Invest KOREA
Encyclopedia
Invest KOREA, the national investment promotion agency
Investment promotion agency
An investment promotion agency is most often a government agency whose mission is to attract investment to a country, state, region or city...

 of South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 and a member of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA), was established within the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency or KOTRA
KOTRA
In Korea, KOTRA was established in 1962 as a national trade promotion organization. Since then, it has facilitated Korea's rapid export-led economic development through various trade promotion activities such as overseas market surveys and business matchmaking...

 with the sole purpose of supporting the entry and successful establishment of foreign business into Korea. With assistance extending to comprehensive post-establishment services, Invest KOREA enables foreign corporations to maximize the benefits of Korea's investment environment to facilitate their rapid settlement in Korea.

History

Invest KOREA's predecessor, the Korea Investment Service Center (KISC) was established in 1998 in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis as part of a radical liberalization of the Korean investment regime. After initial success, slowing inbound capital flows made it apparent that a new paradigm for investment attraction was in order, one which would include employing a more proactive approach to inducing foreign investors, targeting potential investors with closer reference to the strengths of Korea's industrial base, and developing a one-stop service to address foreign investors' needs and difficulties effectively. It was also deemed crucial for agency staff to gain a profound knowledge of the industries with which they were dealing.

Aims

Invest KOREA is fully committed to providing comprehensive one-stop service that allows foreign investors to join over 245 of the Fortune Global 500
Fortune Global 500
The Fortune Global 500 is a ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by Fortune magazine....

 who have selected Korea as an investment destination.

Structure

Based at Invest KOREA headquarters in Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

, the head of Invest KOREA is supported by a staff comprising KOTRA employees, recruited specialists in key investment-related fields, and civil servants seconded from other agencies and ministries, including the Ministry of Knowledge Economy under whose umbrella Invest KOREA falls. Invest KOREA works in close collaboration with its network of 39 overseas branch offices called Korea Business Centers, which are located in the major financial and industrial centers of the world. Invest KOREA implements government policies on foreign investment that have been formulated by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and coordinated by the Foreign Investment Committee, which is chaired by the Minister of Knowledge Economy.

Invest KOREA takes a three-pronged approach to attracting foreign investment, the first of which is the provision of information on markets and promising industries for investment through Korea Business Centers. The second prong includes services provided by Invest KOREA's project managers, while the third prong consists of post-investment aftercare, provided by the Office of the Investment Ombudsman.

Departments

Invest KOREA's departments include the Strategic Investment Planning Department, the Investment Promotion Department and the Foreign Investor Support Department. The three teams which make up the Strategic Investment Planning Department are the Investment Planning Team, the Investment Public Relations Team and the Investment Research and Analysis Team. The Investment Promotion Department consists of the Main Industry Investment Promotion Team, the Finance and Service Industry Investment Promotion Team, the High-Tech Industry Investment Promotion Team and the Investment Partnership Support Team. Three teams are part of the Foreign Investor Support Department, specifically the Investment Administration Team, the Investment Consulting Team and the Investment Service Team.

Korea Business Centers

Invest KOREA's Korea Business Centers (KBCs) are strategically located in overseas markets which have great potential as a source of foreign investment into Korea. The Centers are staffed by Invest KOREA employees who are dispatched from head office for a period generally ranging from three to four years, as well as local staff who possess keen firsthand insight into the local market, not to mention valuable connections to the regional business community. Invest KOREA's KBCs are broken down into the following regions: North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

 and Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.

Invest Korea Plaza

Invest Korea Plaza (IKP) is Korea's first business incubation center devoted exclusively to promote the entry of foreign business into Korea. Opened in October 2006 and designed to meet the 21st century business needs of global companies, IKP and its 9 floors offer qualified foreign investors who are planning an investment in Korea fully furnished office facilities, receptionist services, and access to officials from Invest KOREA as well as those seconded to the building from Korea's Department of Justice (immigration service), the National Tax Service, and Korea's Customs Authority. Within Invest Korea Plaza is the Investor Support Center (ISC), which is dedicated to providing information and business and living services for foreign investors and their families during their time in Korea.

Office of the Foreign Investment Ombudsman

The Office of the Foreign Investment Ombudsman (OIO) was created in October 1999 as a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 within KOTRA in order to offer full support to foreign-invested companies encountering difficulties during the course of doing business in Korea. As an advocate acting on behalf of foreign investors, the OIO is working to upgrade the quality of administrative services to potential and existing foreign-invested companies and to improve the country's overall investment environment.

Since its establishment, more than 3,200 grievances have been filed with the OIO, with many being successfully resolved through cooperation with various government bodies. The OIO operates a "Home Doctor" system, whereby specialists in various fields such as law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, taxation, labor, construction
Construction
In the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of human multitasking...

 and technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

 are individually assigned to foreign-invested companies experiencing investment-related grievances.

The Ombudsman's grievance resolution system has played a significant role in improving the daily business management activities and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency is a member organization of the World Bank Group that offers political risk insurance. It was established to promote foreign direct investment into developing countries. MIGA was founded in 1988 with a capital base of $1 billion and is headquartered in...

 within the World Bank
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

 has benchmarked the OIO as a best practice example in its Foreign Direct Investment Promotion Center's on-line toolkit. The grievance resolution activities of the OIO were also highlighted in the 2002 World Investment Report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was established in 1964 as a permanent intergovernmental body. It is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues....

 (UNCTAD).

Invest Korea Journal

The Invest Korea Journal has been published continuously by KOTRA since 1983. The bimonthly periodical with a subscription-only readership of 15,000 presents perspectives on Korea's investment trends, economy
Economy
An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area; the labor, capital and land resources; and the manufacturing, trade, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area...

, industry
Industry
Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...

, trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...

 and culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

. Invest Korea Journal subscribers include executives of foreign-invested ocmpanies, embassies and public corporations in Korea, as well as actual and potential investors and key audiences overseas. The magazine is also carried on Asiana Airlines
Asiana Airlines
Asiana Airlines Inc. is one of South Korea's two major airlines, along with Korean Air. Asiana has its headquarters in Asiana Town in Osoe-dong, Gangseo-gu, Seoul...

flights to and from Korea, and is placed in every room of Seoul's prime hotels.

External links

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