S. Korea's bio industry grows in 2016 on medical appliances, services

SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Biotechnology industry in South Korea grew last year thanks to brisk activity in medical appliances and bio services sectors, a government report showed Tuesday.

Production in the bio industry reached 8.88 trillion won (8.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016, up 4.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. It was based on a factual survey of 980 domestic bio companies.

Activity among bio appliances manufacturers more than tripled last year, with the bio services industry's production more than doubling compared with the previous year. The bio chemical and energy sector saw its production almost double last year.

The bio industry's exports increased 3.7 percent over the year to 4.45 trillion won (4.1 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016.

The industry's imports came in at 1.46 trillion won (1.3 billion U.S. dollars), sending the trade surplus to 2.99 trillion won (2.7 billion U.S. dollars).

As of 2016, the bio industry hired 41,899 workers, up 4 percent compared with the previous year. Investment in the sector jumped 13.9 percent to 1.96 trillion won (1.8 billion U.S. dollars).

The bio industry is a fledgling sector in South Korea as only 651 out of 980 local bio companies generated revenue last year.

Among them, 426 companies, or 65.4 percent of the total, earned revenue of less than 1 billion won (920,000 U.S. dollars). Enditem