Provide 200 Billion Won Cash Support to Advanced Industries
The government has increased the budget for cash support for foreign investment from 50 billion won (US$37.64 million) last year to 200 billion won this year, marking a fourfold increase.
The Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy (MOTIE) announced that it held the 114th meeting of Foreign Investment Committee in writing on March 5 and deliberated and resolved on matters such as the “Basic Directions and Policies for Promoting Foreign Investment in 2024.”
On the same day, the MOTIE outlined the goal of strengthening the attraction of foreign direct investment for the global innovation hub. It established detailed action plans, including strategic attraction activities, enhancement of foreign investment support systems, and improvement of the foreign investment environment.
In line with this, the government plans to select 100 key companies to strengthen supply chains and secure advanced technologies through attracting foreign investment. It will also actively engage in high-level communication or small-scale and focused attraction activities.
In particular, the MOTIE has allocated a budget of 200 billion won for cash support this year, four times more than last year’s 50 billion won, to expand the attraction of investments in key companies in advanced industries. Additionally, a new research and development (R&D) program exclusively for foreign-invested enterprises will be established to further activate domestic R&D investment by global companies.
Meanwhile, Kim Sung-jin, the Foreign Investment Ombudsman, reported a total of 406 activities related to resolving complaints, including 18 improvements to the system, for the past year.
The Foreign Investment Ombudsman was introduced in 1999 to actively address the difficulties faced by foreign investment companies. Last year’s performance in grievance handling, totaling 406 cases, increased by 4.9 percent compared to the previous year.
The MOTIE plans to smoothly implement the “2024 Foreign Investment Promotion Policy” and actively foster an attractive investment environment based on the proactive grievance handling activities of the Foreign Investment Ombudsman.