[THE INVESTOR]South Korea’s production volume in the information and communication technology industry increased 8.7 percent last year from 2016 to hit a new record high of 468.3 trillion won (US$437.9 billion), according to the Ministry of Science and ICT on April 13.

Ministry officials said last year marks the highest gain since 18.3 percent growth recorded in 2010. The increase is a sharp rally from two previous years of decline that saw outbound shipments fall 2 percent in 2015 and 0.7 percent in 2016.

The ministry said the ICT sector accounted for 11.8 percent in terms of the country’s total industrial output.

By sector, equipment for information, communication and broadcasting accounted for 72.9 percent, followed by services (15.9 percent) and software (11.2 percent).

Overall ICT production volume by small and medium-sized companies rose 2.8 percent to 137.6 trillion won, comprising 29.4 percent of the total.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)