The government of South Korea appears to be succeeding in driving away foreign investment from Asia’s fourth-largest economy. According to Reuters, foreigners are taking their money elsewhere, specifically to China and India. South Korea, responding to public resentment to all the wealth non-locals are making off them, began investigating foreign investors, particularly private equity firms, which enjoyed tax-free windfall profits.
The government plans on introducing new laws making it more difficult to invest there, and it expects to publish in July revised rules that would slash the number of tax-haven countries in which foreign firms can domicile their businesses. The winners in all this, Reuters reports, are South Korean investment firms, which without competition from foreigners will be able to grow.