By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
Overseas direct investment more than doubled from a year ago in the first quarter of 2008, thanks to the overseas resources development boom following international oil price hikes.
According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Korea's investment overseas in the first quarter was $8 billion, up 105.4 percent from $3.9 billion the previous year. The number of overseas investment totaled 2,838, growing slightly from 2,678 in the first quarter last year.
The ministry attributed the growth to overseas resources development projects by conglomerates. These large businesses increased investment by 157.9 percent to $4.5 billion, most of which was for mining and manufacturing.
``Deregulation, increasing investment in resource development, and the global management strategy of Korean firms is driving overseas investment up,'' said Kim Sun-byung of the ministry. The Korea National Oil Corporation, for example, invested $1.2 billion in an oil field development project in the Gulf of Mexico.
Small- and medium-sized firms pulled up overseas investment by 67.9 percent to $2.9 billion. They were heavily investing in the real estate, business services, and construction sectors.
Manufacturing was still the most heavily invested sector by Korean firms, reaching $2.1 billion in the first quarter. It was closely followed by the mining industry with a $1.9 billion investment. The sector saw investment explosively grow by 673.5 percent from last year. Price hikes of international oil and other resources are pushing businesses to invest in resource development projects. Most of the investments in the sector were in the United States with $2.3 billion, Australia and Kazakhstan which each saw $100 million in investments.