Korea's IT Exports Hit All Time Record in 2010

As reported by the Joongang Daily, Korea's IT exports hit an all time record of $153.9 billion, more than double the volume of IT exports in 2003.  The nation's trade surplus in the information technology sector was also a record at $78.2 billion.   Semiconductor exports were the single biggest export item for South Korea, totaling $50.7 billion.   Exports of flat screens reached $33.8 billion dollars, making them the fourth largest export item, following ships and automobiles.  Exports of televisions increased 42.6 percent to $7.4 billion.  Despite a late-year surge in exports of smart phones, overall exports of mobile phones decreased by 13.7 percent during the year, but they still totaled $24.7 billion.

Ministry of Knowledge Economy sources are predicting that IT exports will increase between five and ten percent this year and reach $160 billion.  Further evidence that the ICT sector and certain key technologies that anchor the information age are the main drivers of South Korea's export-led economy.

Sales of Digital TVs Growing During Economic Slump

This is a follow up to the previous post about the new LED television sets being sold by Samsung Electronics.  As reported in the Chosun Ilbo and other papers today, sales of digital television sets are growing in the world's developed economies, despite the severe economic slump.  This reflects increased consumer spending on in-home activities and also defies the common sense idea that high end appliances do not sell well during an economic recession.  Another factor contributing to the sales is that governments worlwide have adopted policies for switching over to digital broadcasting.   Here in Korea the obvious beneficiaries of this global phenomenon are Samsung and LG Electronics, the world's leading manufacturers of flat screen digital television sets.

"Job Creation 7 Times Slower Than Economic Growth"

An article in today's Korea Times quickly caught my eye with the headline "Job Creation 7 Times Slower than Economic Growth." Fundamentally, this is all due to the advances in communication technology that started in the 1980s and are now bearing fruit. The newspaper article quotes an official from the Ministry of Strategy and Finance as saying ``Korea's industrial structure has transformed into a technology-and capital-dependent one from a labor-intensive one. Manual jobs have largely been moved to China and other Asian economies in which labor costs are much cheaper than here. The economy is expanding without creating as many jobs as it used to." This Ministry official's reference to technology really refers to information and communication technologies (ICT), more than any others. Even more specifically, I would note that there are four key anchor technologies in the fields of industrial and consumer electronics that underpin South Korea's economy today. They are:

• Semiconductors


• Flat screen displays including color television displays.


• Mobile handsets and other devices.


• Electronic switching systems which are key components of digital networks.

As shown in the accompanying graphic, employment elasticity ― the job growth rate divided by output growth rate ― fell to an all-time low of 0.15 in the second quarter of the year, down from 0.25 in the same period last year.