Samsung expands CSR with Mexican business magnate
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Samsung Electronics Mexico Vice President Cho Hong-sang, left, poses after signing philanthropic partnerships with Marco Antonio Slim Domit from the Carlos Slim Foundation, at the Museo Soumaya museum in Mexico City, Monday. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics
By Lee Min-hyung
Samsung Electronics is expanding its corporate social responsibility (CSR) drive in Mexico by joining hands with one of the country’s richest business magnates, Carlos Slim.
Under the partnership, the Seoul-based tech giant will help children from low-income families there with digitizing vaccination records by providing 1,000 tablet devices. Most medical information of underprivileged young children in Mexico is currently recorded manually, the company said.
For this reason, there have been growing calls from local authorities to stop the digital divide in the country’s medical sector. The Samsung tablets are equipped with near field communication (NFC) readers, allowing public health centers to keep track of children’s immunization schedules in real time, according to the company.
Samsung expects the latest partnership to enhance its image there, as the Carlos Slim Foundation owns the country’s leading wireless telecommunications company, Telcel, with a 70 percent market share in Mexico.
This will help Samsung enhance its presence in the Latin American region where the company held a 33.8 percent market share of the smartphone business during the fourth quarter of last year, according to data by CounterPoint Research.
“More than 100,000 Mexican children are expected to benefit from the CSR drive,” Samsung Electronics Mexico Vice President Cho Hong-sang said. “At the end of this year, about 540 officials will be hired to manage 260 community health centers there. Samsung Electronics will continue to extend the CSR activities to become a more beloved company in Mexico.”
Marco Antonio Slim from the foundation said: “The partnership is the first step for us to improve the medical environment in Mexico. The digitization of vaccination records will enable us to manage data in a more precise and convenient way.”
The Carlos Slim Foundation was established in 1986, conducting philanthropic activities in education, health and employment in Latin America.