China Narrows Tech Gap with Korea

China is only 3.8 years behind Korea in technology, and the gap keeps narrowing.

The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade in a report released yesterday said industries are feeling the advance of Chinese technology, which went from 4.7 years behind Korea’s in 2002 to four years in 2004.

The think tank in November last year surveyed 608 major Korean corporations in ten key industries, including autos, electronics, shipbuilding and semiconductors.

By industry, electronics feels the most threatened with just a 3.4-year gap, while steel and textiles have a relatively comfortable difference of 4.1 years.

The report said the Korean auto industry now faces the most severe challenge from its Chinese counterpart, since the technology gap between the two countries is 3.6 years. In 2004, Korean carmakers were ahead of Chinese competitors by 4.4 years in technology.

Korean business leaders said Korean manufacturing technology is only 81.3 percent of the globally competitive level. Information technology stood out with 83.3 percent, but this was still lower than 84.1 percent in 2004.

abc@donga.com