Seeking Solutions for Youth Employment and Large-Small Business Cooperation... SK Hosts Ulsan Forum

SK Group and Ulsan Chamber of Commerce Host Regional Forum
'ESG, Building Ulsan's Future Together' as the Theme

Choi Tae-won, Chairman of SK Group (center), is answering questions at the closing ceremony of the '2022 Ulsan Forum' held on September 26, 2022, at the Ulsan Exhibition & Convention Center (UECO). Photo by SK Innovation

SK Group is creating a platform to discuss youth employment issues in local communities and the co-growth of large and small businesses.

SK Group announced on the 7th that it will hold the '2023 Ulsan Forum' under the theme 'ESG, Creating Ulsan's Future Together' on the 14th at the Ulsan Exhibition & Convention Center (UECO) in Ulju-gun, Ulsan. Now in its second year, this event is a regional forum where members of the Ulsan community participate both online and offline. It is co-hosted with the Ulsan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and supported by the Presidential Committee on the Local Autonomy Era, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, Ulsan Metropolitan City, Ulsan City Council, University of Ulsan, and Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST).

The forum will include participants such as Kim Doo-gyeom, Mayor of Ulsan; Kim Ki-hwan, Chair of the Ulsan City Council; Lee Yoon-cheol, Chair of the Ulsan Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Oh Yeon-cheon, President of University of Ulsan; as well as SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and SK Innovation Vice Chairman Kim Joon, among other SK members.

This year’s Ulsan Forum focuses on the themes of ‘Youth Happiness, Changes in the Industrial Capital’ and ‘Co-growth, ESG Next Strategy.’ Population decline, youth outflow, and ESG regulations spreading through supply chains are pressing issues facing the local community. To address these challenges, the Ulsan Forum will brainstorm ways for young people to return and settle in the community to revitalize manufacturing. It will also discuss cooperation strategies between large and small businesses to respond to the strengthening ESG supply chain regulations in major export countries and to promote co-growth.

In particular, reflecting the nature of a regional forum, a preliminary program was conducted over the past three months within Ulsan city to actively incorporate the voices of community members. Through seminars and interviews with three groups?corporate leaders, practitioners, and youth?consensus was built and opinions gathered on the forum’s main agenda.

The Ulsan Forum is SK Group’s first regional forum, launched last year to share the experience and knowledge of SK Group’s knowledge management platform, the Icheon Forum, with the local community. SK Innovation, marking its 60th anniversary last year, prepared the Ulsan Forum together with SK Group as a platform to discuss and find solutions for the future of Ulsan, the company’s birthplace.

An SK representative said, “Following last year, we have created a space where various stakeholders can gather to discuss solutions to local challenges such as youth, growth, and ESG together with Ulsan community members. We hope that this discussion on enhancing the happiness of all local members, including youth, and cooperation between large and small businesses will be the starting point for a major regional transformation.”

Meanwhile, the Icheon Forum was proposed by SK Chairman Chey Tae-won in 2017 as a platform to prepare for rapidly changing management environments and to gain future insights. This year’s forum, held from the 21st to the 24th of last month, was themed ‘Accelerating Deep Change through Active Expression of Opinions (Speak-out) by Members.’

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