It was reported that last year's Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the area of electronics has dramatically increased. Total foreign investments reached US$1.8 billion in the area of electronics, which is a 70 percent increase from the previous year.
However, in contrast, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy announced that foreign investments in other areas besides electronics have decreased. They also announced that the cumulative total of 1.8 billion US dollars in the area of electronics is an increase of 740 million US dollars from the previous year. Also, the manufacturing industry's total FDI scale is about 3.73 billion US dollars. In addition, the government's goal for this year is to attract and bring in 13 billion US dollars from foreign investments. This would be a 13.2 percent increase from last year's total investment scale.
Lee Dong Kun, Ministry of Knowledge Economy's, head of commerce investment, stated, "The condition of the Korean Won helped our economy, but foreign electronics and manufacturing investments boosted our country's competitiveness. Within these investments, trust is the foundation."
Moreover, the world's FDI decreased last year by 1.9 percent, which leaves it at a total of US$11.4. This could be due to the financial crisis which the world suffered last year, which may also have led to a 56 percent decline in M&A across the world.
