'Pioneer of Korea's Distant-Water Industry' Strong Korea Only... Chairman Kim Jae-cheol "Towards an AI Advanced Nation... Donates 50 Billion Won to KAIST"

AI Leading Countries: 'Talent Development is the Starting Point'... Steady Investment

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] “Our people possess excellent intellect and exceptional dexterity in handling precision, which is why I believe our country's ICT industry can join the ranks of advanced nations. If the excellence of our people is fully demonstrated in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), although we are a small country, we can become a great power in the AI era.”

The eternal captain's new stage is now AI

Kim Jae-cheol, Honorary Chairman and the ‘eternal captain’ who built the current Dongwon Group by navigating the ‘inexhaustible resource treasure’ of the sea. He expanded South Korea’s economic activity into the vast ocean, pioneering and developing the Korean deep-sea industry. Although he retired last year after 50 years since founding the company and stepped down from frontline management, his voyage for the future of South Korea has not stopped. Only the stage has shifted from the sea to AI. This is driven by his conviction that a strong Korea must be built.

With a firm belief that whoever dominates AI in the 21st century Fourth Industrial Revolution era, which encompasses all past changes, will hold global hegemony, he decided to donate 50 billion KRW of his private funds to KAIST, where the nation’s top scholars gather to nurture AI talent.

At 10:30 a.m. on the 16th, Honorary Chairman Kim appeared at the Jeong Geun-mo Conference Hall in the Academic and Cultural Center of KAIST in Yuseong-gu, Daejeon. While signing the 50 billion KRW private donation agreement, he said, “The AI wave will bring about greater changes in our lives than the Age of Exploration and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Industrial Revolutions,” and urged, “I hope KAIST will carry out the historic mission of pioneering the path to becoming an AI advanced nation through AI talent development.”

Honorary Chairman Kim’s conviction is that nurturing AI talent is the most urgent task for South Korea to take the lead in the AI field and rise as an advanced country. Following his will, Dongwon Group affiliate Dongwon Industries donated 3 billion KRW to Hanyang University last year to establish Korea’s first AI Solution Center, the ‘Hanyang AI Solution Center.’ At that time, Honorary Chairman Kim emphasized, “The Age of Exploration was a hardware voyage with the sea and ships as the stage, but the upcoming voyage will be a software voyage with the sea of information (data) and AI as the main actors.”

Last year, Dongwon Group formed a task force at the group level and introduced a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) project across all affiliates, and last month established an AI-dedicated organization directly under the CEO. In August this year, it also joined AI One Team, an industry-academia-research consortium for AI technology led by KT.

Kim Jae-cheol, Honorary Chairman of Dongwon Group (right), and Shin Sang-chul, President of KAIST.

We must nurture people

Honorary Chairman Kim is the founder of Dongwon Group and Korea Investment Holdings. At age 23 in 1958, he began tuna fishing as a trainee navigator on Korea’s first deep-sea fishing vessel, Jinamho (指南號), and in 1969 founded Dongwon Industries. He is a pioneer of Korean deep-sea fishing and a key figure who developed Korea into a global deep-sea fishing powerhouse. While most entrepreneurs focused on land-based businesses, he early on turned his eyes to the sea. In his 20s and early 30s, he worked directly as captain and fleet leader in the South Pacific and Indian Oceans, earning fame as ‘Captain Kim.’

In 1969, at age 35, based on his skills as the world’s top deep-sea fishing captain and the trust he had built, he established Dongwon Industries. In 1982, he expanded into food processing by launching Korea’s first canned tuna, ‘Dongwon Tuna.’ Later, he also ventured into finance.

Believing that securities companies are popular in the birthplace of capitalism, the United States, and that securities would become a promising industry in Korea, he surprised the business world by successfully acquiring Hanshin Securities for 7 billion KRW in 1982. Hanshin Securities changed its name to Dongwon Securities in April 1996 and later developed into Korea Investment Holdings through acquisitions including Korea Investment & Securities.

The driving force behind building today’s Dongwon Group and Korea Investment Holdings was talent management. Honorary Chairman Kim has a clear conviction that the future of a resource-poor country lies in education and talent development. From his days as a salaried worker, he supported the tuition of students from his hometown, and in 1979, the 10th anniversary of Dongwon Industries, he established the Dongwon Scholarship Foundation with his private funds to start full-scale scholarship activities.

Starting with a private donation of 300 million KRW, the Dongwon Scholarship Foundation has led Korean talent development with hundreds of billions of KRW in scholarships, research funding, and educational development funds over 40 years. Since 1979, the foundation has supported scholarships for middle and high school students as well as university students, awarding scholarships to about 8,000 students to date.

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