The Bank of Korea has confirmed South Korea's gross national income per capita at $36,963 for 2025. More than a decade has passed since the country crossed the $30,000 mark in 2014, yet it is projected to reach $40,000 only next year. Over the same period, Taiwan pushed past $40,000 and Japan moved ahead of Korea again. This stagnation is not a simple cyclical slump but a signal that the country must replace the engine of its growth.
Core manufacturing industries such as semiconductors, autos and shipbuilding, and secondary batteries remain globally competitive, but they have already matured beyond the point where they can sustain the rapid growth of the past. The catch-up strategy that allowed Korea to close the gap with advanced economies has also run its course. Labor input is shrinking because of low birth rates and population aging, while no new growth driver stands out. The government has set a target of $50,000 in gross national income per capita by 2030, but repeating the formulas that worked in the past is unlikely to get the country there.
Korea now has to create new markets rather than chase existing ones. Deep tech sits at the center of that effort. Deep tech refers to technologies of high technical difficulty and innovative potential built on the fundamental and enabling technologies of science and engineering. Commercializing it requires an ecosystem in which accumulated core technologies, specialized talent and patient capital able to withstand long payback periods all circulate together.
That is why the country's research and development special zones deserve attention. The government's fifth comprehensive plan for fostering R&D special zones set a target of 150 trillion won in sales by companies inside the zones by 2030, and the 2026 budget for the zones rose about 44% from a year earlier. The zones bring together government-funded research institutes and universities that hold core technologies alongside the companies that can commercialize them. They must now evolve beyond clusters of research institutions into hubs for deep tech startups and their growth. Research results should not stop at papers and patents but carry through to company formation, investment, products and revenue.
The Daedeok R&D special zone, home to 27 government-funded research institutes, 3,063 institutions and companies and some 45,000 research and development personnel, can serve as the leading model for that transition. The 85.9 trillion won in sales by resident companies reported at a performance exchange meeting in July reflects the results of connecting research with industry. Zones in each region should build on their own strengths, share their experience with one another and further strengthen a nationwide network for deep tech innovation.
In this transition, people matter as much as technology. The experience of some 34,000 retired scientists and engineers across the country needs to be brought back into the knowledge ecosystem. They are not simply candidates for re-employment based on past careers but a strategic asset for the national shift to deep tech, a valuable pool of talent that can reduce the trial and error faced by young researchers and startups and help move technology to market. With the revision in May of the special act supporting science and engineering fields providing a legal basis for programs that draw on highly experienced scientists and engineers, these people should be actively linked to the R&D special zones.
Stalling at $30,000 in income is both a warning and an opportunity to redesign the growth engine. It is not that Korea lacks technology. Core technologies and talent exist at research sites across the country, and research institutes and companies sit inside the special zones. The challenge is to combine those resources into a single, solid deep tech ecosystem. If the R&D special zones stand at the front line of the deep tech transition and the experience of highly seasoned scientists and engineers is drawn in as a driving force for the ecosystem, a new path to growth can open.
