German executive asks higher safety levels in Korea

Karsten Xander, chairman of TÜV SÜD America

By Choi Kyong-ae

TÜV SÜD America Chairman Karsten Xander travels around the world to enhance public awareness toward industrial safety, largely in emerging countries.

The 45-year-old German native is in charge of overall operations in the Americas of the German industrial-safety inspection company.

He sees the “biggest growth potential” in Asian countries such as China, India and Korea as their industrial safety remains much lower than in Europe and Western nations.

There is a gap which runs deep between developing and developed countries in terms of industrial safety. Some of the industrial safety-related developments took place only 10 to 20 years ago, Xander told The Korea Times in a recent interview.

Xander said there are still some challenges in increasing industrial safety in Asia. “If Asian countries want to raise safety levels to international standards, they need to seek an independent inspector. An inspection by small local firms or by government bodies is not as thorough or deep as independent inspectors like us.”

Every day in Korea, “more than six people die from all business-related accidents and incidents. This is deadly. Industrial safety levels should be improved,” he said citing data from the Korean Occupational Safety and Health Agency.

Currently, TÜV SÜD has big-name Korean customers such as Samsung Group, Hyundai Motor Group and LG Group. It seeks further business ties with existing customers as well as new ones.

To help improve Korea’s industrial safety levels, he suggested the “third-party model” in which statutory supervision is done by the government’s regulatory authorities and actual inspections are carried out by an independent “authorized inspection agency” (AIA) such as TÜV SÜD.

In Germany for instance, all installations subject to inspection such as pressure equipment or installations for storing and filling flammable liquids must be inspected by an independent AIA, the chairman explained.

The third-party model could be accepted in a country initially by politicians, then by society and by people. Among others, the security model needs to be accepted by businesses which pay for the system, he said.

Businesses may be afraid of additional costs to introduce the third-party model but “that would be marginal compared to the costs for accidents which will definitely be so much higher,” he said.

Established in 1866 to protect man, the environment and property from safety-related accidents, TÜV SÜD currently employs 20,000 employees globally, including 500 in Korea.