Invest KOREA Head New Korean/American head of Invest KOREA dedicated to realizing the "Korean Dream" With the recent appointment of Chung Tong-Soo as Head of Invest KOREA to replace Alan Timblick, there will be keen interest in how successfully he will attract foreign investment into Korea. He has an impressive career background, such as having served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce in the administration of President Bill Clinton, and as an attorney working to boost Korea/U.S. trade. He is considered to be an excellent choice for the position as he is fluent in English and Korean, understands the U.S. and Korean points of view, has solid experience in the U.S. commerce department, and has a proven ability as an organizer and strategist. Speaking after his inauguration as head of Invest Korea, he stressed that his top priority was to reinvigorate Invest KOREA, pointing out that there are limitations to what an individual such as himself could accomplish in seeking foreign investors and inducing FDI (foreign direct investment) into Korea. Global Leadership He emphasized the importance of abolishing unnecessary restrictions obstructing foreign investment in close cooperation with foreign investment-associated ministries such as the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Construction and Transportation, and Ministry of Government Legislation as well as central government agencies like the Korea Customs Service and the National Tax Service. Mr. Chung seeks the abolition of restrictions to enable Korea to become a financial hub for Northeast Asia, and the broad-scale promotion of investment incentives offered by the Korean government to attract foreign R&D centers. To underpin the success of foreign investment in R&D, the Korean government offers a comprehensive range of incentives such as tax exemptions, lease of land at extremely favorable rates, financial support, cash grants, customs duty exemption, and the chance to engage in national R&D projects, according to Chung. In particular, Chung encouraged foreign investors in research and development to take advantage of R&D Human Resource Development Program, which is administered by Invest KOREA. When comparing Korea's investment environment with neighboring competitors such as China and Singapore, he pointed out that it could not be said that Korea's investment environment for foreign investment has significantly improved in recent years, citing a host of government regulations that discourage foreign investment together with unstable labor/management relations. Chung named the rapid abolition of unnecessary controls and the stabilization of labor/management relation as the most urgent tasks necessary to attract further FDI. In this connection he wants the central and autonomous regional governments to streamline restrictions and simplify administrative procedures in order to make it easier to win approval for factory establishment, for example. He stressed that the situation regarding labor relations in Korea is somewhat exaggerated, not the least because union membership has fallen to 11 percent of the workforce. However, Chung said he hopes to promote the concepts of dialogue and communication among foreign investors in dealing with their workforces in order to avoid labor conflicts or resolve them peacefully. On another front, he is convinced that corruption cannot be tolerated if Korea is to progress to the league of the most advanced economies. Challenge & Opportunity In conjunction with the challenge posed by China, Hong Kong and Singapore in attracting foreign direct investment, Chung insists that Korea must stay ahead in the fields in which it has a distinct comparative advantage, namely semiconductors, displays, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), automobiles, shipbuilding, and steel. The newly appointed Invest KOREA Head, who immigrated to the United States as a high school student with his family, foresees all Koreans achieving a "Korean Dream" through their efforts on the lines of "American Dream," but advises that this would be difficult to accomplish on the back of the industries of the past. Chung pointed out that Korea is in no position to compete on labor costs in areas such low-end textiles and electronics that would be better shifting to cheap-labor countries like Vietnam and China. Rather, he continued, the future of Korea lies with its globally successful industries that must keep their lead through strategic partnerships with foreign companies intended to enhance their technological, financial and marketing capability. Chung notes that given the rising antipathy toward foreign capital, both government in its various branches and the media have a responsibility to educate and inform the Korean public at large as to why foreign direct investment is vital to the progress of the Korean economy in terms of employment creation, technology transfer, access to foreign markets and the introduction of advanced management techniques. In closing, he stressed the importance of foreign direct investment attraction once more by citing the case of the United States, which through a policy of proactively encouraging foreign direct investment has built a competitive human resource base, plus introduced advanced technology and massive amounts of overseas financing to give the American economy its unparalleled dynamism, and in the process, driven marginal enterprises from the marketplace.