ULSAN < invest Korea

According to Yonhap News,

(ULSAN=Yonhap News) Ulsan City's reported foreign direct investment (FDI) amount hit the highest record last year, a new record high in 3 years.

The city's FDI in 2018 was USD 853 million (14 companies), more than the amount of USD 273 million (8 companies) in 2016 and the amount of USD 540 million in 2017, according to the city announcement on January 4th.

The last year's figure was an over achievement that accounted for a 170 percent of the year's FDI attraction goal (USD 500 million).

The actual FDI amount that arrived was USD 622.68 million.

The city analyzed that while the main industries such as shipbuilding and automobiles are experiencing difficulties, the recent growth of petrochemical industry steadily drew foreign investment capital.

The city also expects to 168 direct employment and an annual 1,700 indirect employment due to investments brought by the FDI.

A major example of foreign investment attraction happened last year was the M&A between the UK's auto electronics company Eptiv and the Ulsan's major auto electronics company KUM, which the British company invested USD 599 million for the contract.

In order to attract foreign investment, Ulsan City made the first approach to domestic and foreign investors by visit and persuaded them last year.

In April and June of last year, the city dispatched investment attraction task force teams to Europe and Asia, which conducted strategic investment attraction projects.

In October last year, the city had sent task force teams to Germany, the U.K. and Japan, and signed an investment MOU with the global petrochemical company BP Chemicals Limited (KRW 180 billion) and had investment negotiations with BASF Germany.

In addition, the company carried out a wide range of investment promotion activities to foster the floating ocean wind power and the genome-based medical industry, thereby maximizing the investment attraction effect.

A city official said, "We will do our best to attract new industries that enhance the competitiveness of our local industries, such as the environmental friendly energy industry including hydrogen and the genome-based medical industry."

So far, 166 companies from 33 countries invested USD 8.9 billion in Ulsan City. The investments by industries are chemical 46.8 percent, oil 27.6 percent, machinery 9.5 percent, metal 8 percent and others 8.1 percent.

The regions and countries where a large sum is invested are the Middle East 30 percent, Japan 19.1 percent, Singapore 15.7 percent, the UK 8.2 percent, the U.S. 7.1 percent and Germany 6 percent.

canto@yna.co.kr

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Source Text

** This article was translated from Korean.

Source: Yonhap News (January 4, 2019)