China has become the largest target of investment from the Republic of Korea, according to information from the 9th East Asian Economic Cooperation Forum.

As of June this year, China attracted a direct investment of US$28.7 billion from ROK investors, said Xu Changwen, head of the Asian-Pacific Study Center of the International Trade and Economic Cooperation Institute under the Ministry of Commerce.

According to a survey by an ROK union concerning trade and economics, 60 percent of ROK investors are satisfied with their businesses in China and consider China their first choice of investment.

ROK investors mainly focus on the eastern part of China.

80 percent of their investment goes to manufacturing, said Shen Danyang, a researcher with the institute of the Ministry of Commerce.

Beijing-Hyundai, a Sino-Korean automaker, has now a production capacity of 300,000 cars every year. It is expected to increase the annual output to 600,000 by 2007.

In 2004, the Samsung Group, another ROK enterprise, registered sales of US$24 billion in the Chinese market, 22 percent of its overseas sales.

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2005)