SEOUL, KOREA - Korea was ranked second among the seven Asian nations in terms of the degree of investment attractiveness. According to the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency on June 15, Korea was No. 2 after Singapore in a survey on foreign companies conducted by its 42 offices worldwide. The questions were asked in 28 areas including market size, labor cost, tax level, and political stability.

 

The countries under evaluation were China, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, as well as Singapore and Korea. The countries were ranked in the order of Hong Kong, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Korea was rated high in the social infrastructure areas including transportation, logistics, telecommunications, and electricity.

 

In the areas of markets including market size, growth potential, and adjacent market accessibility and R&D and innovation including government support, technical maturity, and easiness of talent acquisition, Korea was ranked second. Meanwhile, in other areas including geopolitical risk (5th) and regulatory consistency, financing, easiness of foreign exchange transactions, and socio-political stability (4th), Korea was ranked lower.

 

Of the 243 foreign companies from 21 countries who answered the questionnaire, 47 percent have already invested in Korea while 24 percent have not done so while 29 percent are reviewing investment in Korea.