"Concerns Over Asian Attendance" SK Telecom President Replaces Video Conference... Overseas Business Trips Also Stopped

Park Jung-ho, President of SK Telecom [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] "There are concerns about participants from the Asia region."

As the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) rapidly spreads, overseas business trips by domestic businesspeople have virtually come to a halt. Park Jung-ho, CEO of SK Telecom, who was scheduled to depart as Korea's representative to attend the board meeting of the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA), stayed in Korea as the board meeting was abruptly replaced with a video conference due to concerns about participants from the Asia region.

According to industry sources on the 26th, Park attended the GSMA board meeting, the highest decision-making body of major global mobile carriers, via video conference from SK Telecom headquarters on the 24th. Among domestic telecom companies, Park is the only GSMA board member.

Originally, GSMA planned to hold the board meeting during the Mobile World Congress (MWC), which takes place annually at the end of February in Barcelona, Spain. However, after the MWC was canceled due to the COVID-19 threat, the 26 executives, including CEOs of 25 member companies and the Secretary-General, were to meet separately in the US or Europe to discuss key issues such as 5G.

However, as COVID-19 showed no signs of abating and concerns about participants from the Asia region grew even internally, an unprecedented decision was made to replace the meeting with a video conference. An industry insider explained, "GSMA operates very strictly, to the extent that continuous absence from board meetings can lead to disqualification, so despite concerns about COVID-19, it was a crucial meeting that (CEO Park) had to attend."

Among the 25 companies listed on the board, six are from Korea, China, and Japan (one from Korea, two from Japan, and three from China). Including other Asian regions with a large Chinese population such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia, the number approaches half. This was the background for the repeated concerns about COVID-19 even within GSMA.

However, it is reported that CEO Park was considering canceling his overseas business trip first out of consideration for other board members as confirmed COVID-19 cases rapidly increased in Korea. SK Telecom has been active on the board (as an elected member) since 2009.

The telecom industry is expressing difficulty as the world's largest mobile exhibition, MWC, was canceled due to the spread of COVID-19, and with opening events and marketing activities frozen, even major overseas business trips have virtually stopped. Plans to conduct business meetings that were canceled due to the MWC cancellation through individual contacts between staff and executives have also become difficult.

SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus have already issued internal notices effectively banning business trips by urging employees to refrain from overseas travel and requiring prior approval by region. In the case of China, where COVID-19 broke out, business trips have been completely banned.

Another industry official said, "It is true that overseas partners are expressing anxiety as confirmed COVID-19 cases rapidly increase in Korea," adding, "There are situations where face-to-face meetings are necessary, so there are some difficulties in business plans."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.