Asian companies expand their wings

Indian, South Korean, Japanese and Chinese companies were among the fastest growing investors overseas in 2010, according to the fDi Intelligence.
The overall ranking of the world’s leading locations for FDI remained unchanged in 2010 in terms of number of greenfield FDI projects attracted, with US at the top followed by China, UK, India and Germany.
Chinese firms also increased the number of jobs created overseas by 10 per cent and capital investment by 2.5 per cent in 2010. China ranked eighth in the world by capital investment and job creation overseas.
Indian companies established 24 per cent more FDI projects overseas in 2010, making India the ninth largest investor by number of projects in 2010. Indian firms created 43 per cent more jobs overseas, moving the country from 18th place in 2009 to 10th place in 2010 by number of jobs created overseas.
Indian companies accelerated investment overseas across different industries, with the biggest growth in the business services, metals, software and IT, and leisure and entertainment sectors. Indian companies expanded fastest in the UK, but the US and Gulf states also attracted increased FDI, the report said.
South Korean FDI projects overseas increased by 12.5 per cent, with capital investment up by 36 per cent and job creation up by 50 per cent in 2010. South Korea moved up the rankings to be the sixth largest global investor overseas in 2010 in capital investment and the fifth biggest creator of overseas jobs. The fastest growth by South Korea's firms overseas was in the electronics, automotive and plastics sectors.
There was a 13.9 per cent increase in FDI projects overseas from Japan in 2010 and a 25 per cent increase in job creation, as Japanese companies established larger projects overseas. Japanese companies were the second largest creator of jobs overseas, after the US.
While Brazil, Australia, Poland, Canada and other countries achieved faster growth in FDI in 2010, the US and China further consolidated their market share dominance. With strong growth in FDI into both US and China, their combined market share of global FDI projects increased from 17.7 per cent in 2009 to 20.3 per cent in 2010. The countries' combined share of global capital investment remained unchanged at 17.6 per cent in 2010.