South Korea's leading conglomerates spent more on research and development (R&D) to seek new growth engines, while cutting back on facility-related investments in the first half, a report by a local corporate research firm showed Wednesday.
According to CEO Score, 167 listed non-financial firms belonging to the country's 30 largest business groups injected 16.18 trillion won (US$15.89 billion) into R&D in the January-June period, up 7.3 percent, or 1.1 trillion won, from the year before.