The Korea Institute of Design Promotion (KIDP) has developed the first-ever framework to evaluate countries' design competitiveness. In December 2008, the National Design Competitiveness Power (NDCP) revealed its first results for the past year.
download: KIDP National Design Competitiveness.pdf (1MB)
Under the heading The Report on National Design Competitiveness 2008, seventeen major countries were assessed by KIDP and Dr. Chung Jai-hak of Sogang University. This study, which sampled 80 average people, 30 designers and 20 managers in charge of design at design related firms for each country targeted, appraised design competitiveness through the NDCP's three-dimensional comparative analysis in the public, industrial and civilian design sectors. The NDCP study was intended to determine where Korea's design industry stands now and to help devise a more effective and organised national level design policy.
It is widely seen that the year-long study led to a comprehensive model measuring each countries' design prowess through in-depth research and analysis. It proposed a brand new methodology, a major improvement over the previous one that was aimed only at corporations. It further suggests that Korea is positioning itself as one of the leading countries to evaluate design competitiveness and provide detailed information on design on a global level by announcing the new program and its estimates.
The report on National Design Competitiveness 2008 found that Italy topped the list while France and the US were ranked second and third respectively. Korea and Denmark shared eighth place and Finland came in tenth. Specifically, France, Italy and the US were ranked high in the public design sector, while the top rankers of industrial design were the US, Germany and Italy. For the civilian design sector, Italy, France and Japan formed a high ranking group. As for Korea, it was ranked first in a design competitiveness evaluation from the standpoint of human resources, though it left much to be desired in the categories of achievement, environment and investment.
Overall, Italy was the best rounded leader among the 17 countries in the ranking of NDCP index, while developing economies including India and Brazil lagged far behind the top-ranking countries. In this report, design-competitiveness rankings and an outline of the NDCP model from the study will be introduced.