Jo Yong-byeong's Big Step... Finding the 'Post-Corona' Answer in People, Investment, and Collaboration

Support for Discovering New Growth Engines... 85 Trillion Won Invested and 6,700 Hired Over 5 Years
Plan to Overcome Crisis Head-On Through Active Investment and Collaboration

Cho Yong-byeong, Chairman of Shinhan Financial Group

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyo-jin] Cho Yong-byeong, Chairman of Shinhan Financial Group, is attracting attention for his wide-ranging efforts to overcome the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and secure new growth engines. Chairman Cho's plan is to confront the crisis head-on through more proactive investment in people and collaboration with competing companies.

According to the financial sector on the 9th, Chairman Cho announced the promotion of the 'Shinhan N.E.O. Project' to support the government's new growth engine discovery initiative, the 'Korean New Deal.' This is the first support measure in the financial sector prepared for the 'post-COVID' era. To respond to the COVID-19 situation, Shinhan Financial operates a 'Comprehensive Situation Briefing Meeting' involving the management control tower, including the CEO, CFO, CSO, and CRO. Beyond this response, Chairman Cho established the N.E.O. Project with the goal of building a preemptive and aggressive management strategy targeting the post-COVID era. 'N.E.O.' stands for 'New Economic growth supporting Operations.' It signifies Shinhan Financial's systematic support for discovering new growth engines for the national economy in the post-COVID era.

Shinhan Financial's N.E.O. Project is carried out under three keywords: 'Financial Support for New Growth Industries,' 'Leading New Digital Finance,' and 'Creating a New Growth Ecosystem.' Financial Support for New Growth Industries involves increasing financial support for industry groups that can become national new growth engines. To this end, it plans to significantly expand loan supply to small and medium-sized enterprises by strengthening the use of technology evaluation, activating intellectual property (IP) secured loans, and non-financial credit evaluation for promising future industries such as data, digital infrastructure, social overhead capital (SOC) digitalization, and eco-friendly sectors.

Shinhan Financial plans to actively utilize the group's social value measurement system, the 'Shinhan Social Value Measurement System,' created in collaboration with Yonsei University's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Research Center, to select companies eligible for financial support in new growth industries. To this end, Shinhan Financial has increased its innovation growth loan and investment scale over the next five years from the existing 64 trillion won to 85 trillion won.

Shinhan Financial also envisions digitizing all processes of corporate finance to provide high-quality services to more industrial sectors and consumers. Additionally, through 'Shinhan Future's Lab,' the financial sector's first startup accelerator program, it plans to invest 110 billion won in digital startups by 2023. According to this blueprint, Shinhan Financial plans to hire about 6,700 new employees over the next five years, with more than half of them being digital talents.

Chairman Cho's bold move ahead is also evident in the recent innovation alliance with Hana Financial Group. On the 25th of last month, Chairman Cho signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Kim Jung-tae, Chairman of Hana Financial, to strengthen global competitiveness. This is the first-ever business partnership between financial groups. The collaboration between the two chairmen has been evaluated as a new model for overseas business. This immediately led to results. Earlier this month, Shinhan Bank and Hana Bank signed a financial agreement to participate in a $1 billion (approximately 1.2 trillion won) syndication loan with the African Export-Import Bank. The syndication loan agreement is the first collaboration case following the business agreement between the two financial groups.

The African Export-Import Bank is a multinational financial institution under the United Nations established to promote trade finance on the African continent, with 51 of the 54 African countries participating as members or shareholders. A Shinhan Financial official explained, "The achievement was made possible by the two banks' high understanding of the African Export-Import Bank and the syndication loan, enabling quick review and decision-making."

Chairman Cho is also personally overseeing support activities for small business owners affected by COVID-19. A representative example is the 'Let's Go Together with Hope' project promoted in cooperation with Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups. This involves Shinhan Financial holding a special exhibition called 'Let's Go Together with Hope' within the online platform 'Value-Sapsida' operated by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups. Fifty small business owners who have experienced sales declines due to COVID-19 and wish to expand their online business will sequentially participate in the exhibition. Shinhan Financial plans to support sales growth for participating small business owners through marketing education for online startups and sales activation, as well as producing promotional videos introducing the stories of the small business owners and their products.

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