SEOUL, KOREA - Manufacturing businesses have long been the driving force behind national economic growth, playing a critical role in increasing national incomes since the Industrial Revolution.
A 2010 World Bank report indicates that 70 percent of annual GDP growth in 128 countries derives from the growth of manufacturing industries. When considering that the share of GDP of manufacturing businesses is less than 20 percent in the major advanced countries, Korea may be considered a “world champion” in terms of manufacturing businesses, whose share of GDP is about 30 percent.
The Korean government has also fiercely promoted the development of nanotechnologies and invested KRW 2.9 trillion (USD 2.7 billion) in the period from 2001 to 2012.
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The major reason for the current focus on nanotechnology is the convergence of nanotechnologies with other industries, a new paradigm that is capable of increasing added value by anywhere from 5 to 50 percent.
Nanotechnologies have already been applied to various industries to enhance their competitiveness, including automobiles, textiles, semiconductors and smartphones.
Most industry participants, researchers and officials of relevant planning authorities share the view that the effects of nanotechnology on convergence industries in the future will be so huge, they will be inestimable. For example, the proportion of semiconductors comprising nanotechnologies was zero in 2000 but rose to almost 60 percent by 2010. Every semiconductor produced is expected to be based on nanotechnology in 2020. The percentage of catalysts featuring nanotechnologies rose from zero in 2000 to 35 percent by 2010, and is expected to reach 50 percent in 2020.
Likewise, the pharmaceutical industry’s use of nanotechnologies stood at 0 percent in 2000 but rose to 15 percent by
Powerful growth of nano-convergence industries in Korea
The production value of nano-convergence industries in Korea amounted to KRW 92.285 trillion in 2011, accounting for approximately 6.1 percent of the total production volume of the nation’s manufacturing industries.1) Regarding human resources, the nano-convergence industries employed 130,667 people, a rise of 6.9 percent from the previous year, and
4.9 percent of the total manpower of the manufacturing industries. This figure is much higher than the 2.2 percent rate of increase in the entire manufacturing sector. Korea’s nano industries have now completed the initial phases of research and development and prototype fabrication, and have entered the phases of full-scale production and sales. The
industry is also recognized as one of promising growth, with a per capita productivity 1.6 times higher than that of other manufacturing industries. A recent study by the National Nanotechnology Policy Center forecasts that the contribution of the nano-convergence industries to GDP will be approximately 29 percent (KRW 360 trillion) by 2015, and approximately 35 percent (KRW 502 trillion) by 2020.
It is, however, hard to obtain systematic statistical data for the nano-convergence industries2), as they lack both explicit classification systems and an industrial statistics system concerning the characteristics of their convergence with various other types of industry. To improve this situation, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) has been working on establishing a classification system for nano-convergence industries together with experts from relevant fields of industry since last March. MOTIE classifies the nano-convergence industries into four major categories: nano-materials, nano-electronics, nano-biology and medicine, and nano-systems and equipment, as well as 16 intermediate categories and 44 detail categories.
The production and employment status for individual categories of the nano-convergence industry in 2011 are as follows: nano-electronics (85.1 percent, KRW 78.5 trillion), nano-materials (12.1 percent, KRW 11.1 trillion), nano-systems and equipment (2.5 percent, KRW 2.3 trillion), nano-biology and medicine (0.3 percent, KRW 0.3 trillion).
There are 468 nano-convergencerelated companies in Korea, 96 percent of which are small- and medium-sized companies. The share of the companies that produce exclusively for nano-convergence products (total revenue of 70 percent or more) increased from 36.3 percent in 2011 to 34.2 percent in 2012. The top four categories of increases are
materials, systems and equipment, electronics, and biology and medicine.
The nano-convergence industries are rapidly growing in Korea. But it is also necessary to converge nanotechnologies with every sector of industry to enhance the global competitiveness of Korean companies and to create new industries with the capacity to survive in a global marketplace characterized by increasingly fierce competition. To that end, government-led activities should focus on establishing a close collaboration system with the civil sectors.
Industries in Korea are establishing nano clusters in the regions of Daejeon, Pusan, Ulsan and Gyeongnam. These clusters are anticipated to have highly desirable effects, including the restoration of regional industries. The majority of future-oriented core technologies such as nanotechnologies have been cultivated by government initiatives. Meanwhile, industries in the Ulsan region are doing their utmost to enhance their competitiveness and create new, future-oriented industries by applying nanotechnologies to businesses unique to the region, including the automobile, precision chemicals and shipbuilding industries. Local governments and regional industries are actively participating in efforts to foster the nano-convergence industries with the support of the central government, and it is predicted that the new
nano-convergence industries in these regions will further grow.
By Chang-Woo Kim
Director General
National Nanotechnology Policy Center
