Mid-sized Companies Leading with Technology Excel in New Industry Exports

[Asia Economy Reporter Hwang Yoon-joo] It has been revealed that mid-sized companies, leveraging their excellent technological capabilities, are emerging as a driving force for export recovery by excelling in new industry exports and export diversification.

According to the report "Mid-sized Companies Overcome Export Challenges with Technology Amid COVID-19," released on the 3rd by the Korea International Trade Association's International Trade and Commerce Research Institute, as of October last year, mid-sized companies (companies that are not small and medium-sized enterprises and do not belong to mutual investment restricted business groups) accounted for 17.3% of South Korea's total exports, while their share in exports of the eight major new industries was higher at 21.7%.

The eight major new industries include next-generation semiconductors, biohealth, aviation and drones, advanced new materials, new energy industries, robotics, next-generation displays, and electric/autonomous vehicles. In particular, mid-sized companies' export shares in the biohealth and next-generation semiconductor sectors reached 41.2% and 23.5%, respectively, raising expectations that mid-sized companies will invigorate South Korea's new industry exports in the future.

The export structure of mid-sized companies is also being reorganized around new industries. According to the report, the share of the eight major new industries in mid-sized companies' exports increased from 15.9% in 2018 and 15.8% in 2019 to 18.4% as of October last year. This level is higher than that of large corporations (16.6%).

Mid-sized companies are also playing a significant role in diversifying export markets. As of October last year, the average number of export countries per mid-sized company was 10.5, far surpassing the overall average of 3.8 for all domestic export companies. For mid-sized companies with export volumes exceeding 10 million USD, the average number of export countries was 18.2, even higher than that of large corporations (15.2).

Jung Hye-sun, a senior researcher at the Korea International Trade Association, stated, "Mid-sized companies that have launched products ranked number one in global market share and sales succeeded because they actively engaged in technology development through establishing AI research centers, technical exchanges with overseas clients, and various industry-academia cooperation activities." She emphasized, "To continuously produce strong mid-sized companies with world-class technological capabilities, policy support related to research and development and companies' own open innovation efforts are necessary."

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