South Korea Business Groups’ Investment Rises 28%

South Korea’s top 30 conglomerates increased their investment 28% on-year in the first half of this year on the back of strong performances by chip and display makers, a market tracker said Sunday.

The total amount of investment came to 37.14 trillion won ($32.5 billion) in the January-June period, sharply increasing from 29 trillion won recorded for the same period a year earlier, according to CEO Score, Yonhap reported.

The tally covers the groups’ 271 subsidiaries that have unveiled their half-year business reports. One conglomerate, Booyoung Group, did not submit the first-half business report.

The increase was led by tech giants Samsung and LG, whose investments came to 12.6 trillion won and 5 trillion won, up 66% and 51.7% on-year, respectively.

Samsung Electronics Co. alone invested 11.4 trillion won during the period. It was the only company to have spent over 10 trillion won among the companies surveyed, CEO Score said. It was followed by chipmaker SK hynix Inc. and LG Display Co. with 4.5 trillion won and 2.4 trillion won, respectively.

Conglomerates in the automobile and heavy manufacturing industries, meanwhile, cut back on their investments. Hyundai Motor Group, including Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., invested 3.4 trillion won, down 13.8% compared with the same period last year.

Its flaghip Hyundai Motor Co. has been faring poorly in its major overseas markets, such as the United States and China, with its second-quarter operating profit tumbling 23.7% on-year.

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon pledged Friday to remove barriers and regulatory blocks so that entrepreneurs can easily start their own business and lead the country’s innovative growth.

Visiting the Tech Incubator Program for Startup Town in southern Seoul, Kim said he intends to double the TIPS-related budget for next year and establish more than 70 “creative labs.”