SK Group is set to invest 46 trillion won in the semiconductor area. The group's chairman Chey Tae-won, who was released from the prison recently, presided over a management meeting, saying, "The company should expand the investment and move up the date to take the lead role of boosting the economy."
The chairman's hosting the meeting was the first time since December 2012. At the meeting, all the chiefs of the seven committees under Supex Council, SK's highest decision-making body, attended.
Chey said in the meeting, "SK Group should take the lead in the national economic development," adding that, "While in the prison, I deeply engraved in my mind that the most important responsibility of a company is to contribute to job creation through the company's growth."
He added, "Although the group's key businesses are all in difficult situation, making an early investment and expanding it is to contribute to boosting the economy."
SK Innovation CEO and strategic chief of SUPEX Chung Chul-khil said, "We are pondering the investment of 46 trillion won in adopting equipment for SK Hynix's M14 semiconductor assembly line being built in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do."
46 trillion won is equivalent to the seven to eight times of SK Hynix's annual investment of around 6 trillion won.
The chairman pushed ahead with the acquisition of SK Hynix in 2011 despite the opposition from the management. Then, the company has posted around 8.4 trillion won in operating profit for two years since 2013.
Chey said, "On top of the semiconductor area, we should lay out an investment plan in the areas of energy, chemistry and information technology in the near future," urging aggressive investment from other key affiliates including SK Innovation and SK Telecom.
As a result, more investment in the areas of non-semiconductor is expected to be made. Regarding job creation, Chey urged chiefs of all the affiliates to make successive models as early as possible in a very innovative way.
SK Group recently decided to invest around 100 billion won in diverse job creation programs for youth which kick off next year. The group also plans to adopt wage salary system next year to keep pace with the government's policy to expand youth employment. Currently, the system is applied to over 90 percent of its affiliates including SK Telecom and SK Hynix, and the system will be expanded into other affiliates.
SK Group is also pondering to expand the size of hiring new employees in the second half of this year.
