The nation's outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) more than doubled in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same period last year.

In particular, investment in development of overseas natural resources surged amid rising prices for raw materials.

The Ministry of Strategy and Finance said Korea's outbound FDI totaled eight-billion dollars in the first three months of the year. That's up 105 percent from the three-point-nine billion dollars invested during the first quarter of 2007.

Korean investment in natural resources abroad grew sevenfold over the same period, from 240 million dollars to one-point-nine billion.

The surge was bolstered by the Korea National Oil Corporation’s one-point-two-billion-dollar investment in oil drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Investment in the United States and Vietnam jumped nearly 260 percent. But investment in China shrank 21 percent and dropped 15 percent in Japan.

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