China's rapid growth has helped the world's second-largest economy reduce its technology gap with South Korea over the past several years, a report showed Monday.
  

According to the report by the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, South Korean manufacturers have an average 3.3-year lead over their Chinese counterparts.
  

The gap is down from 3.7 years tallied in 2011, and a sign that the world's No. 2 economy is speeding up efforts to bridge existing gaps.
  

The report was based on surveys carried out on 708 local manufacturers in October and November and checked such areas as technology levels, efforts put into research and development, and policy measures to fuel competitiveness.
  

By sector, the KIET report showed South Korean companies maintaining a 3.5 year lead in heavy industries and petrochemicals, although their edge in light industries and information technology areas stood at 2.9 years and 2.6 years, respectively.
  

"South Korea has made gains in such areas as light industries, but the pace of Chinese advances has accelerated," the think tank claimed.
  

In addition, only 69.5 percent of companies checked engaged in in-house R&D, down from an average of 81.9 percent in 2011.
  

Even among companies belonging to large conglomerates, R&D numbers fell to 86.9 percent from 93.9 percent.
  

"The drop is closely linked to the deterioration of technology levels and skills," KIET argued. Such developments if left unchecked can pose serious problems down the line and erode the country's overall technological prowess.
  

Among companies engaged in R&D, research-related outlays were equal to 4.7 percent of total sales, with 8.8 percent of the workforce engaged in this field. This represents an increase from 4.2 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively, in 2011.
  

The latest report, meanwhile, showed that only 9.5 percent of companies checked believed they possessed class-leading technologies that outpaced rivals around the world, down from 14.7 percent in 2011.
  

KIET said 48 percent of companies wanted the government to provide more R&D support, with 16.4 percent asking for assistance in the training of research personnel. Another 11.8 percent called for streamlining rules and cutting administrative red tape that is discouraging more investment into R&D.  (Yonhap)