Korea Loses Much in Tech Trade
By Kim Yoo-chul
Staff Reporter
Despite strenuous efforts by Korean information-technology companies to secure ``original technologies,’’ their relative weaknesses in such crucial sectors as handsets, semiconductors and flat screens are raising fears that the IT powerhouse might fall prey to the hands of its competitors.
The country’s technology exports stood at about $1.9 billion last year, while technology imports amounted to $4.84 billion, according to government and industry estimates.
Last year alone, the technology trade deficit rose by $41 million though the quality of Korean technology exports has been improving.
Electronic products accounted for 51.5 percent of Korea’s total technology imports in 2007 as machinery parts took up 14.8 percent.
``The result means that South Korea still depends heavily on imported technologies in backbone industries,’’ an official from the Bank of Korea (BOK) said.
A recent survey conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry shows that more than 45 percent of 500 local manufacturers replied that they were relying on core parts from foreign companies.
Royalties for overseas patents paid by local companies have been showing a steady increase over the past couple of years.
The royalties amounted to $5.08 billion last year, up 9.1 percent from a year earlier, according to the data from the central bank. The figure is compared with $3 billion in 2002.
In contrast, royalty income from export of local patents remained at $1.92 billion last year, down 6.2 percent from a year earlier.
``Korean companies spent $28.3 billion on research and development last year and the figure was only 25 percent and 10 percent in Japan and the United States respectively,’’ the Hyundai Economic Research Institute said.
``To help boost technology development in such key sectors as non-memory chips, handsets and flat screens, nearly 30,000 researchers work hard in our 42 laboratories,’’ a Samsung Electronics official said.
Samsung, the world’s No. 1 maker of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, has plans to invest over 6.5 trillion won for the development of next-generation technologies.