ABSTRACT
The recent surge of Korean investment in Europe means new challenges, for both Europe and the Korean companies involved. After the wave of Japanese investment in the 1980s, Europe in the 1990s again faces new competition on home grounds from companies that were hitherto unknown here. By the end of 1980 Korean firms invested only a very modest US $ 5 million in Europe (Table 1). The importance of Korean investment for Europe as a source of inward investment was correspondingly negligible (0.002 percent). (1) By the end of 1995, however, Korea's total investments amounted to more than US $1.5 billion whereas the relative share in total inward investment in Europe increased no less than 70 times. Examples given in this chapter will clearly indicate that these figures will continue to rise at a very rapid pace in the coming years.
