Overseas Investments $20 Bil.
By Park Hyong-ki
Staff Reporter
Korea's direct overseas investments exceeded the $20 billion mark for the first time in 2007, the Export-Import Bank of Korea said Tuesday in its tentative tally.
It said the country's direct investments abroad increased by 83.7 percent from 2006 to reach $20 billion last year. In 2006, Korean companies invested some $10.9 billion.
The bank attributes the rise in overseas investment mainly to the strengthening of the Korean won. It also said the government has been actively coordinating policies to encourage domestic companies to expand overseas.
It accredits three firms for the rise in investments ― Samsung Electronics, STX Shipbuilding and Doosan Infracore.
Samsung Electronics, the world's largest chipmaker, invested some $830 million in the expansion of its retail sales business in the United States. STX Shipbuilding, the world's sixth largest ship producer, invested $791 million to purchase a controlling stake in the Norway-based Aker Yards, the world's second biggest builder of cruise ships. Doosan Infracore, the country's largest manufacturer of construction equipments, invested $757 million to acquire Bobcat and two other construction equipment units of the U.S.-based Ingersoll Rand.
The bank said Korean firms aggressively invested especially in Asia, South America and Africa last year, expanding their presence in the markets, ranging from electronics, real estate to petrochemicals and mining.
It expects firms to further increase their overseas investments this year, despite global economic slowdown. The strengthening of the Korean won against the U.S. dollar and the governmental support for mergers and acquisitions and energy exploration will spur corporate investments with the average rate projected to stay above 30 percent increase on a quarterly basis.
However, their investments in China are likely to fall as the Chinese government is moving to stem foreign investments as part of efforts to cool its overheating economy, the bank noted.
phk@koreatimes.co.kr