OECD Reviews of Innovation Policy: Korea 2009
This report assesses the current status of Korea’s innovation system and policies,
and identifies where and how the government should focus its efforts to improve the
country’s innovation capabilities. It finds that Korea has one of the highest rates
of spending on R&D in the world, much of which is performed by private firms. It also
has a highly educated labour force – as signalled by its impressive PISA performance
and exceptionally high rates of tertiary level graduation – with a strong interest
in science and technology.
However, a number of bottlenecks persist that hamper Korea’s economic convergence
with the leading OECD economies. These include a relatively weak SME sector and weak
performance in services, as well as lagging capacities to conduct leading-edge research
in many areas. Furthermore, Korea faces numerous threats in the mid term, notably
increased levels of competition from China and other newly-industrialising economies,
the lowest fertility rate in the OECD and an ageing society, and a continuing high
dependency on imports of natural resources, particularly hydrocarbons. In the shorter
term, the economic crisis offers its own challenges, with the need for some policy
adjustments to deal with expected falls in business investment in R&D and growing
levels of unemployment among the highly skilled.
Published on July 21, 2009
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