President Yoon’s visit to the U.S. attracted 1.5 trillion won in investment from U.S. companies.

(Sejong=Yonhap News) Reporter Cha Dae-woon = In response to President Yoon Seok-yeol’s visit to the United States for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, U.S. companies, including General Motors (GM), have pledged to invest approximately $1.3 billion in Korea in the automotive and semiconductor sectors.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 19th that GM, DuPont, IMC, Ecolab, and other four U.S. companies have reported a total domestic investment of $1.3 billion.

The government anticipates that the investment from these four companies will trigger an annual increase of over $3.8 billion in exports and import substitution effect.

However, the specific individual investment amounts of these four companies were not disclosed.

The Ministry of Industry praised the additional investment from GM as a result of the government’s efforts to improve the investment environment through regulatory reform and system improvement, which has led to global companies investing in Korea.

GM Senior Vice President Syl Amin, who met with President Yoon on the 15th (local time) at the APEC CEO summit, said, “We have gained confidence in doing business in Korea due to the Korean government’s bold regulatory reforms and system improvements to meet global standards,” and mentioned, “We will continue to increase production in Korea, following our 20-year partnership.”

DuPont has decided to invest over $170 million to hire more than 100 new employees for the expansion of the semiconductor materials and parts production plant and R&D center, which will be linked to the plan to create the world’s largest semiconductor cluster to be established in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do in the future.

This investment is twice the size of the investment reported to the Korean government in September last year when President Yoon visited the U.S.

IMC, a subsidiary of the global investment company Berkshire Hathaway, will invest in the production facilities for tungsten oxide used in semiconductor manufacturing processes or high-strength tool manufacturing.

Ecolab plans to invest in the production facilities for high-purity nanoparticles (colloidal silica), an essential material for CMP slurry used in semiconductor manufacturing. This is the first time the company is building a high-purity nanoparticle factory overseas, and Korea is the first location.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Energy Bang Ki-sun said, “This investment will greatly contribute to strengthening the U.S.-Korea alliance in advanced industries and stabilizing our semiconductor industry supply chain,” and added, “We will continue our efforts to improve the investment environment, including the support for investment follow-up and the demolition of killer regulations.”

cha@yna.co.kr