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Bloomberg, an American economics news agency, ranked Korea as the most innovative country in the world.
Bloomberg announced on the 2nd (local time) that Korea ranked first as a result of calculating the ‘2021 Innovation Index’. Korea was ranked second last year and ranked first seven times in the nine years the Bloomberg Innovation Index was released.
The Bloomberg Innovation Index scores by country by weighting research and development (R&D) costs, concentration of high-tech companies, and production capacity. Korea received 90.49 points (100 points) this time. European countries were in the 10th place, excluding Korea, second place Singapore, and seventh place Israel.
Source: Bloomberg
2021 Bloomberg Innovation Index
Bloomberg announced that the reason Korea ranked first was the strong R&D and manufacturing industries, and increased patent-related activities. Professor Lee Kyung-mook of Seoul National University said, “In Korea, there is a strong perception that R&D is essential for the future. Korea is sandwiched between Japan with technology and China with competitiveness in labor costs.” Among Asian countries, Singapore was ranked 2nd and Japan 12th. Singapore received high marks for its funding to transform it into a digital economy, manufacturing competitiveness, and the presence of world-class universities.
The two major economic powerhouses, the United States, ranked 11th, and China 16th, ranking only 10th. In the case of the United States, it was evaluated that the quality of higher education was poor compared to the reputation of universities. It was evaluated that the decline in the number of foreign students due to the Donald Trump administration’s policy to limit foreign inflow and the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) led to a decline in the level of higher education. China’s competitiveness in the manufacturing industry is weakening compared to neighboring countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh.
Reporter Gowoon Lee [email protected]
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