Speaking to The Banker, Mr Duck-Soo Han, Minister for Government Policy Coordination, noted that Korea had $400bn in short-term capital looking for investment and given the huge foreign exchange reserves in the region (South Korea has more than $160bn) north-east Asia was awash with funds.
As part of the country’s reforms Mr Han is planning to introduce a law this month to establish a $20bn Korean investment company to develop the local market and utilise the huge domestic liquidity. To be called the Korea Investment Company, Mr Han said the new company will be modelled on Singapore’s government-owned investment holding company, Temasek, which has stakes in a variety of companies. He noted that a portion of the country’s large reserves, held in US Treasury bonds, would be taken for the $20bn new company.
