ELECTRONICS BOOST: Corporate spending, particularly in the manufacturing sector, has become the driving force behind Taiwan’s gross domestic expenditure on R&D
Taipei Times
Date: May 30, 2020
By: Natasha Li / Staff reporter
Taiwan’s gross domestic expenditure on research and development (R&D) is ranked third-highest in the world as it reached 3.36 percent of total gross domestic product, or NT$616 billion (US$20.55 billion), in 2018, the Ministry of Economic Affairs Department of Statistics said in a report yesterday.
That surpassed Japan’s 3.26 percent, the US’ 2.83 percent and China’s 2.19 percent. Taiwan’s gross domestic expenditure on R&D closely followed Israel’s and South Korea’s, which remained the top two spenders on R&D at 4.9 percent and 4.53 percent respectively in 2018.
Corporate spending has become the main driving force behind Taiwan’s gross domestic expenditure on R&D, making up 80.3 percent of total expenditure, on a level with that of South Korea, ministry data showed.
Japan, China and the US posted slightly lower figures at 79.4 percent, 77.4 percent and 72.6 percent respectively. [FULL STORY]