earticle

영어

As the Korean outward foreign direct investment has been increasing rapidly during last decade, it is necessary to review the current government’s support system for the outward FDI. This study analyses the various support programmes of Korean government for the outward FDI after classifying them into three categories, such as information provision and management consulting, building up human resources with international expertises, and financial and tax supports. It also examines the support systems of four benchmark countries, such as Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and the U.S., and compares with those of Korea. This study suggests various policy recommendations for each three categories. Regarding the policy recommendations, the results of this study can be summarized into two principles: Firstly, the practical needs of firms which are investing abroad should be incorporated in all support programmes. Secondly, the cost efficiency of government programmes should be also gained especially by avoiding duplicating similar support programmes among various government organizations. Regarding providing information and management consulting, this paper suggests that the newly started Overseas Information System should upgrade the quality of informations by customizing them to the Korean firms’ specific information needs. This paper also recommends that the consulting services of the supporting organizations should be done at the local marketplaces in the host countries where Korean firms, especially SMEs are operating. As one of effective supporting schemes, this study offers to introduce aggressively the so-called “Industrial Cooperaton Officers(ICOs)” in a number of countries. According to this system, SME supporting expertises of the Korean Small and Medium Corporation(SBC) are dispatched to investment promotion agencies(IPAs) of the host countries, and provide information and consulting services for Korean firms there in cooperaton with local staffs of the IPAs. This scheme is very effective and cost efficient, because ICOs can utilize local supporting networks of that host country’s government with relatively small amounts of cost, given that the scheme is based on the exchange of officers among the Korean government and foreign governments. This study proposes that the Korean government should support some targeted education programmes at universities to build up a number of human resources for international business activities of Korean firms. Also, this study suggests that the government supporting organizations have to work closely with Korean firms operating overseas to provide young graduates a lot of internship positions overseas. The overseas internship programmes could not only enhance international business capacities of young work forces, but also help Korean SMEs which might have difficulties to find out appropriate staffs in the local markets with affordable labor expenditures. This study recommends that Korean government supporting organizations should provide various training programmes for local staffs and workers so that they can understand better the Korean firm’s business practices and cultures. Regarding financial supports, this study suggests advanced programmes designed not to provide just direct financial aids to the Korean firms investing abroad, but to help them to easily access to private financial institutions with favorable conditions or to get financial packages with money and information or consulting services, namely a form of smart money. Establishing some SMEs’ overseas investment funds might be very useful for promoting proactive investment activities of SMEs. Most of them might not be done without the fund’s participation to the equity capital of investment projects, because many private financial institutions would not take the risks by themselves alone. As for the tax incentives, this study suggests that the Korean tax authority should accept a full tax credit of foreign corporate taxes that overseas subsidiaries of Korean firms pay for their profits in the host countries, regardless of the provisions of indirect tax credit in the tax treaties.

한국어

해외직접투자의 전반적인 증가세와 함께 효과적인 해외투자에 대한 지원제도에 대한 검토의 필요성이 증대되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 현재 우리나라의 해외직접투자와 관련된 지원제도의 내용을 주요 범주별로 구분하여 분석평가하고 변화하는 글로벌 환경과 기업의 필요에 부응하는 제도적 개선방안을 제시하고 있다. 본 연구에서는 한국기업의 해외투자 역량제고와 관련된 정부지원제도의 내용은 크게 정보, 상담 및 컨설팅의 제공, 해외투자관련 전문인력의 양성, 금융 및 세제 등의 지원 등 세 가지 분야로 구분하여 분석하고 있다. 또한 효과적인 지원제도를 운영하고 있는 미국, 일본, 대만 및 싱가포르 등 네 개 국가의 제도도 검토하고 한국제도와의 비교 및 시사점을 도출하고 있다. 본 연구결과 해외투자 지원제도의 개선방안을 세 가지 분야별로 구체적으로 제시하고 있다. 이러한 구체적인 개선방안의 근저에는 두 가지 근본적인 정책적 철학이 내재되어 있다. 하나는 정책지원의 수요자인 기업의 실제 해외투자과정 및 현지경영활동과 직접적으로 연계될 수 있어야 한다는 점이며, 다른 하나는 해외투자 지원을 위한 공공부문의 자원투입의 효율성의 추구이다. 국경 없는 글로벌 무한 경쟁 시대에서 한국의 국제경쟁력 제고 및 미래 성장 동력 확보는 한국기업의 국제화 성공에 따라 결정될 수 있다는 점에서 정부는 해외투자에 나서는 기업들을 보다 효과적으로 지원할 수 있도록 체계적이고 유연하게 대응해야 할 것이다.