S Korea to host fair to lure foreign investment

The South Korean government said Monday it would hold a fair this week to attract more foreign direct investment into the nation.

According to the Korea Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, the event's organizer, the "2009 Foreign Investment Forum" will be held from Wednesday to Saturday at a hotel in Seoul, with 164 foreign firms from 16 nations slated to gather.

During the four-day event, Celgard LLC, a U.S. maker of micro-porous separators used in lithium-ion batteries, plans to sign a 100 million-U.S. dollar memorandum of understanding with South Korea's Ministry of Knowledge Economy to upgrade its facilities in South Korea, the agency said.

In the third quarter of this year, foreign direct investment in South Korea rose 17 percent from a year ago to 3.38 billion U.S. dollars, the ministry said last month.

Source: Xinhua