KPMG "Seoul Selected as One of Top 10 Cities Leading Global Technological Innovation"

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] Accounting and consulting firm KPMG announced on the 9th that Seoul ranked 4th among the top 10 global cities leading technology innovation hubs over the next four years, excluding Silicon Valley. Singapore was selected as number one.

Top 10 Global Hub Cities Leading Technology Innovation for the Next Four Years. / Photo by Samjong KPMG)

On this day, KPMG revealed in the ‘2020 Global Technology Industry Innovation Survey’ that the top 10 countries were Singapore (Singapore), London (United Kingdom), Tel Aviv (Israel), Tokyo (Japan), New York (United States), Shanghai (China), Beijing (China), Seoul (Korea), Bengaluru (India), and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China). KPMG surveyed 810 technology industry leaders from 12 countries about global technology industry innovation, conducting the survey for the eighth time this year.

Singapore, which rose from 7th place last year to 1st place this year, received high evaluations for its advanced IT infrastructure, full government support, intellectual property (IP) protection laws, and diverse talent pool. Singapore is also promoting ‘Smart Nation,’ developing the entire city as a smart city, along with a national artificial intelligence (AI) strategy.

Tel Aviv climbed from 15th place last year to 3rd place this year. Israel’s AI and mobility technologies are in high global demand. Bengaluru, which entered the top 10 hubs this year at 9th place after ranking 18th last year, is attributed to India’s improved ranking in the Global Innovation Index, rising from 81 in 2015 to 52 in 2019.

The United States (28%) remained the largest country for technology innovation development, followed by China (13%) and India (13%), consistent with last year. Last year, the response rates for the U.S. and China were 23% and 17%, a 6 percentage point difference, but this year the gap widened to 15 percentage points, more than doubling.

This gap is considered a result of the U.S.’s ongoing efforts to protect and strengthen critical technologies, including imposing tariffs on China, renegotiating trade deals, blocking acquisitions of overseas companies, and other sanctions related to technology and intellectual property (IP).

In this survey, 37% of respondents predicted that the global technology innovation center would shift from Silicon Valley within the next four years, a significant decrease from 58% the previous year. This reflects the U.S.’s stance on maintaining more exclusive knowledge and intellectual property.

Respondents who believed the innovation hub would move cited that other cities’ innovation and corporate infrastructure are at the same level or higher than Silicon Valley’s, and that the rise of the ‘gig economy’?where companies and workers engage in service contracts rather than employment contracts?allows innovation to occur anywhere. High business costs, living expenses, and congestion in Silicon Valley were also cited as main reasons.

Jae-bak Cho, Head of Digital Division at Samjong KPMG, said, “Seoul is focusing on building startup clusters and technology investments, supported by advanced IT infrastructure, regulatory easing such as the passage of the Data 3 Act, and policies to revitalize fintech.” He added, “To further advance as a global technology innovation hub, it is necessary to create a favorable environment for attracting talent and investment and to provide systematic support for global scale-up.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.