외국인의 투자를 가장한 합법적 기술 유출 대응을 위한 입법 개선 방안에 관한 연구 — 외국인투자촉진법 개정방향을 중심으로 —

During the 1997 foreign exchange crisis, Korea received a bailout from the IMF. In 1998, regulations on foreign investment were greatly eased and tax support was expanded to boost foreign investment. In addition, the Foreign Investment Promotion Act was enacted to promote foreign investment, including benefits, by establishing foreign investment areas to attract large-scale foreign capital. However, Korea's status in 2024 has changed from the past. It ranks 20th in the OECD's national competitiveness list, ahead of Germany and Japan, the so-called advanced countries. With the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the importance of technology has been highlighted, and it has become a prerequisite to come up with measures to prevent technology leakage as well as the development of core national technologies to strengthen national competitiveness. However, the Foreign Investment Promotion Act focuses on benefits to promote foreign investment, as shown in the legal name and legislative purpose, so there are insufficient side effects that may occur from foreign investment. In other words, there is a loose preparation for a situation in which domestic companies with national technologies can be infiltrated and seized through the path of foreign investment. In addition, indiscriminate benefits to foreign investment cause fairness problems with domestic companies, and designation of foreign investment areas in specific areas with well-established corporate infrastructure may adversely affect balanced regional development. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare measures to restrict and manage indiscriminate foreign investment on appropriate standards. This has already appeared as a legal and institutional measure to protect national technology in Europe, the United States, and Japan. We should also re-examine the role of the Foreign Investment Committee to expand the concept of national security to the concept of national and economic security and to achieve the purpose of preventing foreign investment and technology leakage. It is also necessary to reconsider the effectiveness by strengthening the level of punishment for technology leakage under the guise of investment.