Mid-Sized Companies Drive Growth as R&D Spending Surges (Image supported by ChatGPT)
SEOUL, Dec. 30 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of mid-sized firms in South Korea went up around 10 percent in 2024 from a year earlier, while their investments in research and development (R&D) markedly increased, government data showed Tuesday.
Asia’s fourth-largest economy had 6,474 mid-sized companies as of the end of 2024, up 606, or 10.3 percent on-year, according to the data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources.
Mid-sized firms refer to those that have had average annual sales of 40 billion won (US$27.9 million) to 150 billion won over the past three years.
Manufacturing companies numbered 2,174, or 33.6 percent of the total. Non-manufacturing firms took up the remainder of 4,300.
The combined sales of mid-sized firms stood at 1,030.5 trillion won, up 4.7 percent compared to the previous year.
Their combined operating profit increased 5.9 percent on-year to 50.3 trillion won, according to the data.
Investments from mid-sized firms grew 17.1 percent on-year to 36.4 trillion won. R&D investments jumped 35.2 percent to 13 trillion won.
“Mid-sized companies have shown growth in all indexes, from sales to investments and job numbers, since around the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022,” a ministry official said.
The total number of workers employed at mid-sized companies stood at 1.76 million, up 3.1 percent from the previous year, according to the data.
(Yonhap)
