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| SK Group and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Chey Tae-won, second from left, speaks with President Yoon Suk-yeol, third from left, during their visit to Busan in this May 31 file photo. Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon |
By Park Jae-hyuk
Korea's top business groups are going all-out to help Busan win the competition against Saudi Arabia's Riyadh, Italy's Rome and Ukraine's Odesa to be selected as the venue for the 2030 World Expo, according to industry officials, Wednesday.
While many of them have tasked their top executives with establishing strategies for Busan to host the international event, some of them are even set to send their chairmen to other countries to persuade foreign leaders to vote for Korea's second-most populous city.
SK Group and Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Chey Tae-won, who was appointed to lead the civilian committee to support Busan's bid, will attend the general assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) in Paris between Monday and Tuesday of next week on behalf of the Korean city.
"Once we choose companies to lobby each country, we will fully use their global networks to carry out an omnidirectional campaign to host the World Expo," Chey said on May 31, when the civilian committee was launched in Busan.
A day after he made the remarks, SK Group organized the World Expo task force, led by SK SUPEX Council Chairman Cho Dae-sik.
The conglomerate tasked Cho with persuading the leaders of other governments and businesses in Asian countries, while ordering SK Square CEO Park Jung-ho to win support from those in North and South America, Japan and Western Europe. SK Innovation CEO Kim Jun was assigned to persuade leaders in the Middle East, Africa, Oceania and Eastern Europe.
SK E&S CEO Yu Jeong-joon and SK Inc. CEO Jang Dong-hyun have respectively served as the heads of the on-site support team and the public relations team of the task force.
Samsung Electronics has operated a similar task force led by Vice Chairman Chung Hyun-ho since last month. Consisting of around 40 experts from global businesses, the task force has established strategies to persuade each country.
Hyundai Motor tasked Senior Vice President Kim Dong-wook late last year with leading a task force to support Busan's attempts to host the World Expo by utilizing the carmaker's sales networks across the globe.
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| Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, left, poses with the Lotte Golf Team's Hwang You-min at the Bear's Best Cheongna Golf Club in Incheon, June 4, to support Busan's bid to host the World Expo in 2030. Courtesy of Lotte Group |
Lotte Group plans to send Chairman Shin Dong-bin, Vice Chairman Kim Sang-hyun and several other executives to the Irish capital of Dublin to promote Busan, during the Consumer Goods Forum's Global (CGF) Summit between Monday and Thursday of next week.
"Lotte will provide support for Busan to host the 2030 World Expo successfully," Shin said during the KLPGA Lotte Open earlier this month.
Since its establishment, the conglomerate has made large investments in Busan, where it opened a huge department store, a luxury hotel and an amusement park. It has also run a professional baseball club in the city.
Lotte said it will open a booth at the venue for the CGF Global Summit, displaying leaflets and banners to promote Busan's efforts to host the World Expo. It will also install an 82-inch screen to play a promotional video.
