SEOUL, KOREA - As capital originating from the Greater China Region increased rapidly, the foreign direct investment volume for the nine-month period this year has already surpassed that of the last year. The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy said on October 5 that the amount of foreign direct investment reported during the months between January and September was US$14.82 billion, up 37.9 percent from the same period last year. This is more than the amount reported for the whole year in 2013 at $14.55.
In terms of actual investment amount, it was $9.77 billion, 50.1 percent higher than thatduring the same period a year ago and almost comparable to the whole year's figure of $9.80 billion.
By country of origin, investment from the Greater China Region including mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong increased most. In terms of reported volume, investment from China rose 230.4 percent for the first nine months of the year to $1.03 billion. The investment from the whole Greater China shot up 89.8 percent to $3.01 billion.
Joo So-ryung, a ministry official in charge of foreign investment attraction, said, "In addition to tourism and leisure, Chinese investment is now reaching toward cultural content industries as well." For example, China's Tencent invested more than $500 million in CJ Games, a game development subsidiary of CJ E&M in March this year.
Foreign direct investment from the EU increased 84.1 percent to $5.93 billion during the nine-month period while that from the United States rising 6.4 percent to $2.86 billion. Meanwhile, the investment from Japan fell 16.4 percent to $1.64 billion.
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