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Recent Trend of Foreign Direct Investment |
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Investment Negotiations of $14.1 Bil. Made During Kim's Visit to 3 EU Nations KOREA TIMES 2000/03/15 BERLIN _ Investment negotiations amounting to $14.1 billion were made during President Kim Dae-jung's trip to Italy, France and Germany for the past 10 days, Kim's chief economic advisor said Friday. Lee Ki-ho, senior presidential secretary for economic affairs, said that French businessmen expressed their intent to invest $10.8 billion in Korea, including an investment of $5 billion in power generation business. Lee, accompanying Kim on the 10-day tour to the European countries, noted that German firms made an initial pledge to invest $2.3 billion in Korean projects, while Italian companies, mostly textile and fashion firms, conducted investment negotiations of $1 billion. Out of the $14.1 billion in investment commitment, Italian, French and Germany companies are expected to sign memoranda of understanding with Korean companies for investments of $10 billion this year, Lee said. ``But it is unclear how much of the initial investment commitment will be translated into real investment,'' the secretary said. If all goes well, a total of $7.5 billion of the investment will go to social overhead capital, $5 billion to electricity facilities, $1 billion to small- and medium-sized industries, $ 500 million to the petrochemical industry and $100 million to bioengineering. Vivendi Group of France will likely invest in sewage and tap water facilities, SGE in roads, railroads and bridges and Germany's BASF $400 million in the petrochemical industry. On the sideline of Kim's visit to Germany, the two countries agreed that the Global Venture Investment Center will be established in Seoul. Through
the center, German hi-tech venture firms will provide information,
technical know-how and dispatch technicians to their Korean counterparts,
according to Lee. |
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