POSCO, SK share vision on corporate citizenship

POSCO Chairman Choi Jeong-woo, left, poses with SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won at a POSCO event at its office in southern Seoul, Tuesday, to report on its corporate citizenship practices. Yonhap

By Nam Hyun-woo

POSCO and SK will enhance their commitment in combating various social problems, to fulfill their responsibility as corporate citizens, their chiefs said Tuesday.

POSCO Chairman Choi Jeong-woo and SK Chairman Chey Tae-won stressed the importance of corporate citizenship when the latter attended an event held by the former, which was a rare scene of the heads of Korea's No. 6 conglomerate POSCO and No. 3 SK Group speaking about the same idea at the same public occasion.

"Today's event is able to take place as POSCO's pursuit of corporate citizenship and SK Group's pursuit of social value share common ground," Choi said during the event. "If the two groups' individual efforts are integrated, it will be amplified into a great movement toward a better society."

POSCO held the event to share the outcome of its efforts to practice corporate citizenship for the past 18 months. The steelmaker set corporate citizenship at the center of its business ethics since Choi took the firm's helm in July last year.

"After declaring a charter for corporate citizenship in July this year, we have laid the foundation for our efforts for corporate citizenship," Choi said. "Next year, our focus will be on practicing the pledges in the charter and making more tangible outcomes."

SK Chairman Chey, who also delivered a speech during the event, stressed that "companies should be more active in addressing social problems as members of society."

"With advanced technology, companies can bring innovation to their business and a solution to social problems at the same time," Chey said. "For greater social value, companies should share their technology and infrastructure with society and cooperate with various stakeholders."

The meeting between the two chairmen this time was mainly about the two groups' ideas on corporate social responsibility, but industry officials say the business ties between POSCO and SK will likely deepen, especially battery and energy segments.

In August, Choi and Chey met, which they later said was to talk about corporate social responsibility, but it sparked expectations of the two companies' partnership because CEOs of their units including POSCO Energy, POSCO Chemical, POSCO International, SK E&S and SK Telecom were at the meeting too.

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