The Seoul government said Friday it will step up investor relations and focus on attracting projects with major employment plans this year, targeting $13 billion in foreign investment.

Foreign direct investment in Korea reached $13.67 billion last year.

“The Korea-U.S. free trade agreement, which goes into effect on March 15, will be a good opportunity to not only raise the competitiveness of our exports to the U.S., but also to make Korea a more attractive place for foreign investment,” Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Suk-woo said in a meeting with 13 related ministers, chiefs of 16 metropolitan and provincial governments and president of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency.

Stressing that the European Union’s investment in Korea surged 67 percent in the second half of last year after the Korea-EU FTA took effect, despite the eurozone debt crisis, Hong said the FTA with the two major economies will promote foreign investment from other countries as well.

The minister will attend investment relations sessions in the United States, Europe, Japan and China, and the number of IR sessions led by the government will be increased from 10 last year to 15 this year.

The government said it will especially focus on 20 areas including battery management systems, biosimilar products, entertainment software, diagnostic medical imaging equipment and carbon fibers, 3-D display technology and service robots.

The incentive system will be redesigned to provide more cash and location support for foreign-invested companies that hire more people.

Priority in incentives will be given to companies that decide to increase investment and the number of “home doctors,” or advisors for foreign-invested firms, will be doubled to 14.

The government said it will also strengthen tax support, provide assistance in labor management and help build more foreign schools to improve the investment environment.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)