April 23, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Korea ranked at the bottom among major economies in terms of the ratio of foreign direct investment to gross domestic product, data showed on April 5.

FDI in Korea accounted for 0.8 percent of the country’s GDP in 2016, according to data released by the Korea Economic Research Institute.

The finding put Korea at 16th place among the G20, an international forum composed of 19 systemically important industrialized and developing economies plus the European Union.

The private think tank also said Korea lagged behind Australia, Canada, Italy and Spain in terms of total FDI in 2016.

New FDI pledges came to US$21.3 billion in 2016, up from the previous record of US$20.9 billion set in 2015, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

 KERI said Korea should do more to cut administrative red tape and other unnecessary rules in order to draw more investors.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)