The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade announced on July 3 that the South Korean communications equipment industry’s competitiveness score was 80 on a scale of 1 to 100 last year.

“Last year, the scores of China, the United States, Sweden and Finland were 96.6, 92.4, 88.5 and 85.7,” it said, adding, “South Korea was surpassed due to a relative lack of core original technology, product competitiveness and material and component supply stability.”

When it comes to procurement and demand, South Korea stood at 75.9 and 77.4, respectively. Its R&D and design score was 82.7 and its score in terms of production was 79.2.

On the other hand, China scored 96.5, 94.9, 97.2 and 97.3 in R&D and design, procurement, production and demand, respectively. The United States scored 94.6, 94.8, 89.8 and 88.7.