Does Korea research wrong industries?

By Kang Seung-woo

Korea has basked in the spotlight of becoming one of the world’s biggest research and development spenders for years.

However, taking a deeper look into the achievement, the nation’s spending on R&D is seemingly going in the wrong direction in the time of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with the nation doing little about artificial intelligence (AI). AI is referred to as a key element of the industrial trend.

According to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office, Monday, Korea’s R&D intensity, or expenditure as a percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP), amounted to 4.23 percent last year.

This was higher than countries in the EU as well as other major economies according to its 2016 top R&D spender report. The spending stood at 67.6 trillion won ($62.1 billion).

The non-EU members on the list were the United States, Japan, China and Russia. Eurostat used 2015 data of the countries.

Also, the Ministry of Science and ICT said last month Asia’s fourth-largest economy has the second-highest R&D intensity of 4.24 percent next to Israel’s 4.25 percent in 2016, based on OECD data.

The ministry said Korea spent 69.4 trillion won on R&D activities, which is the fifth-highest in the world. The figure is slightly different from that of Eurostat as the two surveys used somewhat different criteria in measuring the size of research expenditures.

While the private sector’s spending amounted to 52.3 trillion won, or 75.4 percent of the total, the public sector spent 16.4 trillion won, accounting for 23.6 percent. The remainder came from foreign investors.

Critics in the industry of information and communications technology question where the government’s R&D spending went, with little invested in AI development.

AI has become a buzzword in Korea ever since the five-match go event between Google DeepMind’s computer program AlphaGo and human champion Lee Se-dol, last year, where the AI took a stunning 4-1 victory.

“The public sector spent 16 trillion won on R&D, but its budget on AI was a mere 600 billion won,” an official of the sector said.

“Google invests 4 trillion won in AI and there are nine global companies -- six from the U.S. and three from China. I wonder where the government’s spending goes.”

Despite its status as a global ICT power, Korea is still viewed as an underdog in AI development.

The government has come under public criticism that it is doing little, while the country lags behind other nations in preparing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.