Chinese Margaret Chan, assistant director general communicable diseases and representative for the director general for pandemic influenza, right, talks with the chief of the World Health Organisation, WHO, Lee Jong-wook, during the opening of the executive board of the WHO, at the WHO headquarters, in Geneva, Switzerland, in this Jan. 23, 2006 file photo. Dr. Lee Jong-wook, head of the World Health Organization, has died after undergoing emergency surgery for a blood clot in his brain over the weekend, officials said Monday, May 22, 2006. Lee, who spearheaded the U.N. health agency's fight against the spread of bird flu and preparing for a potential human influenza pandemic, died at 7:43 a.m. (0543 GMT) Monday morning, said South Korea's Ambassador to Switzerland, Park Won-hwa. (AP Photo/Keystone, Sandro Campardo)



Increased Rate of Facility Investment Reached 10%

It is surveyed that the rate of increase for facility investment by domestic companies reached double digits, but has curved downward since the IMF economic crisis. South Korea was hit by the currency crisis, and corporate spending in the late 1990s was stagnant. According to the “Evaluation of economic trends and major tasks” issued by the Ministry of Finance and Economy yesterday, the rate for facility investment by domestic companies from 2001 until 2005 was pegged at 1.1%, and 11.1% in from 1991 until 1996.

Domestic corporate investment in domestic plant facilities grew 1.1 percent in the past five years on average, to 2005, causing concerns that sluggish investment spending would lessen the country’s growth potential in the future. As seen above, it is about one tenth of the average 11.1 percent growth between 1991 and 1996.

The report says that the rate of facility investment in the first quarter of this year was sharply down to 0.7%. The annual rate for facility investment by domestic companies was 19.6% from 1971 until 1980 and 12.1% from 1981 until 1990. The Minister considers it due to aggravating playability of small and mid-sized companies, an unstable environment for new investment, and passive managing policies to avoid economic risks.

As time goes on, domestic manufacturing firms are moving their factories to low-wage countries like China and other nations that provide better labor and tax conditions, which in the end gives birth to sluggish corporate spending at home.
/ 입력시간: 2006. 05.23. 08:31