Big biz investment contributed to last year's growth

Facility investments by large conglomerates played a significant role in South Korea, pulling off solid economic growth in 2010, a report said Sunday. The latest report comes as criticism has been piled on large businesses for not having done enough to fuel economic growth in the past few years. The Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI), a non-governmental think tank operated by the Federation of Korean Industries, said of the 279.5 trillion won (US$258.9 billion) worth of gross fixed investments made last year, 121.3 trillion won came from big businesses, with small- and medium-sized enterprises contributing 121.3 trillion won. It said financial firms and private investors added another 50.8 trillion won last year, with the government footing 48.1 trillion won. KERI claimed that investments by conglomerates pushed up growth by 2.3 percentage points, adding that since the South Korean economy grew 6.2 percent overall in 2010, big companies contributed 37 percent to total growth. The institute, which represents the interests of large family-owned conglomerates, also said that despite overall investments by the country's top 30 companies contracting 9.0 percent on-year in 2009, numbers surged 39.9 percent last year. This, it pointed out, caused average investment growth of big companies to reach 12.4 percent in the 2009-2010 period.