Invest KOREA

- The presentation was a follow-up to President Xi Jinping’s visit to Korea last July.
-About 450 Chinese investors participated in the event to gather information about sectors including cultural contents, tourism and real estate, fashion and food distribution.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE, Minister Yoon Sang-jick) and KOTRA (CEO Young Ho Oh) gave a presentation in Beijing and Shanghai from August 26 to 27 to seek more investment from Chinese companies. About 450 strategic and financial Chinese investors participated in the presentation, which was a relatively large-scale event compared to that held in 2012 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of diplomatic ties between Korea and China, which about 280 people attended. The presentation was a follow-up to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Korea last July. Amid a decrease in Korea’s exports to China for three consecutive months, the presentation will serve as a foothold for expanding economic exchanges between the two countries by creating tangible investment results.

At the presentation, a KOTRA official introduced the Korean investment environment and highlighted four potential investment sectors: cultural contents, tourism and real estate, fashion and food distribution.

For the cultural contents sector, KOTRA suggested four types of contents investment - PPL marketing, joint production, quota investment of producers and cultural contents fund - to attract investment from large Chinese companies including Baidu and Alibaba Group.

For the tourism and leisure sector, in which Chinese investors are particularly interested, eight Korean local governments and free trade zone authorities presented ways to purchase condominiums, hotels and other Korean tourism facilities that would allow investors to acquire permanent residency in Korea. They introduced the sale of state-owned commercial buildings, which has emerged as a new investment market.

For the fashion sector, KOTRA showed the Korea-China Fashion Fund, which promotes convergence between Korean companies with strong design and marketing strategies and Chinese companies with sound production and distribution networks.

“We started receiving inquiries about the scope and structure of the Fund from Chinese investors even before the event,” said a KOTRA official.

Chinese companies appear poised to invest significantly in the Korean fashion industry in the near future.

A Korea Exchange Bank official addressed the won-yuan direct transaction market that was agreed upon by both parties at the Korea-China Summit. The four service industries above are expected to be greatly affected by the won-yuan direct transaction market.

“As a result of friendly relations between Korea and China, including the establishment of the won-yuan direct transaction market, a new paradigm has emerged for investment between the two countries. We will strive to seek more investment from Chinese companies with the business models that were introduced at the presentation,” said Kiwon Han, the Head of Invest Korea.