How Manufacturing Saved the Korean Economy during the COVID-19 Crisis

Korea’s manufacturing sector, the third most competitive in the world, has helped it weather the COVID-19 pandemic.While the global economy shrank 3.3 percent in 2020, its worst slowdown since the 2008 global financial crisis, the Korean economy contracted by just one percent thanks to its manufacturing sector.Korea’s success in stabilizing its economy faster than other major economies stemmed from its highly competitive manufacturing industry, which is the world’s third most competitive per the United Nations Industrial Development Organization’s (UNIDO) Competitive Industrial Performance (CIP) index.Despite this, the country’s industrial innovation strategy is in need of an upgrade for the post-pandemic era. This paper explores sustainable, resilient upgrade paths for the Korean economy amid intensifying innovation competition in the post-pandemic era and the battle for technological hegemony between the US and China