SKT Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho Meets Palau President to Support Busan Expo Bid

Vice Chairman Park Jeong-ho and CEO Yoo Sang-young Also Present
Discussion on Cooperation Plans to Upgrade Palau's Telecommunications Infrastructure

From the left, Park Jung-ho, Vice Chairman of SKT, Surangel Whipps Jr., President of Palau, and Yoo Young-sang, CEO of SKT, are taking a commemorative photo after their meeting on the 18th (local time). Photo by SKT

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] SK Telecom Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho and CEO Yoo Young-sang visited Palau to request the Palau government's support for hosting the ‘2030 Busan World Expo’.

SK Telecom announced on the 21st that Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho and CEO Yoo Young-sang met with Surangel Whipps Jr., President of Palau, on the 18th (local time) to request the Palau government's support for hosting the ‘2030 Busan World Expo’ and also discussed cooperation plans to advance Palau's telecommunications infrastructure.

At the meeting, Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho said, “The Busan World Expo emphasizes the seriousness of global climate change issues and the need for active responses from each country,” adding, “It will be a great opportunity for Palau to experience innovative technologies and methodologies to respond to climate change.”

President Whipps responded, “Palau is directly facing a climate crisis due to rising sea levels caused by global warming,” emphasizing, “International attention and efforts are needed to overcome this climate crisis.” President Whipps had strongly criticized the lukewarm response of the G20 (Group of Twenty) and the international community to the climate crisis at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) held in Glasgow, UK, last year.

CEO Yoo Young-sang proposed upgrading Palau's telecommunications infrastructure to 5G. He said, “SKT has advanced technology and experience as the world’s first to commercialize 5G,” and suggested, “Let’s build Palau into a ‘5G Island’ together through 5G infrastructure construction.”

Currently, Palau provides LTE services, and President Whipps showed great interest in artificial intelligence (AI), extended virtual worlds (metaverse), Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud services based on the 5G infrastructure SKT has built in Korea.

Vice Chairman Park and CEO Yoo also discussed ways to improve the Korean Victims Memorial Park in Palau. The memorial park, established in 2004 to honor Koreans who died in Palau during World War II, was discussed in terms of improving roads and internal park facilities to encourage more Korean visitors during their visits to Palau.

Meanwhile, SKT has been providing LTE roaming services since June this year, the first among domestic telecommunications companies, for its roaming service customers.

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