Friday, September 18, 2020

ICT: the engine of Korea's export-led economy

 


This blog and my research in recent years have documented the role of the ICT sector (Information and Communications Technology Sector) in Korea's transformation from a developing country to a world leader in digital networks and related technologies. In simple terms, the ICT sector refers to the digital technologies that have dramatically changed the human ability to store, compute and communicate digital (think 1s and 0s as in Boolean algebra) information.   ICT exports played a key role in this transformation, as these posts show.  The graphic at left (click for a full-size version) was published in January 2020 by The Korea Herald.  The ICT exports represented in this graphic include semiconductors, displays, smart phones and an array of other digital products.  Among these sub-sectors of the ICT sector, semiconductors play a special role as the basic building blocks for digital networks and related technologies. 

 The second graphic at left, published in The Korea Herald,  shows where South Korea's exports of semiconductors went.  Especially if China and Hong Kong are combined, the graphic clearly shows the spectacular rise of China as a manufacturing powerhouse for the world and its special importance to Korea.

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