TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION POLICY FOR THE BIOECONOMY

摘要

Korea has a strong potential on biotechnological research and industrial capabilities. The Korean government recognized biotechnology was the key factor that will allow the nation to be a leading country and had begun promoting biotechnology after enacting of the Genetic Engineering Support Act [now known as the Biotechnology Support Act in 1995] in 1983. When formulating of Basic Plan for Biotechnology Support ("Biotech 2000") in 1993, the government started to coordinate governmental biotechnology policies. In 2006, the government established the 2nd Basic Plan for Biotechnology Support ("Bio-Vision 2016") in an effort to achieve a goal of making Korea a biotechnology leader in the world, according to the vision of realizing a sound health life and prosperous bioeconomy. But the governmental R&D investment on biotechnology began to increase rapidly in the 2000s. In 2013, US$2.6 billion was invested. And it's nearly 18.4% of total governmental R&D investment in Korea. Korea has taken great strides to set up an efficient institutional systems related to the biotechnology promotion. In this paper, using policy analysis model to illustrate, I demonstrate how the suggested model helps to set the policy formation and implementation analysis of Korean biotechnology. According to model, four categories of indicators play a major role in this analysis: inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes. The methodologies combine qualitative and quantitative methods, such as peer reviews, interviews, and S&T indicators. Eight ministries of Korean government were related to biotechnology promotion and implemented many governmental programs. Total production has increased by 26% from US$1.9 billion in 2002 to US$2.4 billion in 2004. There was also a drastic rise of the number of biotechnology start-ups. It was increased from 167 bio-venture companies in 1999 to 600 in 2001. And there has been a significant increase in the number of biotechnology research papers that are written by Koreans and published in international top academic journals such as Nature, Cell, and Science from 1 in 1996 to 10 in 2004. From 2000 to 2003, the number of Korean biotechnology patents within the U.S. has increased by 85% up to 204. Also international achievements in pharmaceutical development were achieved. For example, the 1st Korean global new drug, "Factive", was approved by U.S. FDA in 2003. But the total productivity of governmental R&D investment is not high yet in Korea. And now, the policy direction of new government is shifted to 'creative economy' and key concepts are 'creativity' and 'convergence'. Therefore the promotion of biotechnology start-ups is very important and similar to the state of governmental support from 2000 to 2005. I conclude by developing a policy agenda to guide the national paradigm shift to address current and future challenge in Korea. And the experiences in Korea show various policy implications that will render especially for developing countries.