ΆΓ Foreign investment shot up 40 percent from last year

 KoreaHerald 2000.09.15

     The number of foreign-invested companies and the amount of foreign investment has increased more than 40 percent during the one year period from June last year, government officials said yesterday.

    According to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, foreigners made investments worth $44.01 billion in 8,034 domestic companies or $5.48 million per company on average, as of the end of June this year.

    The number of foreign-invested companies and the amount of foreign investment increased 41.4 percent and 43.9 percent, respectively, compared with last year.

    Specifically, $22.3 billion or 50.6 percent of total investments were made in the service industry, while $21.4 billion or 48.6 percent was invested in the manufacturing industry.

    By nation, the largest $11.8 billion or 26.7 percent of the foreign capital came from the United States, followed by $7.5 billion or 16.9 percent from Japan and $6 billion or 13.5 percent from the Netherlands. Malaysia invested $4 billion or 9.2 percent and Germany came next with $2.9 billion or 6.7 percent.

    Combined, the five countries accounted for 73.1 percent of the total foreign capital invested in Korea.

    The remaining investments came from Singapore, France, the Cayman Islands, Canada and Britain, officials said.