Vaccine, Advanced Technology, and SoBuJang... Expanding Foreign Investment Attraction

Ministry of Industry Focuses on Attracting Foreign Investment in 184 Key Items... Creates 200,000 New Jobs Over 5 Years

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] The government will focus on attracting foreign investment in 184 core items related to national industrial policies such as vaccines and advanced materials, parts, and equipment (SoBuJang). Through this, it plans to create about 200,000 new jobs over the next five years.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy held the 1st Foreign Investment Committee meeting of 2021 on the 24th at the Korea Trade Insurance Corporation in Jongno-gu, Seoul, where it deliberated and approved the "Advanced Foreign Investment Attraction Strategy" with these contents.

This foreign investment strategy was prepared to contribute to securing supply chains, creating youth jobs, and revitalizing the regional economy by reflecting the global restructuring of global value chains (GVC), supply chain competition, and large-scale national policies being promoted domestically.

First, the government decided to implement a customized foreign investment attraction strategy by linking industrial policies of national importance with foreign investment policies. Among advanced items such as K-New Deal, advanced SoBuJang, and vaccines, excluding those currently produced or under research and development (R&D) domestically, 184 core attraction items in 36 major fields that are important for supply chain stability and have high growth potential will be selected.

Next, based on the importance in the domestic industry, overseas dependence, and technology gap, the necessity of attraction will be considered and classified into priority levels 1, 2, and 3. In addition, promising global companies producing these items will be identified and categorized into high, medium, and low likelihood of attraction.

This year, policy efforts will focus on attracting the top 100 companies with both high necessity (priority 1) and high possibility (high) of attraction, and from next year, efforts will be expanded to attract other companies as well.

To attract investment, the government will actively promote successful COVID-19 quarantine measures and investment opportunities in the K-New Deal and SoBuJang policies. Sector-specific investor relations (IR) sessions, country-specific IR, one-on-one meetings at working and senior levels, and joint investment attraction by the Ministry of Industry and related ministries will also be pursued.

Furthermore, the newly introduced Advanced Investment Zone system will be actively utilized to support local governments' foreign investment attraction activities and capacity building.

The Advanced Investment Zone induces advanced investment by utilizing already developed planned sites such as industrial complexes and free economic zones. The partial amendment to the Act on Industrial Cluster Activation and Factory Establishment, which serves as the legal basis, was promulgated on the 15th and will be enforced three months later.

A new "Foreign Investment-linked International Joint Research and Development (R&D)" program will be established to support commercialization technology cooperation in SoBuJang between domestic companies and global companies based on their domestic investment. In addition, efforts will be made to improve foreign investment attraction infrastructure, nurture talent, and resolve difficulties faced by foreign-invested companies.

The government expects that if foreign investment attraction proceeds smoothly under this strategy, about 200,000 new jobs will be created over the next five years.

At the Foreign Investment Committee meeting, the proposals to designate the Asan Tangjeong complex in Chungnam and the Eumseong Seongbon complex in Chungbuk, each applied for, as foreign investment zones were approved. The amendment to the "Foreign Investment Zone Operation Guidelines," which allows returning companies to move into foreign investment zones outside the metropolitan area, was also approved.