South Korea’s technology level in its chosen growth engines is 3.8 years behind that of the United States, a ministry report found Tuesday.

According to the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, there are 13 new growth engines that it would focus on developing, including 5G mobile communications, smart cars, intelligent robots, smart disaster safety management systems and the Internet of Things.

However, when the ministry compared Korea’s technology in these sectors are compared to that of the United States, it estimated Korean technolog to be an average of 3.85 years behind.

The sector assessed as having the smallest technology gap was 5G mobile communications, where it was 2.1 years behind that of the United States.

The largest gap was in smart disaster and safety management systems, where Korea languished 5.7 years behind that of the United States.