The Knowledge to Decide

The historical and unprecedented meeting between the two leaders of Korea is a monumental development. Can both leaders use this opportunity to enhance geopolitical stability and open up new economic development possibilities? Leon Perera, CEO of Spire Research and Consulting, shared his thoughts in The Business Times – Views from the Top section on 7 May 2018. Marking a remarkable change, the unprecedented meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas underlines the possibility of a peace treaty and denuclearization agreement. However, Perera expressed scepticism about North Korea’s commitment to completely renounce nuclear strike capability against Japan and South Korea, since this is the only factor ensuring regime survival. World leaders need to take this chance to limit the North’s nuclear capability while accepting that it may never be completely voided, bring the North into the global framework and work towards economic development on the Korean peninsula. For furt

As an elderly person, living alone in Korea is difficult. What options do senior citizens have for nursing home facilities? Dr. Justin Lee, Managing Director of Spire Research and Consulting, South Korea shared his thoughts on Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo news portal. Korea now has 3,316 nursing homes and 1,500 specialized elderly hospitals nation-wide. The need for specialised elderly care in Korea is on a gradual rise, as those with health complications cannot live independently. At present, senior citizens with grade ratings of 1 or 2 for long term care under the Long-Term Care Insurance scheme are entitled to use these public nursing home facilities. Dr. Lee opined that paying more does not necessarily mean a better nursing home. Costs in public nursing homes are not consistently higher than those in private ones. Within the public nursing homes, the cost variation is minimal regardless of their management quality as public nursing homes need to abide by set government gui

The Korean robotics industry grew by 60% a year between 2005 and 2011. Korea has a strong position in industrial robots. Now, the government’s focus should now be on developing service robots to sustain growth. Spire Research and Consulting shared its insights, published on the Business Korea news portal. Korea’s industrial robot sector is larger than any country’s, except for Japan, China and the U.S. However, the service robot sector is emerging as a new growth hotbed, thanks to the accelerated use of artificial intelligence. However, Korea does not have any companies that specialize in the development of service robots. It will take time to further develop Korea’s service robotics technology which is where the government and Korean enterprises need to step in and focus so as to claim early global leadership. https://www.spireresearch.com/newsroom/media/korea-needs-to-focus-on-developing-service-robots/

As Korea races to lead the global robotics industry, the Korean robotics market continues to grow at an annual average of 22% a year. Is Korea ready to rub shoulders with global players? Spire Research and Consulting shared its insights, published on the Korea IT Times news portal. The global industrial robot market is expected to grow to USD40 billion by 2020, at an average annual growth rate of 5.2% from 2014. However, Korea’s robot manufacturing market is expected to grow much faster, by 21.5% a year, to reach USD19.4 billion by 2020. Interestingly, Korea’s first humanoid robot – HUBO – developed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) recently won the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge, beating tough competitors from Hong Kong, Italy, Germany, Japan and the U.S. This prestigious competition is funded by the U.S. Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The competition aims to develop semi-autonomous (ground) robots that can work under risk-p

Korea ranks fourth in the deployment of industrial robots across the globe. It is on the fast track to have the world’s largest stock of robots by 2016. Korea is also home to 6 million people above the age of 65. Korean innovators are now bringing robots into the homes of the elderly. Spire Research and Consulting shared its insights, published on the US Consumer Electronics Association’s blog. The robotics industry in Korea reached a total revenue of KRW2.1 trillion in 2012 (approximately USD2 billion) – a two-fold increase in size since 2009. More than 600 domestic robot manufacturing companies operate within the country, employing more than 34,000 people. The government plans to spend KRW7 trillion (approximately USD6.3 billion) by 2018 in this industry. At the same time, Korea’s silver market will grow to eight million seniors by 2020. There are many companies catering to the unmet needs of the elderly. GoCart – a Korean-made robot – started distributing meals in elder ca