South Korea made a top 10 list of attractive investment destinations around the world, but remained at the bottom among comparable Asian nations, according to a report Sunday.

The report recently published by European think tank The European House Ambrosetti showed Korea scored 80.06 in the global attractiveness index, ninth highest among 144 nations.

The GAI is decided by gauging a nation’s capability to attract foreign investment and its investment environment.

In 2016, when such data first began to be compiled, the nation secured eighth place, while it came in 11th in 2017. Although the nation moved up to the eighth spot again in 2018 by scoring 80.63, it slipped to the ninth spot last year with the index standing at 80.06.

Among factors used in evaluating the investment attractiveness are inflow of foreign investment, trading volume, employment rate in cutting-edge technology sectors, unemployment rate, total factor productivity and gross domestic product.

In the latest report, Korea scored lower in the “dynamism” category, which gauges short- and midterm economic vibrancy, while it was considered to have average sustainability, a category that assesses the nation’s long-term competitiveness.

All the other Asian nations surveyed in the report, including Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong, were ahead of Korea. Singapore, at sixth place last year, came third with 90.51, followed by Japan with 90.06. Hong Kong and China ranked sixth and seventh. Germany topped the list for a fifth consecutive year followed by the US that scored 99.61.

Foreign direct investment in Korea, which reached a record $26.9 billion in 2018, declined to $23.3 billion last year due to trade protectionism across the globe. In the first half of this year, the amount of foreign investment accounted for $7.7 billion, down 22 percent from a year earlier.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)