The number of mid-sized firms in Korea went up around 10 percent in 2024 from a year earlier, while their investments in research and development (R&D) markedly increased, government data showed Tuesday. Asia's fourth-largest economy had 6,474 mid-sized companies as of the end of 2024, up 606, or 10.3 percent on-year, according to the data from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Resources. Mid-sized firms refer to those that have had average annual sales of 40 billion won ($27.9 million) to 150 billion won over the past three years. Manufacturing companies numbered 2,174, or 33.6 percent of the total. Non-manufacturing firms took up the remainder of 4,300. The combined sales of mid-sized firms stood at 1,030.5 trillion won, up 4.7 percent compared to the previous year. Their combined operating profit increased 5.9 percent on-year to 50.3 trillion won, according to the data. Investments from mid-sized firms grew 17.1 percent on-year to 36.4 trillion won. R&D investments jumped 35.2 percent to 13 trillion won. "Mid-sized companies have shown growth in all indexes, from sales to investments a