In the annual world competitiveness rankings released last week by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Korea climbed a few notches in the fields of science and technology, improving its competitiveness in those two sectors between 2013 to 2014.

According to the data, Korea ranks sixth in scientific infrastructure and eighth in technological infrastructure, rising one and three notches, respectively, over last year's rankings.

In the scientific infrastructure rankings, Korea received higher scores in its ratio of R&D investment to GDP, the number of patents obtained per total applications and the total workforce involved in the R&D sectors. In the technological infrastructure rankings, the nation was recognized for its number of people using cable telephone and broadband services per 1,000 people, the value of its exports of high technology products and the ratio of investment in communications to GDP.


According to the report, the jump in science and technology is due to the nation's continuous efforts put into investing in R&D, the increased amount of research manpower and the subsequently higher number of research papers and patents, as well as the volume of high-tech exports, said the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP).

Meanwhile, the report said Korea needs to improve the legal and institutional ground for intellectual property rights and online security, and increase the satisfaction of researchers, the innovation capability of corporations and the level of cooperation between industry and academia.

Minister Choi Mun-kee of the MSIP said, "We will strive more to come up with innovative R&D and strategies to raise government funds in order to enhance support for small- and medium-sized corporations and to improve cooperation between industry and academia."

By Lee Seung-ah
Korea.net Staff Writer
slee27@korea.kr