According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News)South Korea's research and development (R&D) budget made up the highest percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013 among advanced nations, a report showed Sunday.

According to the report by the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP), the country's R&D intensity, or R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP, came to 1.14 percent, hovering above the 1.12 percent and 1.03 percent posted by Iceland and Finland, respectively.

It marked a giant leap from 2004, when Asia's fourth-largest economy held a comparable figure of 0.74 percent. The report is based on the Main Science and Technology Indicators (MSTI) as released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in June.

South Korea spent US$13.7 billion last year for governmental R&D projects, the sixth-largest among the countries tallied. The United States held $133.5 billion, followed by Japan, Germany, France and Britain with $36.8 billion, $33.3 billion, $19.9 billion and $14.1 billion, respectively.

The portion of R&D for defense took up 16.3 percent of the combined R&D budget for South Korea in 2011, the third-largest amount compared with the 53.1 percent held by the U.S. in 2013 and 16.5 percent posted by Britain in 2012.

colin@yna.co.kr

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