'Seoul Investment Agency' First Anniversary... Focus on Attracting Hong Kong Financial Firms and Oil Money

Seoul Investment Agency Activities Triple FDI in One Year
Targeting $30 Billion Annual Investment Attraction by 2030

[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] ‘Invest Seoul’ announced on the 6th that it will make 2023 the inaugural year for Seoul to emerge as an Asian financial hub city by focusing on ▲ attracting global financial companies based in Asia ▲ attracting global companies in Seoul’s core industries such as fintech and bio ▲ and capital attraction centered on the Middle East. Invest Seoul will mark its first anniversary tomorrow.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced that Invest Seoul, which has reached its first year since launch, succeeded in attracting investments worth 361.3 billion KRW last year through aggressive investment attraction activities. This is more than three times the previous year’s investment attraction amount of 112.3 billion KRW. This was the result of strengthening the function of an ‘investment platform’ that connects global investors and promising companies despite the global economic downturn, and conducting continent-specific attraction campaigns in regions such as the Middle East and Asia.

This year, with on-site investment attraction activities becoming fully possible after COVID-19, aggressive large-scale investment attraction campaigns will be conducted throughout the year. To this end, ▲ Invest Seoul will focus on investment attraction activities centered on Asia, including Hong Kong and Singapore, to attract excellent companies to Seoul ▲ strengthen partnerships with global cities such as London and Boston ▲ reinforce investment networks in the Middle East ▲ and discover CORE100 companies with global market competitiveness to expand overseas investment capital attraction.

First, to attract financial institutions based in Asia, a financial institution database (DB) will be established, and roadshows promoting Seoul’s attractiveness and advantages will be held. Starting with the Asian Financial Forum held in Hong Kong in January this year, efforts will focus on attracting Asian financial institutions in Hong Kong and Singapore.

Additionally, cooperation relationships will be established with sovereign wealth funds and government agencies of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Customized information on innovative and promising companies desired by Middle Eastern investors, who have a strong interest in Seoul’s game and content industries, will be enhanced, and comprehensive activities to attract Middle Eastern capital to Seoul will be undertaken by expanding connections with Korean companies.

Invest Seoul | In its first year since launch, Invest Seoul focused on promoting its functions and building networks. Moreover, it concentrated on creating a foundation that could lead to strategic cooperation to nurture the industrial ecosystem, rather than merely attracting investments.

A representative example is the attraction of ‘iLine Studio,’ a subsidiary of the global company Netflix, which is a special effects video studio, to Seoul. Over the next five years, foreign investment of 100 million USD (approximately 130 billion KRW) and the hiring of at least 200 new personnel are expected. This is not only the largest scale of investment attraction since Invest Seoul’s launch but also anticipated to be an opportunity to strengthen the professional workforce ecosystem in the special effects video production field, which is considered a promising industry, through employment-linked education projects.

Furthermore, ‘Seoul Investor’s Day,’ which promotes Seoul as a city where people want to invest and a good place to do business, was held to expand opportunities for global investors to gather in Yeouido, Seoul, and network with Seoul-based companies. Invest Seoul has thus become an ‘investment platform’ that connects investors seeking promising investment destinations with innovative companies seeking investment attraction.

To strengthen this ‘investment platform’ function, the ‘CORE100’ project is also underway. This is a customized investment attraction strategy introduced by Invest Seoul that discovers promising Seoul companies meeting global standards and matches them with investors worldwide.

Over the past year, 67 companies have used the ‘Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) All-in-One Package Program,’ which provides close support from Seoul’s excellent industry-specific and field-specific expert groups, resulting in a total investment attraction of 147 billion KRW.

Kim Taekyun, Director of Seoul’s Economic Policy Office, said, “Invest Seoul is an essential organization for Seoul to leap forward as a global economic hub amid increasingly fierce global investment attraction competition,” and added, “We will do our best to ensure that Invest Seoul’s aggressive investment attraction activities lead to actual foreign investment capital and the attraction of global companies.”