By Oh Young-jin
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won stressed the integral part corporations should play in fulfilling their social responsibility in terms of helping put underprivileged countries on a sustained growth path during the G20 Business Summit in Cannes, France, Thursday (local time).
According to SK officials, Chey , who served as the only “convener” among heads of Korean conglomerates during last year’s meeting of global corporate leaders in Seoul, was quoted as saying during a roundtable discussion, “Bringing underdeveloped countries on the path of growth for a sustainable period of time is a challenge the world should collectively take on.
“It is imperative that foreign corporations that advance into those areas should help set up and maintain ‘social companies’ that provide employment opportunities and act as bootstraps for them to be economically independent.”
The G20 Business Summit is held together with the political version of the annual get-together. Last year, Chey’s role of convener was responsible for trying to find a solution in the area of renewable energy, one of the key given challenges facing the world. The result was a set of recommendations including the abolition of subsidies to fossil energy and an effective way of introducing carbon taxes.
Chey pointed out that social firms are usually not profit-oriented so it would be hard for them to function for a long period of time, a problem to which the solution could be offered by pertinent governments through a variety of inducements.
The roundtable debate was also participated in by 30 other global corporate leaders. They included
Chey’’s promotion of social firms has been lauded by global leaders such as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who observed during the U.N. Global Compact (UNGC) meeting in August that Chey’s initiative was spearheading corporate efforts to help bring solutions to serious social issues.
During the roundtable meeting, the SK chairman said that all parties should be part of his initiative to help the underdeveloped, saying, “Not just governments and corporations but also international bodies should be part of it to ensure it’s a success.
Chey first brought corporate endeavor to solve social issues to global attention in June last year during the UNGC meeting, saying that the corporate world should provide more than just first-aid and toward that purpose, it is pivotal to create a mechanism that will use the unique operation format of corporations to generate added value to society.
As one of the first to respond to calls for more responsibility, Chey has decided to turn into a social firm its MRO affiliate responsible for maintaining and providing repair services and offer operational help as well as being engaged in a variety of other efforts, including the creation of a fund for startups.