Foreign Investments Soared to $627 Mil. Last Month

KOREA TIMES 2000/03/06

By Nho Joon-hun

Staff Reporter

Foreign investments in Korea soared 102.3 percent to $627 million last month, bringing the cumulative total for the year to $1.747 billion, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said yesterday.

In its monthly report, the ministry said foreign investments poured in despite the fact that February had only 23 working days owing to it being a short month and the observance of Lunar New Year holidays.

Even in terms of the number of investments, it reached 248, following up on the 304 in January, the first month ever that instances of foreign investment surpassed 300, ministry official said.

``One of the most encouraging aspects of the investment trend is that an increasing number of them are less than $10 million, that is mostly investments in small companies,'' said one ministry official.

The government has recently focused on attracting investments of a smaller scale, particularly in the provinces to generate new jobs and help create a more balanced regional development.

Perhaps as a result of these efforts, 96.4 percent of the 248 investments were less that $10 million with 93.2 percent being less than $5 million, the officials said.

Still, large-scale investments set the tone for last month, with Allianz AG of Germany injecting $158 million into Hana Bank and Fairchild Semiconductors Corp. investing $79 million into Fairchild Korea.

Other major investments included $84 million from Pan Pacific Resort Investment into Yongpyong Resort, $79 million from QRIO of Malaysia into G&G Telecom and $60 million from Yahoo Inc.

By region, investments from countries other than the United States, Japan and the European Union expanded by 372.7 percent to $208 million, showing that Korea's investment portfolio is becoming increasingly diversified, the officials said.

By category, investments in manufacturing rose 119.7 percent to $145 million last month with those in services also increasing by 100.8 percent to $482 million, they added.

Foreign direct investments in Korea have increased sharply in recent years, rising from a meager $1.941 billion in 1995 to $6.971 billion in 1997 and a record $15.541 billion last year.

jakenho@koreatimes.co.kr