Invest KOREA

Investment by Korea’s major businesses will likely grow to a record high this year as they are pushing to pre-empt the post-crisis market by improving their corporate competitiveness, a report showed yesterday.

According to the report by the Federation of Korean Industries, a major business lobby group, the nation’s top 600 companies plan to invest a combined 114.65 trillion won ($105.86 billion) this year, up 9.7 percent from a year earlier.

The figure is a record high if all investment plans are carried out as scheduled.

The increase is attributed to stepped-up efforts by companies to brace for the post-crisis global market through expanded capital expenditure, the report said.

Of the total, corporate investment on facilities and research and development is expected to grow 8.3 percent and 17.1 percent on-year to 95.79 trillion won and 18.86 trillion won, respectively, the report showed.

By industry, manufacturers seek to invest a combined 71.46 trillion won, up 4.4 percent from a year earlier, while non-manufacturing firms will ramp up spending by 19.6 percent on-year to 43.19 trillion won, the report showed.

Of the companies surveyed, 31.6 percent said that they will expand investment to improve their market competitiveness, with 22.7 percent saying they will invest more to make inroads into new growth industries, according to the report.

Source: Yonhap News (April 10, 2011)