South Korea's commerce minister on Monday called on foreign companies here to
further expand their investment in the country and help create jobs.
The call came during a special meeting between Minister of Knowledge Economy
Hong Suk-woo and heads of 21 top foreign-invested firms.
Hong
"stressed the importance of increased investment by foreign-invested companies
and said the government should also expand its support for foreign-invested
firms in the country," the ministry said.
Exports by foreign-invested
firms jumped from US$17.25 billion in 2000 to $62.62 billion in 2010, accounting
for 11.6 percent of South Korea's total exports, according to the
ministry.
Of the 21 participating companies, 19 said they already have
plans to invest a combined $2.27 billion by 2015 and hire an additional 2,300
employees.
The minister said the government also plans to set up a new
"request management meeting" to deal specifically with requests or complaints
from foreign-invested companies.