The technology trade sector, including importing and exporting patents, inventions, and engineering, has continued to grow, seeing a nearly 15 percent increase. In particular, deficits in the trade technology area have decreased for four consecutive years.
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP) has announced findings called “2013 Technology Foreign Trade Statistics” conducted by the Korea Industrial Technology Association on Jan. 1.
Technology trade refers to the international and commercial trading of expenditures and income, which is related to technology or technology services. It includes patent sales, licensing, inventions, passing on expertise, studies on technology guidance, engineering consulting, and research and development services. The MSIP pointed out the importance of the total amount of exports and imports in the technology trade, explaining that it means that the larger the size of the technology trade, the better the companies are capable of innovating their products quickly, according to market changes.
According to the findings, Korea’s total technology trade in 2013 jumped by 15.4 percent to US$18.88 billion (about 18 trillion won), which was a US$2.521 billion (2.74 trillion won) increase compared to the previous year.
Export of technology grew by 28.9 percent to US$6.846 (7.45 trillion won), which was a US$1.535 billion increase compared to the figure of US$5.31 billion in 2012. The introduction of technology was up 8.9 percent to US$12.038 billion compared with the previous year. Accordingly, Korea’s earnings and expenses of the technology trade (the amount of export of technology versus the amount of introduction of technology) in 2013 improved from 0.57 to 0.48, compared with a year before.
Also, deficits have decreased for four consecutive years. By industry, the ratio of technology exports is high, followed by electronics with US$3.2 billion (3.48 trillion won, 46.8 percent), machinery with US$2.004 billion (2.18 trillion won, 29.3 percent) and information and communications with US$750 million (816.38 billion won, 11.0 percent). The world’s biggest technology exporters are China, France, and the U.S., while the major countries of introduction of technology are the U.S., Japan, and Germany.