Planned Foreign Investment Surpasses $1 Bil. in April

KOREA Times 2000/05/08

Planned foreign direct investment surpassed $1 billion last month, an increase of 23.3 percent over the same month last year, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said yesterday.

According to ministry officials, April investments brought the cumulative total for the year to $3.737 billion, up 32.8 percent over the first four months of last year.

``One thing we are noticing is that more and more foreign investments are being made in manufacturing rather than services as had been the case in recent years,'' said one official.

He said investments in manufacturing reached $2.3 billion in the first four months of this year, up 150.7 percent, while those in services fell 24.2 percent to $1.433 billion.

Foreign investors are still showing keen interest in Internet companies and those specializing in information and communications but investments in areas like financial services have fallen sharply.

Also noteworthy is the fact that foreign investments are more evenly distributed in terms of origin, showing a sharp contrast to past years when most investments were from the United States and Europe.

Investments from the European Union fell 61.2 percent in the first four months as did those from the U.S. by 8.9 percent while the inflow from other regions soared 275.4 percent, he said.

``While EU and American companies are looking for tax havens in locations like Malaysia and Singapore, others are finding manufacturing conditions in Korea very attractive,'' another official explained.

Along with the even distribution, Korea saw investments from Japan increase 82.1 percent in the first four months, thanks apparently to concentrated efforts to attract Japanese companies.

Looking at the type of investments, a majority are made in the form of buying new shares, accounting for 91.9 percent, with long-term loans taking a meager one percent.

Meanwhile, main investments in the month of April were $350 million in Anam Semiconductor by AKI of the United States and $62 million in Green Cross by Rhein Vaccine B.V.

jakenho@koreatimes.co.kr