Deep Investment
According to the numbers, the investments of South Korean government last year amounted to 17.64 trillion won (US$15.52 billion). The figure was up 4.3 percent from 16.91 trillion won (US$14.88 billion) a year ago. This is largely due to the increase in research support to provinces and small and medium-sized firms.
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) announced on July 8 that it surveyed and analyzed the current state of 605 R&D projects, which were carried out by 33 government agencies last year, in a report called “2014 National Research & Development Business Survey and Analysis Result” at the Government Complex Sejong on July 7.
According to the report, five government ministries have invested nearly 14 trillion won (US$12.31 billion) last year – 6 trillion won (US$5.28 billion from MSIP, 3.2 trillion won (US$2.82 billion from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, 2.3 trillion won (US$2.02 billion) from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, 1.6 trillion won (US$1.41 billion) from the Ministry of Education, and 900 billion won (US$791.77 million) form the Small and Medium Business Administration.
Research expenses for each project decreased 0.8 percent to 330 million won (US$290,314) year-on-year. For support by subject conducting studies, institutions came in first with 7.5 trillion won (US$6.6 billion) and 42.6 percent, universities in second with 4.1 trillion won (US$3.61 billion) and 23.3 percent, smaller companies in third with 2.4 trillion won (US$2.11 billion) and 13.7 percent, national research institutions in fourth with 900 billion won (US$791.77 million) and 5 percent, large companies in fifth with 700 billion won (US$615.82 million) and 3.9 percent, and mid-sized firms in sixth with 500 billion won (US$439.87 million) and 3.1 percent.
By the phase of R&D, development research ranked first with 5.1 trillion won (US$4.49 billion), while the ratio of basic research also continuously increased to 36.3 percent with 4.5 trillion won (US$3.96 billion).