(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) oul April 24 - The amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) freshly pledged to South Korea jumped almost 50% from a year earlier in the first quarter with the amount of actual investment arriving here more than doubling the Ministry of Trade Industry and Energy said Thursday. In the three months ended March 31 US$5.06 billion in new FDI was pledged to the country up 49.1% from the same period last year according to the ministry. "The overall amount of foreign direct investment in South Korea rose from the same period last year as investment from Japan showed signs of a recovery with a large growth in direct investment from Europe and Chinese-speaking countries" the ministry said in a press release. In the January-March period new investment pledges from Japan jumped 24.6% on-year to $746 million. FDI pledges from European nations and Chinese-speaking countries including Hong Kong and Singapore spiked 417.6% and 295.1% on-year respectively to approximately $2.26 billion and $719 million. New FDI pledges from the United States on the other hand plunged 51.8% to $820 million. New pledges in the manufacturing sector more than doubled to over $2.46 billion from about $1.14 billion in the first quarter of 2013 much of it increases in the industrial materials and parts sectors which jumped nearly six-fold from $390 million to $2.28 billion over the cited period. Fresh investment commitments in the service sector rose 13.8% on-year to $2.56 billion. The amount of FDI arriving here also more than doubled from $1.48 billion in the first quarter of last year to over $3.74 billion this year South Korea's news agency (Yonhap) reported. The ministry had said it will aim for a record high $17 billion in new pledges this year which will be a 16.8% increase from last year.
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