Invest KOREA

The Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE) organized an IR event at Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in mid-May in partnership with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), as an attempt to attract Japanese companies, struggled to deal with electricity shortage and five troubles - strong yen, high corporate tax, delay in opening of market, environmental degradation and labor issues.

The seminar brought together 40 representatives of Korea including vice minister of the MKE, local government officials, and members of Korea Semiconductor Association and conglomerates, and 180 Japanese investors from Japan's major companies including Mitsubishi Chemical and Tokai Carbon.

The MKE especially highlighted investment incentives provided, including tariff cut, after the effectuation of Korea's FTA with America and Europe.

The ministry's aggressive efforts to entice Japanese investment bore fruit with a total of $870 million-investment from three Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Chemical, Tokai Carbon and Nippon Electric Glass, during the seminar.

They will build manufacturing facilities for parts and materials to be supplied to domestic companies in Korea.

Another IR event was held in Nagoya, center of Japanese automobile industry two days later. The MKE also plans to organize an IR event in Osaka, Japan's second largest metropolitan economy, in the second half of this year.

The MKE and KOTRA established Japan task force teams, which specializes in supporting Japanese companies, in the headquarter of Invest KOREA, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka.

Source Text

Source: Yonhap News (May 15, 2012)

** This is the translation of a Korean article.