Samsung, Hyundai Motor lead R&D spending
image for illustrative purpose
Seoul: Research and development (R&D) expenditures by major South Korean companies hit an all-time high last year despite their falling sales amid an economic slowdown, data showed on Sunday.
The country's top 1,000 companies made investments of 72.5 trillion won ($52.12 billion) combined in 2023, up 8.7 per cent from a year earlier, according to the data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology. It was the largest ever amount, it showed, reports Yonhap news agency.
The increase came despite their sales falling 2.8 per cent on-year to 1,642 trillion won, and the proportion of corporate R&D investment out of sales rose 4.4 per cent in 2023 from the previous year's 3.9 per cent. Tech giant Samsung invested the largest amount in R&D last year with 23.9 trillion won, which was up 14.4 per cent on-year and accounted for 32.9 per cent of the total investment by South Korean companies.
