외국인투자 안보심사제도 개선방안에 관한 제언 －기술안보를 중심으로－

Abstract

Major countries are strengthening their mechanisms to regulate foreign investment, which may pose a threat to national security and economic security, amid fierce competition to develop and secure technology through mergers and acquisitions with foreign companies. In order to protect the nation’s economic security from indiscriminate foreign investment, Korea also operates a screening mechanism for foreign investment in the Foreign Investment Promotion Act, and a separate law has been enacted to restrict foreign investment in relation to specific technologies. However, critical opinions are being presented on our current foreign investment screening mechanism due to issues such as the lack of purposeful review elements in line with national security, lack of screening standards based on clarity, and lack of transparency and predictability. It is also pointed out that the current system is unprotected from indirect ‘indirect investment’ by foreign investors. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent unfriendly and negative foreign investment in advance by checking and supplementing the existing foreign investment screening mechanism and establish a unified and systematic foreign investment screening mechanism. In addition, the security screening mechanism under the current laws and regulations on foreign investment that may pose a threat to economic security and national security will be practical. In addition, a systematic and unified foreign investment screening system should be established by organizing areas that are unclear in existing laws and may cause conflicts between laws. On the other hand, while responding to the need to strengthen security screening for foreign investment, a balanced approach should be sought between the objectives of the current laws and regulations of contributing to the development of the national economy by promoting foreign investment attraction. In other words, various alternatives that can strengthen the screening process for “national security risks” should be reviewed when examining foreign investment, but measures to minimize the negative impact of foreign investment screening should also be considered.