Nanotechnology grows faster than all manufacturing

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced Tuesday the result of its yearly survey on the nanotechnology sector.

The findings showed that for the past five years, Korea’s nanotechnology industry has witnessed an average growth rate of 10.7 percent per year, about four times higher than the average growth rate for manufacturing in Korea.

Nanotechnology includes such products as flexible displays.

In terms of sales, the sector recorded over 132 trillion won ($109 billion) in sales in 2014, accounting for nine percent of the sales of Korea’s manufacturing industry.

Based on the trade ministry’s report, aggressive investment into research and development of nanotechnology as well as concentration of highly educated manpower were the factors behind the sector’s rapid expansion.

In 2014, about 10.37 trillion won was poured into nanotechnology R&D, 16.3 percent of all R&D investment. The nanotechnology industry hired 43,125 employees with master’s or doctoral degrees, accounting for 30 percent of the entire workforce in the industry.