우리나라 外國人 投資制度의 改善方案

Abstract

With the establishment of the WTO and its membership to the OECD, the Korean government has adopted globalization as its policy objective in order to establish a closer international economic cooperation system and to play a certain role commensurate with its status in the world economy in shaping a new international trade order. The Korean government enacted the Foreign Investment Promotion Act on September 16, 1998, repealing the previously enforced Foreign Investment and Foreign Capital Inducement Act, in order to widely ease the regulations and restrictions on investment by foreigners and expand the tax incentives. Recently, however, there have been found some cases utilizing the flaw of the Act. For example, under the Act, foreign investors are able to register as foreign company even before completion of the payment for investing objectives. Some investors registered, without completing the payment, in order to manipulate the bond market or to make laundry of illegally earned money. The cases mentioned above are, in fact, seemed to bypass the law, but, on surface, it is not violation of any provisions of the Act. In this context, this article will suggest the existing problems of the Act and the further policy consideration on the amendment thereof.