The scale of Korea’s technology trade has reached a record high. The technology trade balance also continued to grow quantitatively and qualitatively, with improvement compared to the previous year.
According to the results of the 2021 technology trade statistics announced by the Ministry of Science and ICT on the 25th, the scale of technology trade (export and import) in Korea was $33.613 billion, an increase of $3.735 billion compared to the previous year. Technology trade balance (export/import) was analyzed to be 0.80, up 0.05p from the previous year.
The amount of technology export was $14.921 billion, an increase of $2.141 billion from the previous year, and the amount of technology import was $18.692 billion, an increase of $1.594 billion from the previous year.
By industry, the scale of technology trade in the electrical and electronic industries was $12.126 billion, overtaking the information and communication industry, which ranked first the previous year. The information/communication, chemical, and machinery industries’ technology trade balance turned from a deficit the previous year to a surplus.
In the information and communication industry, technology exports increased by 2.8% compared to the previous year, but technology imports decreased by 19.7%, and the technology trade balance improved from a deficit of $542 million to a surplus of $928 million. The main reason for the decrease in technology introduction was that the technology introduction by SMEs decreased by half compared to the previous year.
In the chemical and machinery industries, the technology trade balance turned from a deficit the previous year to a surplus due to the increase in technology exports by large and medium-sized companies.
By institution type, both technology exports and imports of large and medium-sized enterprises increased, whereas technology exports and imports of SMEs both decreased. As for SMEs, technology exports and technology imports decreased by 46.3% and -29.5%, respectively, increasing the technology trade deficit to $1.32 billion.
By country, Korea’s largest technology export and technology import destination was the United States, and the technology trade deficit increased by 14.3% compared to the previous year, which was analyzed as the country with the largest deficit. In addition, China, which was Korea’s No. 1 technology export destination, only increased by 5.2% this year.
Reporter Lee In-hee [email protected]