[비즈한국] After former President Yoon Suk-yeol, who advocated for private-led growth, took office in the 20th presidential term, his main priority—until he was impeached following the declaration of martial law—was cultivating high-tech industries such as artificial intelligence (AI). Major candidates for the 21st presidential election have also raced to unveil pledges to build an economic powerhouse, a "super-gap" nation, and a scientific and technological powerhouse by fostering high-tech industries.
However, it has been revealed that corporate affiliated research institutes, which the government has supported for over 20 years since 2003 to promote corporate R&D, saw both the number of labs and researchers decline for the first time last year. This is analyzed to be due to former President Yoon's policy of expanding medical school admissions last year, which accelerated the exodus of engineering talent at a time when they were already moving to global big-tech companies offering better salaries and research conditions. Consequently, there are concerns that campaign slogans for economic development—made with an eye only on presidential votes—may be insufficient to reverse this downward trend in research labs and personnel.
Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party of Korea, placed 'becoming a world-leading economic powerhouse' as his top policy priority among his 10 key pledges. To achieve this, he stated he would build a new foundation for growth by intensively fostering new industries, including AI. In particular, he emphasized increasing R&D budgets, such as through stable investment in basic and fundamental research and development. He plans to cover the necessary budget by restructuring government fiscal spending and utilizing annual increases in total revenue.
Kim Moon-soo, the presidential candidate for the People Power Party, identified 'leaping to one of the top 3 AI and energy powerhouses' as his second priority among his 10 key pledges. He proposed implementation methods such as supporting the development of next-generation AI core technology, discovering and fostering promising AI small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups, and creating a 100 trillion won public-private joint fund with the participation of global companies. Furthermore, to improve the treatment of scientific and technological personnel, he pledged to push for higher salaries for R&D job categories and strengthen support through the Korea Scientists and Engineers Mutual Aid Association. To create an environment of immersive research, he announced plans to build five international joint research centers for high-tech technologies and introduce an authentication system for high-quality research outcomes that involve "sincere failures." He explained that the budget would be secured through national funds, private investment, and attracting global corporate investment.
Lee Jun-seok, the presidential candidate for the Reform Party, promised the introduction of a 'National Science Hero Preferential Treatment System' as his 10th and final key pledge. Specifically, he proposed introducing a pension system for scientific and technological researchers and a fast-track immigration screening system for scientists and engineers, explaining that the funding would come from existing research reward budgets under the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Although presidential candidates have unveiled these pledges to support private high-tech research and development, there is skepticism about whether they can reverse the current decline in researchers. Even though former President Yoon promoted the designation of national high-tech industrial complexes, prepared comprehensive support measures for the semiconductor ecosystem, expanded tax credits for national strategic technology investments, and increased budgets for cultivating the 'three game-changer' technologies (AI/semiconductors, high-tech bio, and quantum) during his term, the number of corporate research labs and researchers actually decreased.
According to the Korea Industrial Technology Association, the number of corporate affiliated research institutes in Korea surged from 14,975 in 2007, when statistics were first compiled, to over 20,000 in 2009. It continued to grow rapidly, surpassing 30,000 in 2014 with 32,167 labs, and crossed the 40,000 mark in 2018 with 40,399 labs. It continued to increase every year thereafter, reaching 44,811 in 2022, nearing the 45,000 mark. However, it decreased slightly to 44,086 in 2023, and in 2024, the number dropped further as 2,646 labs closed their doors, leaving 41,440 remaining.
The problem is that while the number of research institutes at mid-sized companies increased during this period, the number of research institutes at large corporations—which should be leading high-tech R&D—has declined for two consecutive years, hitting an all-time low. Large corporate research institutes stood at 767 in 2022, but dropped to 756 in 2023 and 734 in 2024.
The number of researchers at these institutes, which had been increasing annually, also saw its first decline last year due to the shrinking number of labs. The number of researchers, which was 193,340 in 2007, surpassed 300,000 in 2014 (302,486), reached 350,000 in 2020 (359,975), and crossed the 400,000 mark in 2023 (410,515). However, last year, that number fell to 407,884, a decrease of 2,671 compared to the previous year.