By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
Korean companies were found to have a five-year technology gap with their global competitors in the next ''cash cows'' such as renewable energy, health care and next-generation vehicles.
According to a survey conducted by the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the nation’s largest business lobby group, of its members, 70 percent said domestic companies are behind foreign rivals by five years in the latest technologies.
20 percent of local companies reported a 10-year technology gap in sectors such as bio, medical, robotics and next-generation computer businesses.
``Growing local companies are unexpectedly busy securing original patents in the promising segments. However, the government is still hesitating to push planned incentives,’’ an official from Samsung Electronics said, Sunday.
``The government should present detailed and reliable strategies to help local companies make inroads, nurturing the next money pots,’’ the official added.
According to the survey, participants had reiterated the need for more administrative and tax incentives, while raising voices to ease unnecessary regulations and to allocate more research and development (R&D) budgets.
Separately, the FKI said next-generation mobile devices and memory chips, displays and batteries could lift companies’ profits over the next five years.
Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor recently formed a united front to conduct joint R&D of STT-MRAM, or spin-torque-transfer magnetic random access memory. Meanwhile, Samsung Electronics is fully set to takeover AMOLED lines from Samsung SDI for a more global market share, while Samsung SDI sealed a deal with Bosch to create a joint venture to produce batteries for a hybrid electric vehicle.
The survey has also showed some 86 percent of local companies are looking for new growth engines.