South Korea has moved up three notches to seventh place for scientific competitiveness in this year's World Competitiveness Yearbook published by the Swiss-based IMD Business School.

Korea was seventh most competitive in science and sixth in technology among 55 countries. The rank of seventh is the nation's highest since the IMD survey began in 1989.

The results show Korea's scientific prowess in comparison to its national competitiveness rank, which was 29th.

The government has worked to expand investment in research and development, fostering of creative science talents and future growth engine industries, boost basic and core research studies, and devise ways to make science more public-friendly.