S. Korea spends big on R&D but still lags behind U.S., Japan

SEOUL, Sept. 30 (Yonhap) -- South Korea is the world's third-biggest spender on
research and development when measured against its economic output, but the
amount spent still lags far behind that by leading countries, a report found
Tuesday.
Korea's R&D spending is about a tenth of what the U.S. spends and less than a
quarter of Japan's outlay, according to the report by the Ministry of Education,
Science and Technology.
The country's overall R&D spending was 31.3 trillion won (US$33.69 billion) in
2007, up 14.5 percent from the previous year. As a percentage of gross domestic
product, the figures were the world's third highest at 3.47 percent, following
Israel at 4.65 percent and Sweden at 3.73 percent, the report said.
But the world's 13th largest economy continues to lag far behind economic
powerhouses in the amount of money poured into R&D. In 2006, the U.S. invested
US$343.75 billion, or 2.62 percent of its GDP, while Japan's spending accounted
for 3.39 percent of its GDP, or $148.53 billion, in the same year.
Germany's 2006 R&D investment totaled $73.82 billion, 2.53 percent of its GDP.
China spent $37.66 billion that year, or 1.42 percent of its GDP.
The report noted, however, that countries like Korea and China are striving to
increase their R&D investment more than their leading rivals.
"The growth rates of R&D spending in South Korea and China surpassed the growth
rates of their GDPs, while the figures were almost equal in European countries
like Germany, Britain, France and Japan," the report said. "In the United States,
since the Bush administration took power in 2001, the R&D spending growth rate
has been lower than that of the GDP."
The largest R&D investors in Korea were corporate circles. Corporate investment
accounted for 76.2 percent of Korea's overall R&D spending, or 23.86 trillion
won, compared with public research institutions at 13.1 percent and universities
at 10.7 percent.
Most of the money went to manufacturing sectors, particularly towards electronic
equipment (44 percent) and the auto industry (16.1 percent). The service industry
accounted for 7.2 percent.
In the technology sector, the information technology, nano technology,
biotechnology and environmental technology industries were the biggest
beneficiaries.
There were 289,000 people employed in the R&D sector in Korea in 2007, up 12.7
percent from the previous year, translating into an average of 9.2 researchers
per 1,000 economically active Koreans.