Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) held the 114^th Foreign Investment Committee meeting for deliberation and resolution on the basic directions and programs for stimulating foreign investment in 2024 and received a briefing in writing on the annual report on grievance settlements for improving the investment environment from the Foreign Investment Ombudsman.

 

In the foreign investment stimulation program for 2024, MOTIE proposes stronger foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction measures for nurturing a global innovation hub. Detailed project tasks, including strategic FDI attraction, stronger foreign investor support and improvement of investment environment.

 

Accordingly, MOTIE plans to select 100 key companies for pursuing either high-level communication or scaled-down, close-up efforts to attract foreign investment for strengthening the supply chain and securing advanced technologies. Moreover, to increase investment of key companies in advanced industries, MOTIE intends to sharply raise the budget for cash grants from KRW 50 billion in 2023 to 200 billion won in 2024, and launch an R&D project exclusively for foreign-invested companies to invigorate global firms’ R&D investment in Korea.

 

Foreign Investment Ombudsman Kim Sung-jin reported a total of 406 cases of grievance settlements in 2023, including 18 cases of system improvement. The Foreign Investment Ombudsman system was introduced in 1999 to handle issues related to foreign-invested companies, and the number of grievance settlement cases in 2023 has increased 4.9 percent year-on-year.

 

MOTIE plans to push forward the foreign investment stimulation program for 2024, while also fostering a more attractive investment environment for foreign-invested companies based on various efforts, including the Foreign Investment Ombudsman’s proactive handling of grievances.