EcoPro to set up foundation to revitalize provincial areas

EcoPro is moving to launch a new public foundation to support cultural, artistic and educational talent in the country's provincial areas, according to the battery materials maker, Wednesday.

The company said it has pooled 100 billion won ($77 million) from Daisy Partners, a business consulting firm whose major stakeholder is EcoPro Group's former chairman Lee Dong-chae, for the foundation. It is currently taking legal steps to launch the foundation with the scale expected to grow five times more later on.

The foundation will first target existing social infrastructures for those with promising skills in the aforementioned fields in the country's provincial regions to revamp them. Refurbishing educational ecosystems to help talented people in comparatively underdeveloped regions will come as the secondary objective.

The company said that it will create a specific list to support underdeveloped regions through the foundation during the first half of next year. The foundation will be set up by next March and officially begin its service during the second half of next year.

"Former chairman Lee had pondered for a long time about his role as a businessman to support the country's provincial regions, which are losing population fast compared to the capital region," said an official from the company.

EcoPro said that the foundation's birth runs parallel with how the company itself first caught a break as a minor firm based in Ochang, North Chungcheong Province, and grew to wield an international presence. The foundation, according to the company, is an extension of the company's successful business model while being driven by its own goal to support local talent, especially those who are deprived of opportunities.

Apart from the foundation, the company said it is also considering introducing a new public fund that is reserved for the country's venture firms based in provincial regions. It will hopefully nurture them to grow and become the next EcoPro, according to the company.

Founded in 1988, EcoPro ran operations in green technologies and grew to become a global high-nickel cathode manufacturer with accumulative sales of 9 trillion won ($6.9 billion) and 3,500 employees.