A Study on Policies to Enhance Competitiveness of Korea Marine Equipment Industry
The marine equipment industry has played a pivotal role in supporting stable and sustainable growth of the Korean shipbuilding industry. By mid-1980s, most Korean shipbuilders had heavily relied on foreign parts suppliers. Thus, the whole nation focused on strengthening global competitiveness of shipbuilding industry by nurturing the marine equipment industry at that time.
The industry has its own importance as the main source of income in the south region of Korea, especially Busan. Not only that, it is closely related to the shipbuilding industry as bigger and advanced vessels are required: it enables shipyards to meets shipowners needs by producing and assemblying customized parts.
The industry is always exposed to global competition as its technological R&D and quality improvement should catch the pace of change in ship types and specifications. More importantly, it is the most important factor to the global competitiveness of shipbuilding industry because marine parts take a substantial portion of the total cost of newly-built ships.
This study aims to propose policies to enhance the competitiveness of the marine equipment industry. The industry can gain its competitive edge with vigorous R&D activities, direct transactions with foreing partners and global after-sales network.
This concludes several measures to enhance competitiveness of the marine part industry: (1) localizing fundamental technologies to create high value-added products, (2) protecting core technologies from copycat, (3) recognizing the importance of information, (4) forming marine part cluster and sharing a brand, (5) enhancing global recognition for inroading new markets, (6) benefiting from tax incentives and foreing exchange rate, and (7) constructing comprehensive supporting platform from the government.