Since its accession to the OECD in 1996, Korea has become a global powerhouse in science and technology, one of the most advanced digital economies in the world, and a leading player in several industries, including electronics, automobiles, steel and shipbuilding. It has also played an important role at the OECD to support the Organisation’s work on science, technology, innovation and industry issues and advance complex agendas in these areas at the international level. This policy paper looks through a technology and industry lens to track Korea’s rapid structural change, the role that the OECD has played to support it, and the valuable synergies that have been created in these policy domains through Korea’s membership of the OECD.
Science, technology and innovation (STI) have been fundamental to Korea’s economic transformation that culminated in its accession to the OECD on 12 December 1996. When Korea joined the OECD, it was already the world’s eleventh largest economy, and seventh in terms of manufacturing value added. The practice of importing and adapting foreign technologies was being complemented by a rising trend of home-grown technologies and higher value added. Already in its early membership days, Korea also led the field in broadband connectivity, presaging its current strengths in the digital era.
The foundations were laid in the 1960s, when modern science and technology development started in Korea. In 1967, the Korean government established the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), which played a decisive role in raising Korea from the status of a developing country to the threshold of an advanced country by the mid-1980s. A first paradigm change toward high technology occurred in 1987 through the launch of the Industrial Generic Technology Development Programme, based on the Industrial Development Law that provided financial and technological assistance to private firms for developing critical high-risk technologies. By that time, private firms started performing in-house R&D, reducing their dependence on imported technologies. R&D spending advanced from 0.77% of GDP in 1980 to 2.33% in 1994, a level comparable to advanced OECD economies.