South Korea's top one-thousand companies in research and development investment increased their spending in the first half of this year.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology on Monday released the results of their corporate R&D scoreboard survey conducted on the top one-thousand companies in R&D investment comparing spending to last year.

The results show that the total amount of R&D investments made by the companies grew 12-point-nine percent on-year to stand at 22-point-seven trillion won, or some 16-point-seven billion U.S. dollars, in the first half of this year.

The annual rate of increase this year is also estimated to be around nine-point-four percent, higher than last year's eight-point-nine percent increase. 

The ministry evaluated the results to be a very positive factor for the innovative growth of the economy as the growth rate of R&D investment has recovered to pre-pandemic levels despite external uncertainties such as inflation and interest rate hikes.