A South Korean report says South Korea is behind both the Chinese mainland and the Taiwan region in the competitiveness of the semiconductor industry, reported Business Korea on November 4.

The Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade (KIET) said in its report on Nov 3 that the competitiveness score of the South Korean semiconductor industry is 71 on a scale of 1 to 100, and those of the US, the Taiwan region, Japan, the Chinese mainland and the European Union are 96, 79, 78, 74 and 66, respectively, said the report.

South Korea’s score is as high as 87 in the memory chip segment, but its score in non-memory, 63, is the lowest among those of the six regions, said the report. It also added that the South Korean semiconductor industry and the government need to focus more on non-memory chip design and R&D.