Korean Companies Attending CES: "Most Innovative Country 'USA', Promising Future Industry 'Autonomous Vehicles'"

'KOR 100' Assumed Innovation Nation, USA 149.4 > GER 98.5 > CHN 96.2 > UK 92.1 > JPN 91.8
Promising Future Industries: Autonomous Driving > AI > IoT > Healthcare, Average Technology Gap with Leading Countries 2-3 Years

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyewon] According to a survey, the most innovative country perceived by Korean companies is the 'United States', and the most promising future industry is 'autonomous vehicles'.

The Federation of Korean Industries announced on the 29th that this result came from a survey conducted on Korean companies participating in CES 2021 held in the United States from January 11 to 14, which investigated Korea's innovation environment compared to major countries.

Among the 80 companies that responded, the industry composition was healthcare with 29 companies (36.3%), Internet of Things (IoT) with 12 companies (15%), artificial intelligence with 6 companies (7.5%), smart city with 4 companies (5%), and drones, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and robots with 2 companies each (2.5%).

When asked about the most innovative country in the world, 82.5% of the responding companies chose the United States, showing an overwhelming lead. Korea followed with 8.8%, Germany and China each with 2.5%, and Japan and France with 1.3% each.

Domestic companies participating in CES also considered Korea to be a considerably innovative country. The reasons they highly evaluated Korea's innovativeness included 'excellent IT environment' (32.2%), 'excellent workforce' (29.4%), 'ppalli-ppalli culture' (17.7%), and 'bold corporate research and development (R&D) investment' (11.7%).

Assuming Korea's innovation index as 100, the innovation scores of major countries were evaluated as follows: the United States led with 149.4, followed by Germany at 98.5, China at 96.2, the United Kingdom at 92.1, Japan at 91.8, Canada at 86.9, and France at 86.1. China's lower-than-expected ranking is partly attributed to the large-scale absence of Chinese companies, including Huawei, due to US-China trade conflicts and other reasons at this online expo. The number of Chinese companies participating in this year's CES dropped from 1,368 last year to 205.

Looking at the most innovative countries by industry, the United States held the lead in most sectors. Healthcare companies responded with the United States (69%) > Korea and Germany (13.8%) > Japan (3.4%). For IoT, it was the United States (83.3%) > Korea (16.7%). Artificial intelligence also showed the United States (83.3%) > Korea (16.7%).

Regarding the technology gap between the most innovative countries and Korea by industry, the most common response was an average of 2 to 3 years (33.8%). By industry, 2 to 3 years was the most frequent response for healthcare (44.8%), IoT (41.7%), and artificial intelligence (50.0%). For smart cities, the most common response was 1 to 2 years (50.0%), and for drones, it was over 3 years (100.0%).

Korean companies participating in CES 2021 identified the most notable future industries in 5 to 10 years as autonomous vehicles (28.0%), artificial intelligence (25.7%), IoT (11.6%), and healthcare (7.7%). Among domestic and international company exhibition halls at CES 2021, Korean companies selected the LG exhibition hall (21.7%) as the most impressive.

Korean companies participating in CES 2021 pointed out excessive regulations and unreasonable practices in new industry sectors (28.3%), lack of legal and institutional support (21.4%), and shortage of specialized personnel (15.8%) as the biggest obstacles to innovation in Korea.

As tasks for creating an innovative corporate environment, they cited workforce training (19.4%), support for global technology development cooperation (18.2%), improvement of rigid regulatory systems (17.1%), enhancement of basic science competitiveness (13.2%), and strengthening government support for R&D (12.9%).

Kim Bongman, Director of International Cooperation at the Federation of Korean Industries, stated, "Rigid systems and excessive regulations that prevent reflecting rapid market changes in business models make it difficult for innovative companies to emerge. Although the speed of technological innovation such as artificial intelligence and 5G is accelerating, there is a shortage of specialized personnel to support this. It is necessary to resolve these factors that hinder innovation and expand government support focusing on promising industries from a long-term perspective."

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