A survey was found that domestic corporations perceive that China has already overtaken Korea in half of the country's 10 leading export sectors, including steel, machinery, and automobiles. They projected that by 2030, five years from now, the competitiveness of all sectors will fall behind China.
The Federation of Korean Industries (FKI) said on the 17th that this was found in a recent survey titled "Status and outlook of competitiveness among Korea, the United States, Japan, and China," conducted on the top 1,000 corporations by sales in the 10 leading export sectors (responses from 200 companies).
Among the corporations that responded to the survey, 62.5% picked China as Korea's biggest export competitor. Next came the United States at 22.5% and Japan at 9.5%, respectively, it was found.
Regarding the biggest export competitor in 2030, the share answering China rose 6 percentage points to 68.5%, while the United States and Japan fell to 22.0% and 5%, respectively. FKI interpreted this to mean that export competition with China will become even more intense going forward.
Assuming Korea's corporate competitiveness is 100, when asked about the current competitiveness of the United States, Japan, and China, domestic corporations answered the United States 107.2, China 102.2, and Japan 93.5, respectively. For 2030, they expected the United States 112.9, China 112.3, and Japan 95.0.
Assuming the corporate competitiveness of Korea's 10 leading export sectors is 100, China currently was found to be ahead of Korea in five sectors: steel (112.7), general machinery (108.5), secondary batteries (108.4), displays (106.4), and automobiles and parts (102.4).
Five sectors—semiconductors (99.3), electrical and electronics (99.0), ships (96.7), petrochemicals and petroleum products (96.5), and biohealth (89.2)—were assessed as areas where Korea still holds the advantage.
However, corporations expected that by 2030 Korea will lag behind China in all 10 sectors. For secondary batteries, China's competitiveness would reach 119.5, and many said the gap would widen in general machinery (118.8), steel (117.7), and automobiles and parts (114.8) as well.
Corporations also assessed that Korea's corporate competitiveness falls short compared with the United States. Currently, Korea leads in only three areas—steel (the United States 98.8), ships (90.8), and secondary batteries (89.5)—but by 2030, the United States is projected to overtake Korea in steel as well at 100.8.
As factors hindering the enhancement of corporations' competitiveness, respondents cited the weakening of domestic product competitiveness (21.9%) and increased external risks (20.4%). They also pointed to sluggish domestic demand due to factors such as population decline (19.6%) and a shortage of talent in key technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) (18.5%).
To strengthen competitiveness, corporations proposed government support tasks including minimizing external risks (28.7%), establishing systems to foster key talent (18.0%), and improving economic efficiency through tax and regulatory easing and greater labor market flexibility (17.2%).