SK : Chairman Chey Tae-won Re-operating Global Partnering for Cooperation between Korea and China

- To take the initiative in finding measures for economic cooperation in the private sector, based on a success model in Hubei
- Actively developing a business model for mutual growth of Korea and China to overcome difficult situations
- Discussing cooperative measures related with petrochemicals, IT/semiconductor, and eco-friendly industry

SK Group's Chairman Chey Tae-won visited Tianjin City, a city that is growing as a megalopolis in China, and restarted the engine of global partnering by having consecutive meetings with top-ranked officials of Tianjin.

According to SK Group on July 9, 2017, Chairman Chey Tae-won met 10 top-level officers of Tianjin, including Li Hongzhong, Communist Party Secretary of Tianjin, and Wang Dongfeng, Mayor of Tianjin, at the reception hall of Tianjin city hall on July 7, 2017 and had a meeting to discuss measures to build business models that can create synergy effects between SK and Tianjin.

Chairman Chey and Secretary Li have shared the experience on successfully operating Sinopec-SK Wuhan Petrochemical Co., Ltd, which is a joint ethylene producing company between Korea (SK global chemical) and China (Sinopec). SK explained that, based on this experience, the two parties will be able to find measures for substantial results.

Chairman Chey Tae-won put much effort for the success of Wuhan Petrochemical for the past 10 years since 2006, which began mass production in 2014 when Secretary Li was the Secretary of Hubei. Wuhan Petrochemical became a representative model of the Korea-China global partnering by achieving operating income of KRW 300 - 400 billion every year since 2015.

Because of this, Chairman Chey visited Hubei in August 2015 to have a meeting with Secretary Li and visit Sinopec-SK Wuhan Petrochemical.

Even Secretary Li visited Wuhan Petrochemical, which made the highest profit among Sinopec's factories in China in 2016, and benchmarked the key to success.

With this relationship, Chairman Chey and Secretary Li had an official dinner/meeting for two hours and thirty minutes about investment and cooperation measures in the fields of petrochemicals, IT and semiconductor, green energy, and bio and medical science.

Chairman Chey said, 'We had maintained an amical cooperative relationship when Secretary Li was a Communist Party Secretary of Hubei. I hope this relationship to be carried over to Tianjin. As SK Group has strong points in AI, semiconductor, battery, LNG, and renewable energy, let us create more business opportunities that can work as a growth drive for both parties.'

Secretary Li replied, 'Tianjin is trying to convert its industrial structure from logistics into high tech industry, modernize petrochemical industry, and develop eco-friendly and new renewable energy. I hope SK provides a great support in upgrading our industry.'

While mentioning Jing Jin Ji Project, which is to construct a megalopolis by connecting Beijing, Tianjin, and Hubei, Secretary Li suggested, 'I hope SK participates in constructing a high-end city, using its know-how on IT, green energy, and construction.'

Chairman Chey emphasized, 'Following success stories in SK hynix's Wuxi factory and Wuhan Petrochemical, we will find measures to write another success story.'

Before the meeting, Chairman Chey visited Binhai New Area and had a chance to look around factories of global companies and the current industrial trend. Also, he visited SK lubricants' Tianjin factory, checked the production status of lubricants, and encouraged staff members.

Meanwhile, on July 7, 2017, Chairman Chey attended the Tianjin Forum 2017, held biennially by the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies and Nankai University located in China, and discussed measures to solve economic, industrial, environmental issues resulted from urbanization.

At the congratulatory speech of the opening ceremony, Chairman Chey attracted people's attention by addressing, 'Now is the time we have to put emphasis on qualitative development instead of quantitative development of a city. The government, private companies, and civil society have to improve the quality of life and happiness of social members through accurate management of an economic model, industrial structure, social governance, and environment policies.'

Total of 300 people attended the forum, including Wang Dongfen, Mayor of Tianjin, Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister of Italy, Won Heui-Ryong, Governor of Jeju-Do, and Gong Ke, President of Nankai University.

Lee Hang-Soo, President of SK Group's PR Team, said, 'Chairman Chey Tae-won's visit to Tianjin represents his management philosophy that the economic cooperation with China has to be continued no matter what difficulties we may face. The more sensitive the political and diplomatic situation may be, the stronger SK Group has to lead the situation to create a global partnering that can be helpful for both countries.'