Invest KOREA

The Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) and the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) co-hosted the CEO Forum for Foreign-Invested Companies 2012 at Ritz Carlton Hotel SEOUL on Tuesday.

The forum attracted about 200 people including Vice Minister of Knowledge Economy Cho Seok, President of KOTRA Young Ho OH, Chief of the Tax and Customs Office of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance Un Chan Baek, President and CEO of Standard Chartered Korea Richard Hill and others.

The forum was organized to provide CEOs of foreign-invested companies with more specific information on Korea's investment environment and demonstrate the Korean government's strong willingness to facilitate foreign investment at a time when investments by foreign-invested companies that have already made inroads into Korea account for almost half of the total FDI in Korea and their investments are on the rise.

Baek introduced tax law revisions including expansion of tax credit for the service industry that tends to create many jobs and extension of tax break for developers of free economic zones.

Gang Seong-cheon, Director General for Investment Policy of the MKE, and Mr. Richard Hill presented policy supports for foreign investors and Korean economy and investment environment from the perspective of a foreign CEO, respectively. Dr. Choong-Yong Ahn from Foreign Investment Ombudsman of KOTRA highlighted the importance of providing aftercare services for foreign investors to lure additional investment and prevent investor state disputes.

In addition, the regulatory reform division under the umbrella of the Prime Minister's Office signed a cooperative agreement with Foreign Investment Ombudsman to improve investment and business environment for foreign-invested companies.

Mr. Cho emphasized the contribution foreign-invested companies have made to the Korean economy, saying that "We will ramp up efforts to create an environment to encourage additional investment from foreign-invested companies."

President OH asked for aggressive investment and business activities of foreign-invested companies in a welcoming speech.

Source: Invest KOREA (Nov. 29, 2012)