Korea Ranked Second in Technological Competitiveness

The competitiveness of science and technology is turning out to be the growth engine for Korea’s national competitiveness.

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) announced on May 15 that Korea’s competitiveness in technology and science ranked second and 15th, respectively, in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2005 released on May 12 by the IMD, the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland.

Korea’s technological and scientific competitiveness has risen six and four notches each compared to last year, outperforming the MOST’s original goal of eighth and 16th, respectively.

The MOST noted that this remarkable growth in the science and technology sector greatly contributed in boosting Korea’s competitiveness from 35th last year to 29th this year.

In particular, the IMD presented 20 strong points of each country among 314 competitiveness criteria, and 10, or half of Korea’s strong points came from the science and technology sector.

In terms of technological competitiveness, Korea was ranked number one in the number of broadband subscribers per 1,000 inhabitants following the previous year, second in the newly-introduced criteria of broadband cost, eighth in total investment in communications against GDP by climbing 19 levels from last year, and eighth in “qualification of IT technicians” that assesses the quantity and quality of IT workforce, up 22 levels from last year.

In the area of scientific competitiveness, Korea went up two notches in total research and development expenditures against GDP from last year’s eighth ranking, and was ranked number three from number two the previous year in domestic patent productivity per 1,000 research and development personnel in business.

cosmos@donga.com