(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) South Korea's overseas direct investment rose 12.1% year-on-year in the first half of this year, fueled by local businesses' efforts to strengthen their presence in the United States and some Southeast Asian countries, government data showed Tuesday.
Companies invested a combined US$17.45 billion abroad in the January-June period, compared with $15.57 billion a year earlier, according to the data by the finance ministry. This figure is also larger than $16.67 billion sent abroad in the first six month of 2013.
The increase comes after overseas investments started falling in 2011 and stood at $35.07 billion last year, down 1.5% from the year before, according to South Korea's News Agency (Yonhap).
In the six-month period, investments in the retail and wholesale sectors shot up 83%. On the other hand, investments made in manufacturing contracted 6.3% compared to the year before, with funds going into real estate purchases backtracking 57.8%.
Investment going to the United States rose 20.5% on-year to $4.43 billion, with figures for Vietnam and Singapore moving up 82.2 percent and 161.6 percent, respectively.
Money destined for Europe fell 12.8% on-year to $1.7 billion, with data showing investment going to China dropping 32.1%.
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