5th-largest Volume in the OECD
The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on Dec. 15 that South Korea’s total R&D investment was approximately 93 trillion won last year. “It is the fifth-largest volume in the OECD and South Korea’s R&D investment-to-GDP ratio was 4.81 percent in 2020, second only to Israel” it said, adding, “The rankings may change as the statistics of the OECD member states other than South Korea are 2019 figures.”
Specifically, South Korea’s total R&D expenditures increased 4.5 percent to 93.0717 trillion won in 2020. The United States is on top of the list with US$657.5 billion.
The ratio of South Korea rose 0.19 percentage point to 4.81 percent in 2020 while that of Israel was 4.93 percent in 2019. South Korea took the second spot in 2017 and has been there since then.
South Korea’s 2020 R&D investment is divided into 23.2 percent made by the government and public institutions and 76.8 percent made by the private sector including foreign R&D investors. The former increased 13 percent last year, and yet the ratio of the former to the total is lower than those of Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. Specifically, their figures were 28.2 percent, 29.2 percent and 31.5 percent in 2019, respectively.
As for who used the investment, enterprises, public research institutions and colleges accounted for 79.1 percent, 11.9 percent and 9 percent, respectively. By R&D stage, basic research, applied research and development research made up 14.4 percent, 21.6 percent and 64 percent, respectively.
The R&D investment in the manufacturing sector increased 2 percent to 63.8163 trillion won in 2020. That in the service sector increased 11 percent to over 8.41 trillion won.