Korea attracted investment totaling about $160 million (172 billion won) from enterprise in the United States through the government-led investor relations session, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said Sunday.

The successful IR performance was attained during a forum in Washington, D.C., which is designed to promote “bilateral investment,” over the weekend.

“Their investment in Korea includes a U.S. firm’s promise to advance in the real estate development project in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province,” a ministry official said.

In the forum, Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Suk-woo called on North American enterprises to actively invest in Korea, predicting that the positive effect of the Korea-U.S. Free Agreement will further expand.

“While trade has taken up a large portion of the economic relations between the two countries, future direction should be focused on the expansion of bilateral investment,” Hong told reporters after his meeting with U.S. business leaders.

For five days last week, the minister led the Korean delegation composed of 14 business leaders including Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Sohn Kyung-shik, and Samsung Electronics vice chairman Kang Ho-moon, who held talks with their North American counterparts.

Washington has held a series of mutual investment forums with Beijing and Tokyo, respectively, Hong said, adding that Seoul “benchmarked the cases and launched the annual event.”

“Though the U.S. Congress had assessed that Korea has benefited more from the FTA than its counterpart, we have found that U.S. business leaders believe the effect from the trade pact is large,” he said.

While U.S. automakers are still posting sagging car sales in Korea despite the trade deal, some think tanks predict that Korea’s vehicle imports from the U.S. will eventually jump to 75,000 units per year under the bilateral pact, from fewer than 10,000 units currently.

Hong said that American firms expressed interest in sectors like finance, services and logistics.

“Korea should enhance competiveness of the service sectors by attracting more investments from U.S. and multilateral enterprises.”

The delegation also visited Atlanta, Georgia. This marked the first time for the two countries’ business leaders to hold business talks since President Barack Obama won re-election to the White House last month.

“The two sides exchanged views and assessments of nine-month performances under the Korea-U.S. FTA (which took effect in March 2012),” said the KCCI.

Among the U.S. figures were Senator John Isakson, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Thomas J. Donohue, according to the Korean delegation.

The KCCI signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Atlanta on close collaboration.

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)