Invest KOREA Commissioner Han Ki-won spoke to investors in the United States about Korea's investment environment during an investor relations event held in New York earlier this month and co-organized by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.
"it's fair to say that investment risks in Korea will be nearly eliminated as the U.S.-Korea FTA goes into effect," said Han, taking on a humorous tone. "Don't hesitate to invest in Korea. You can make a fortune."
Han, newly appointed to Invest KOREA, is the organization's first commissioner not from the public sector. He spoke in New York about Korea's improving investment environment, saying geopolitical risks have been removed and that corporate transparency will be enhanced to measure up to global standards.
"The advanced domestic industrial structure will eliminate risk factors that have long been served as a major stumbling block to investment from outside Korea. I'm confident that Korea is on track towards becoming a global trade hub," Han said.
As the KORUS FTA opens the Korean market in terms of the finance, law, consulting, education, program production and distribution, service and other sectors, the seminar drew 200 participants from various industries, which is double the number of participants from last year, and the registration of investments worth $427 million.
Han emphasized that Koreans should take a different approach to global equity. In the past, foreign investment typically involved injecting equity capital directly into the manufacturing sector. But Korea is seeing a growing number of private equity funds, and Han addressed the tendency of some to view this type of investment in a negative light.
"Some investors leave the market after making a huge return on investment in a short period of time, just like Lone Star did," Han said. "Others make a mid-and-long-term investment for at least seven or eight years, which I think can be considered the equivalent of what used to be the common type of investment in the manufacturing sector."
He also said that Korean financial system will not be easily swayed by global speculative funds and that Koreans should not be negatively biased about private equity funds.
Source: Yonhap News (Apr. 5, 2012)