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| Consumer Technology Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro speaks during the Consumer Electronics Show 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Thursday (local time). AFP-Yonhap |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Concerns have been raised after the organizer of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) regarded Korea this year as being less innovative than Japan, a country that is considered to be lagging behind in its digital transformation, according to industry officials, Tuesday.
The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced on the beginning day of the world's most influential tech event that Korea scored 3.157 points and Japan scored 3.186 points in the 2023 International Innovation Scorecard, an assessment of policies and practices around the world that fuel tech innovation or stand in the way of progress.
As a result, Korea was ranked 26th among the 70 assessed countries and was categorized as an "innovation leader" along with mid-tier nations such as Malaysia, Chile and Southern and Eastern European countries.
Japan was ranked 25th, and categorized as an "innovation champion," along with the U.S., Canada, Australia, Israel, Singapore and New Zealand, as well as Northern and Western European nations.
Rep. Yang Hyang-ja, an independent lawmaker who leads the special committee to enhance the competitiveness of the semiconductor industry, said she was shocked by the data, given that Korea sent the second-highest number of companies to the CES, following only the U.S.
"Korea's status as an IT industry powerhouse and memory chip superpower has been unstable," the lawmaker, who worked previously as a Samsung Electronics executive, wrote on Facebook.
When the CTA announced the scorecard for the first time in 2018, Korea was ranked 20th.
The country's ranking fell to 24th the following year, when Japan was ranked 31st. The CTA did not announce the scorecard between 2020 and 2022, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the CES organizer, both Korea and Japan scored poorly in diversity and tax friendliness, due to their low ethnic diversity and high corporate and individual taxes.
Japan, however, was graded "A" in the cybersecurity category, as it has signed the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime and its Second Additional Protocol on Enhanced Cooperation and Disclosure of Electronic Evidence. Korea was graded "F" in the category, as it has not signed either.
Korea's poor air quality, largely attributed to fine dust blowing in from China, also lowered the country's score.
"Air quality is well below the World Health Organization's standard, but nearly 100 percent of the population uses clean and protected water sources," the CTA said in its report.
The association also pointed out that Korea has a number of trade restrictions concerning local domiciling of data that create challenges for companies employing cloud storage.
"The 2023 Scorecard captures a surge in entrepreneurship since the last release in 2019, as innovators around the world harnessed advanced technologies to develop vaccines with incredible speed, deliver medical care across borders, create online tools for commerce and education and navigate complex supply chain challenges," CTA President Gary Shapiro said in a press release.
However, there remain questions about the credibility of the CTA's assessment, considering that Korea took the top spot in the 2021 Bloomberg Innovation Index and was the leading Asian country in the World Intellectual Property Organization's 2022 Global Innovation Index.
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