Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Bang Moon-kyu, center, poses with Commissioner of Invest KOREA Kim Tae-hyung, left, Ecolab company Nalco Water's Executive Vice President and General Manager Joshua Magnuson, second from left, IMC Vice President Reggie Lowder, fourth from left, and DuPont Vice President and General Manager Kang Sang-ho, right, after the four American firms agreed to make investments in Korea on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, U.S.A., Wednesday (local time). Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy
Korea has secured 1.5 trillion won ($1.16 billion) in investment commitments from American firms during President Yoon Suk Yeol's U.S. visit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit last week, according to the trade ministry, Sunday.
The registered investments by GM, DuPont, IMC and Ecolab will create a chain reaction that will expand Korea's export channels and reduce import volume, altogether creating an annual net value of over 4.5 trillion won, said the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. The announcement came as President Yoon returned to Seoul on Sunday after departing for the summit in San Francisco last Wednesday.
The ministry said GM decided on its investment after the automaker saw the Korean government's regulatory reforms and institutional improvements aimed at attracting investment from global companies.
GM Senior Vice President Shilpan Amin met President Yoon on the sidelines of the APEC summit and said those reforms alongside the current global standards have given his firm confidence to pursue further business operations in Korea. The company will expand the 20-year-long partnership between GM and Korea by expanding its production capabilities in the country, he added.
DuPont, seeing that the world's largest semiconductor cluster will be introduced in Korea, has decided to invest more than 200 billion won in the country to expand its semiconductor material and component production facilities and research and development center here, the ministry said. The ministry said the company's latest bid will create over 100 new jobs.
President Yoon Suk Yeol, second from left, speaks with U.S. President Joe Biden, third from left, at Moscone Center in San Francisco, the U.S., Thursday (local time), as the two met for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Courtesy of Presidential Office of Korea
"The amount DuPont claimed it has invested in Korea is double the size the company had registered when President Yoon visited Washington in September last year," said the ministry. "It is widely seen as the company's goal to designate Korea as its second hub of key production and research and development following the U.S."
IMC, a subsidiary of global investment company Berkshire Hathaway, has claimed to have invested in production facilities for tungsten oxide, which is used in semiconductor manufacture and in the production of high-density construction tools, said the ministry. It is the company's sixth Korean investment in material parts and reflects that the country has become the company's main hub in the Asia and Pacific region for the industry, according to the ministry.
Ecolab has declared that it will invest in production facilities for high-purity nanoparticles, essential for the production of chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) slurry used as an abrasive in semiconductor manufacturing, the ministry said.
The Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Bang Moon-kyu said the latest investments by U.S. companies will "greatly contribute to cementing the bilateral alliance in future industries and stabilizing our country's semiconductor supply markets."
"In addition to catering to the companies with further support, we will keep reforming the 'killer regulations' still present in our country to make Korea more attractive for foreign investments," said the minister.
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