South Korea's information and communication technology industry is globally competitive but falls behind in policy and regulation, according to the results of a survey of the sector's workers on Tuesday.

The recent poll conducted by the Institute for Information & Communication Technology Promotion among 838 people in ICT businesses found 47 percent of them see the country's ICT industry policy and regulatory conditions as low compared to other countries. Only 20.8 percent answered that the conditions were competitive with other nations.

On competitiveness for investment, 36.9 percent said it was low, compared to 31.9 percent who answered otherwise.

The workers gave low marks to business environment and innovation (35.2 percent), compared to 31 percent who gave positive ratings.

Asked whether the country's ICT sector was ready for the fourth industrial revolution, 72.3 percent answered in the negative compared to 27.7 percent who responded yes.

On the urgent tasks the industry faces, the highest rating of 5.61 out of seven went to lack of a working ecosystem for starting small and medium-sized venture firms. Other points named included market domination by large conglomerates (5.46 points), market limits due to inflexible legal and regulatory terms (5.42 percent), lack of information sharing and cooperation between firms (5.38 points) and shortages in research and development personnel (5.15 points).

However, 59.1 percent of the polled workers viewed the local ICT industry as competitive, and 73 percent said the industry will further improve. Specifically, infrastructure (74.2 percent) and technology (72.7 percent) will advance for even better competitiveness, they responded.

On who is using ICT better, 65.3 percent named individual consumers and 51.6 percent the industry. The public sector received a relatively low 45.1 percent.

On the Moon Jae-in administration's ICT policies, 85.7 percent said they were aware of them and 60.3 percent said they have high expectations.(Yonhap)