Direct Overseas Investment 840 Million Dollars in the 1st Quarter

Korean firms’ direct overseas investment increased so much from this year.

According to the Ministry of Finance and Economy on the 17th, domestic companies’ direct investment abroad in the 1st quarter (January to March) surged 47.4 percent at 840 million dollars with 531 cases from 570 million dollars in the same period of last year.

By regions, the investment on Asian countries decreased a little at 310 million dollars from 340 dollars in last year. However, the investment into China rose 35.3 percent at 230 million dollars from 170 million dollars.

87.8 percent (200 million dollars) of the investment into China, which is much larger than the rate (77.4 percent) of the investment in manufacturing out of total direct overseas investment, is made by manufacturing companies, showing the companies’ eager pursuit after the cheap labors of China. The investment toward Europe, which was only 30 million dollars in the 1st quarter of last year, increased to 360 million dollars with the investment of LG Electronics in the local corporation in Netherlands with 300 million dollars. However, the investment toward America fell by 21 percent at 110 million dollars.

The outstanding amount of investment is 796.4 million dollars for America, 459 million dollars for China, and 414 million dollars for EU in order. By industries, the investment by manufacturing increased a lot 77.4 percent from last year’s 59.6 percent, while that by retail and whole sale decreased 7.2 percent from 22.8 percent.

Joong-Hyun Park sanjuck@donga.com