[THE INVESTOR] Korean manufacturers consider the country far behind China in terms of speed of innovation, a Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey showed on June 22.

In the survey on 300 manufacturing firms, local companies rated Korea’s speed of innovation as being 71 percent that of China.

The respondents were asked to estimate the country’s speed of innovation in relation to China, whose speed of innovation was set at 100 kilometers per hour. The average Korea industries came in at 70.9 kph.

Regarding Korean companies, the average came in at 58.9 kph when the speed of the most innovative company was set at 100 kph.


By industry, automotive and electronics scored the highest with 65.5 and 63.8, respectively. At the other end of the scale were shipbuilding, steel and machinery industries that scored between 57.7 and 52.7.

Regarding the social cost of innovation, the surveyed companies said that corporations should be responsible for 60 percent, and the government 20 percent. The remainder was divided equally between academia and the National Assembly.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)