South Korea Tops the Bloomberg Innovation Index
South Korea has been named the most innovative country in the world, topping the 2021 Bloomberg Innovation Index, released in February 2021, for the eighth consecutive year in Asia. This can be attributed to both the unflagging commitment of Korean businesses and the authorities in investing in the country’s future growth even when encountering tough headwinds at home and abroad.
By launching a development and relief package dubbed the Korean New Deal, which comprises a set of sub-plans like D.N.A (data, network, and artificial intelligence) and +BIG3 (future mobility, bio-healthcare, system semiconductor) drafted to undertake reforms in the economy along with spending plans rolled out this year to invest nearly KRW 100 trillion in research and development (World’s top 5 in R&D expenditure, 2021), South Korea has set out the path toward innovation-driven growth.
The Bloomberg Innovation Index makes a comprehensive analysis using seven metrics under which numerical data aggregated by each country are scored to rate a country’s innovation capacity. South Korea has been at the front rank in five sub-indicators of the index—2nd in R&D intensity, 2nd in value added manufacturing, 4th in high-tech density, 3rd in researcher concentration, and 1st in patent activity. Such resources to drive innovation would be part of the reasons that well explain why so many global investors are fascinated with Korea as the best place to invest in.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)’s 2020 World Intellectual Property Indicator, an up-to-date annual overview of global patent activities, said that South Korea is taking the lead in the rankings of patent filings per GDP as well as population. 3,319 the Korean version of the New Deal or DNA+BIG3, South Korea will keep up its efforts to make substantial progress on improving innovation prowess and productivity.
The March issue of Invest Korea will cover South Korea’s superb logistics infrastructure and transport networks which connect all major cities and countries across the world. South Korea topped the global list of patent origins with 7,779 applications filed by Korean nationals per USD 100 billion GDP in 2019, ahead of China (5,520), Japan (4,691), and Germany (1,642) by a wide margin. Patent filings per million population in Korea was 3,319, which proved to be overwhelmingly larger than 1,943 of Japan, the second leading nation in the 2019 index.
The data also demonstrates South Korea’s tireless commitment to R&D and its capability to lead the world in innovation. Spurring on nation-level growth initiatives such as the Korean version of the New Deal or DNA+BIG3, South Korea will keep up its efforts to make substantial progress on improving innovation prowess and productivity. The March issue of Invest Korea will cover South Korea’s superb logistics infrastructure and transport networks which connect all major cities and countries across the world.
Source: FKCCI (December 3, 2021)
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