But anyone working in a service industry which has traditionally focused on foreign investors — like law firms — could tell you the decline in inbound investment interest since 2004 is quite noticeable.

LOL; as you know, I’m up there even closer to the action — where the money meets the soju/kimchi breath — and it’s been even more obvious to me for much longer. My projects depend on the availability of substantial funds from other foreign financial partners, and the tolerance of those with the potential to be players for bad breath has been plummeting precipitously for at least 5 years. I still get a hearing — generally because people with whom I was at school are now are senior investment decision-makers, even CEOs, of a number of the relevant firms — but their response is uniformly one of not being willing to get (further) involved in a country with Korea’s track-record of active discrimination and duplicity towards FDI (and which some of those already here are trying to exit as noiselessly as possible in the interest of preserving any gains made) regardless of the attractions/project returns of a particular project — which are perceived as unacceptably uncertain because of the Korea’s general unreliability.

I’m not sure that this is what is meant. It could be that they are talking about the net of inbound FDI as against the aggregate of both foreign disinvestment and outbound domestic generated FDI - the latter has been burgeoning in the past several years.

You could be right. But I have frequently read government publications — the same ones that seem to count changes of ownership as new foreign investment — which have stated the accounting as incoming versus declared withdrawals. The Korea Times, though, didn’t state what its standard was.

Its true that outbound Korean investment is way, way up. Korean companies are increasingly looking to overseas markets for growth, as the domestic market is both saturated and cartelized.

But anyone working in a service industry which has traditionally focused on foreign investors — like law firms — could tell you the decline in inbound investment interest since 2004 is quite noticeable.

But i’ll take Buffett’s word over yours.

Let’s also remember that a business relies on other businesses to perform its own functions, and these services are pretty sad here. I’m on my third accountant now, and all three have cost me money in penalties paid to the government because my accountant did something wrong. And I have to pay taxes four times a fucking year!

I’ve gone into printers in Kangnam - Kangnam, for chrissakes, and they can’t figure out how to print a Word doc from a memory stick.

I’ve had my customs agent lie to me repeatedly about what’s taking so long for the KFDA to release a shipment to me, just to get me to shut up for another day or two, and act generally like he’s working for the KFDA, rather than working for me.

And then there’s payment. What the fuck is it with Korean companies thinking that an invoice is something to be ignored for months??? Yo! Dude - fucking pay up!!!

Third party anecdote: Major convention from Singapore, 10,000 foreign attendees over 3 days. It took their organizing committee a frickin month to get a straight answer on how much it would cost to set up and carpet the stage area. When the answer came through, they calculated that they could actually bring in their own crew from S’pore and billet them for 3 days for less money than paying the Koreans to set it up and tear it down. They gave up the deposit and cancelled.

And on and on…

Whatever the regulatory hassle, whatever public sentiment, ultimately foreign companies will invest if they can make money. This is a small market, so revenue potential is limited, and it’s a high-cost market, so profitability is squeezed. Revenues minus costs equals THE BOTTOM LINE.

The KSE and other stock markets often report foreign net trading balances by day/month/year, etc. This is limited only to equity purchase and sale, and gives an idea whether the world’s buyers agree with the local biz news. Koreans generally do better on the stock market by following foreign net behavior - logical, since most of that action is taken by foreign institutional investors who presumably know what they’re doing better than Korean day-traders.

I think it’s quite natural that outflows from Korean nationals are increasing. They are buying homes for their kids to live in while they study overseas, for example. And as Koreans become more globally aware, they find outside investment opportunities. Any Korean is allowed to wire transfer dollars into an account with Scottrade and start investing in the NYSE, so long as they can handle the English internet platform. Korea also recently increased the allowable limit on real estate purchases - I think Koreans can now buy $1mil properties overseas, up from a few hundred K, if I remember right.

Net FDI means foreign investment inflows as against foreign investment outflows — said foreigners withdrawing their investments.

I’m not sure that this is what is meant. It could be that they are talking about the net of inbound FDI as against the aggregate of both foreign disinvestment and outbound domestic generated FDI - the latter has been burgeoning in the past several years.