Research Article
The Process and Contents of Initial Technology Introduction Seen through Government's Approval and Review Documents: The Electronics Industry Case of the 1960s-70s
Busan University of Foreign Studies
Published: April 2021 · Vol. 43 No. 1 · pp. 79-108
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36092/KJHS.2021.43.1.79
Full Text
Abstract
This study examined the specific process, contents, and changes of early technology introduction in Korea through government documents from the 1960s and 1970s. What the government wanted to pursue through the technology introduction approval process at this time was to demand and enforce foreign technology companies to provide fair conditions that local companies could not demand due to the global market structure of vertical division. By the mid-1970s, the government had controlled the payment of additional costs by expedient methods as well as the payment of technical fees and contractual terms, and even standardized contract terms. In the late 1970s, the government began to independently select technologies to be introduced and set longer-term goals to change the existing technology introduction structure, such as technology level limits, technology sector bias, the bias to Japanese technologies. By the end of the 1970s, the government had switched to a system of introducing new high-tech products at the same time as it encouraged companies to develop technologies rather than relying on technology introduction. This study shows that the 1960s-1970s was a period of continuous learning, improvement, and systematization for the improvement of ability and the settlement of systems to introduce efficient technology into Korea.