S. Korea's government must expand R&D support: professor

By Koh Byung-joon
SEOUL, June 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korea should place top priority in its
industrial policy on expanding support for research and development (R&D) in a
bid to survive intensifying global competition, a renowned economics professor
said Monday.
"What is most important in the nation's industrial policy is to increase R&D
spending," Chang Ha-jun of Cambridge University told reporters. Chang, who served
as a policy advisor for the Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2005, was attending an
international conference co-hosted by the Seoul government and the World Bank.
The U.S. government took up around 40 percent of the nation's total R&D
expenditure, while the ratio for Europe stood at 30-40 percent. South Korea,
meanwhile, provides only 20 percent of the nation's total research spending,
Chang said, indicating there is a lot room to be desired in the area.
"We are now living in a world where we cannot win competition with just
low-income workers only but also with technology," he said. "The current
government R&D support is not enough compared with other countries and this could
cause South Korea to lag behind other countries in its technological edge,
denting overall competitiveness."
kokobj@yna.co.kr
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