Center for Korean Innovation and Competitiveness

Korea faces new challenges in the technology and innovation-driven global economy. Its productivity growth has slowed as its worker-to-retiree ratio has plummeted. Too few new innovation-based companies are growing to scale. And Korea has not yet fully transitioned from a “fast follower” to a global innovation leader. Meanwhile, like other industrialized economies, Korea now faces intense competition from China, which is pursuing a state-directed strategy to dominate the world’s advanced industries by any means necessary. These challenges are daunting but not insurmountable. Solving them requires the right policies. To develop and implement such a framework, Korean policymakers need actionable insights derived from deep analysis of Korea’s unique production systems, industry dynamics, and technologies, while incorporating global best practices for effective innovation policy.

That is the mission of the Center for Korean Innovation and Competitiveness. As part of the Washington, DC-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation—the world’s leading think tank for science and technology policy—the Center conducts research and develops policy solutions to help Korean policymakers drive Korean innovation, productivity, and global competitiveness.

Featured Publications

Korea’s Digital Gamble: Will New Tech Rules Hurt Innovation and Help China?

South Korea risks harming its consumers, economy, and relationship with the United States by adopting Europe's flawed digital competition regulations.

From Fast Follower to Innovation Leader: Restructuring South Korea’s Technology Regulation

South Korea stands at a crossroads as its restrictive “positive regulation” and “shadow regulations” stifle innovation in AI, crypto, and mobility tech, allowing China to race ahead. Korea must modernize this framework or risk losing its position as a global innovation leader.

Why South Korea Should Resist New Digital Platform Laws

Policymakers in South Korea are weighing a raft of digital market provisions inspired by the EU’s Digital Markets Act. Their goal is to rein in allegedly anticompetitive practices by Big Tech firms. But the proposed interventions are unwarranted and risk harming innovation, straining relations with the United States during uncertain times, and opening the door to China.

Korea Should Not Import the West’s ‘Techlash’

Korea thankfully lags behind the West in its techlash “thinking,” but it is by no means free from this corrosive force. Both the West and Korea need a more positive and balanced perspective that doesn’t make technology the source of today’s societal ills.

US-ROK Data Policy: Challenges and Opportunities

Contributing to a special report from the National Bureau of Asian Research, Nigel Cory and Nohyoung Park examine U.S. and South Korean approaches to data policy, including the barriers that arise from policy differences and the efforts made to find common ground and maximize cooperation.

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