Foreign direct investment into South Korea fell by a fifth in the third quarter as labor disputes and deterred overseas companies from expanding in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
Foreign direct investment dropped 20 percent from a year earlier to US$2 billion in the July-to-September period, the finance ministry said in Seoul.
That's the fourth straight quarterly decline and follows a 41 percent drop in the second quarter.
Workers in the transport, automobile, shipbuilding and chemicals sectors went on strike in the past quarter, deterring potential investors and hampering recovery in an economy that shrank in each of the first two quarters of this year.
Factory production in July posted its biggest drop in seven years.
Foreign direct investment into South Korea dropped 36 percent to US$4.6 billion in the first nine months of this year.
In the first eight months, foreign investment into China, Asia's second-biggest economy, rose about a third to US$36.7 billion.
Overseas investment into South Korea may slump by a third to US$6 billion this year, Commerce Minister Yoon Jin Sik said in May. China expects to attract a record US$57 billion this year, Xinhua news agency reported last month.
In the third quarter, US investment into South Korea fell 70 percent to US$400 million and that from Japan dropped 80 percent to US$82 million. Investment from EU countries rose five-fold to US$1.38 billion.
The total amount of foreign direct investment into South Korea has been sliding since rising to a record US$15.5 billion in 1999.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique