S., Sweden, and Denmark, and also ranked higher than before in education, which served to elevate the nation’s rank. Japan remained unchanged at 15th from 2000, while China ranked 36th.

The JCER said that the rankings for potential national competitiveness were based on eight economic indicators: internationalization, corporation, education, finance, government, science, social infrastructure, and IT.

Won-Jae Park parkwj@donga.com