[THE INVESTOR] Korean manufacturers consider the country far behind China in terms of speed of innovation, a survey by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry showed on Wednesday.

In the survey on 300 manufacturing firms, local companies rated Korea’s speed of innovation as being 71 percent that of China. 


The respondents were asked to estimate the country’s speed of innovation in relation to China, whose speed of innovation was set at 100 kilometers per hour. The average for Korea’s industries came in at 70.9 kph.

For Korean companies, the average came in at 58.9 kph when the speed of the most innovative company was set at 100 kph.

By industry, automotive and electronics scored the highest at 65.5 kph and 63.8 kph, respectively. At the other end of the scale were shipbuilding, steel and machinery industries that scored between 57.7 and 52.7 kph.

Regarding the social cost of innovation, the surveyed companies said that corporations should be responsible for 60 percent of the costs and the government for 20 percent. The remainder was divided equally between academia and the National Assembly.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)