Invest KOREA

KOTRA hosts an appointment ceremony of honorary ambassadors of foreign investment promotion for Korea at Its head office on June 9
With a wide network of political and business leaders, KOTRA will ramp up the level of investment attraction, while closely working together with high-level figures.

KOTRA (President Yu Jeong Yeol) appointed Thomas Byrne, President of The Korea Society, Alexander Kim, Founder & Principal of Three Kings Public Affairs, Kim Youngjae, Senior Research Fellow of LG Electronics as honorary ambassadors of Foreign Investment Promotion for Korea (honorary ambassador) during its appointment ceremony held at KOTRA's head office, located in Yeomgok-dong, Seoul in an attempt to promote a broader cooperation with high-level figures to attract further foreign investment.

KOTRA Invest KOREA has made a significant contribution to identifying and attracting foreign investors by tapping into its networks of political and business leaders in major economies. Today, the ROK-US tech alliance has never been more necessary to bolster Korea's competitiveness edge in core strategic industries. So much so, KOTRA plans to recruit major figures from North America and eminent experts in robotics to strengthen Korea's bargaining power in the US and secure expertise in strategically important high-tech industries.

Among the appointees, Thomas Byrne has taken an important role in enhancing the ROK-US friendship through various activities of The Korea Society. Alexander Kim has multiple years' worth of combined experience in being appointed in US government offices and, as a result, a human network in the US government. Kim Youngjae, as a Senior Research Fellow at Cloud Robotics of LG Electronics, is now serving as a member of the advisory board on robotics engineering of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), being acclaimed as a leading authority in the robotics filed.

As of now, there have been a total of 8 honorary ambassadors from 7 countries, including the UK and France. Invest KOREA increases the number of the honorary ambassador to have 11 out of 8 nations with the recent appointment, and will raise it to 20 out of 15 nations in the mid-and-long term to expand the scope and reach of its efforts to attract investment from foreign governments and businesses by leveraging high-level-figure networks.

The new appointees will serve as honorary ambassadors from June 1 to the end of December next year. During the ambassadorship, they will actively engage in a variety of activities, such as participation in 'Invest KOREA Summit 2023'* to tout Korea as an investment destination to all around the world.
* Korea's top FDI promotion event by Invest KOREA

VP Kim Youngjae said, "As a growing number of countries are joining a heated competition to be the frontrunner of high-tech industries, what are required for us to encourage foreign investors to bet on Korea's market are sophisticated strategies." and "I am willing to utilize my expertise to join hands in Invest KOREA's hard work in drawing foreign investment to Korea's cutting-edge industries."

Meanwhile, Commissioner of Invest KOREA Kim Tae Hyung said, "Securing FDI becomes ever more important as there has been a concern over possible global recession." and "By closely cooperating with honorary ambassadors, we will redouble our efforts to attract further foreign investment."



Source: Invest KOREA (June 9, 2023)