One Year of Chairman Lee Jae-yong Focused on Investment and Regional Economy

[Samsung New Management 30 Years]
② One Year Since Chairman Lee Jae-yong's Inauguration... Key Keywords of On-site Management

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong has focused on proactive investment and revitalizing the regional economy over the past year since his appointment. Despite difficulties such as the semiconductor division (DS), Samsung Electronics' core business, experiencing ups and downs due to a downturn in the industry, which caused the overall performance of Samsung Electronics to shrink, he pushed forward bold investments based on the judgment that future growth is only possible with proactive investment. In addition, while making investments, he took the lead in fulfilling social responsibilities befitting Korea's representative company by revitalizing the regional economy and creating jobs.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

◆ Bold proactive technology investments even in deficit=Display is one of the businesses where aggressive investments have been made since Chairman Lee took office. Samsung Display will invest 4.1 trillion KRW to build a new 8.6-generation IT OLED production line in Asan, Chungcheongnam-do, by 2026.

The reason Chairman Lee chose display as a large-scale investment target is because he judged that a new leap in the display industry is essential to strengthen the global competitiveness of Korea's IT industry. Display was once an industry led globally by Korean companies such as Samsung and LG, but now it is one of the industries facing a crisis due to fierce competition from Chinese companies. In the case of LCD, some evaluations say the gap with China has disappeared. Although Korea's OLED technology is excellent, there is a strong sense of crisis as China’s catching-up speed is fast, and it is uncertain when they might catch up.

Semiconductors and bio are also fields where Chairman Lee spares no proactive investment. Especially in the semiconductor business, despite enduring the worst market conditions with nearly 9 trillion KRW in operating losses in the first half of the year, Samsung Electronics carried out facility investments focused on advanced process expansion, conversion, and infrastructure investment amounting to 23.24 trillion KRW in the first half alone, continuing efforts to secure a super-gap technology. Samsung Electronics plans to invest more than 300 trillion KRW by 2042 to build the world's largest semiconductor cluster in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do.

Samsung’s bio business, including Samsung Biologics, is also receiving strong support from Chairman Lee. He has a vision to realize the 'second semiconductor miracle' in bio and is continuously engaging with global CEOs leading the world bio market. In May, during a 22-day business trip to the U.S., he held a series of meetings with CEOs of about 20 global companies, including many CEOs from global bio companies such as Johnson & Johnson (J&J), BMS, Flagship Pioneering, Biogen, and Organon. As of October, Samsung Biologics, which has secured orders worth 2.7 trillion KRW and is signaling the possibility of exceeding last year's annual orders of 3 trillion KRW, is currently in the midst of expansion. The company is constructing its 5th plant and plans to sequentially build up to the 8th plant by investing 7.5 trillion KRW by 2032.

◆ Leading regional economic revitalization through 'win-win'=Another keyword of Chairman Lee’s one-year on-site management is regional economic revitalization. Most of Chairman Lee’s external activities disclosed after his inauguration on October 27 last year were focused on the 'regions.' His first move was to visit the Samsung Electronics Gwangju plant and partner companies the day after his inauguration. In November, he visited Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ Busan plant and small and medium-sized enterprises in Busan that received smart factory support. In February this year, he visited the Samsung Display Asan campus and Samsung Electronics semiconductor package plants in Cheonan and Onyang.

Afterward, he also attended events such as Gumi Electronics Technical High School, Gumi Samsung Electronics Smart City, Samsung Electronics Hwaseong Semiconductor Research Center, and the 50th anniversary ceremony of Corning in Asan, Chungnam, handling local schedules related to Samsung Electronics, affiliates, and partner companies. The reason Chairman Lee repeatedly chose regional business sites as key on-site management destinations after his inauguration is that he ultimately values coexistence with the region beyond coexistence with local partners and SMEs. A business community official said, "Visiting regional business sites and partner companies and SMEs as the first schedule after the chairman’s inauguration itself is JY’s message," adding, "It is a move with Samsung Electronics and regional coexistence in mind."

Also, whenever Chairman Lee visited the Gwangju, Busan, and Daejeon areas, he never missed visiting the Samsung Youth SW Academy (SSAFY) at each site to encourage the trainees. SSAFY, established in major cities nationwide, is one of Samsung’s representative CSR programs that increases employment opportunities for local youth while supplying software talent needed by regional industries.

Since the Fair Trade Commission designated Chairman Lee (then Vice Chairman) as the same person (de facto head) of Samsung Group in May 2018, Samsung started SSAFY as part of its 'economic revitalization and job creation plan.' SSAFY has trained over 4,000 trainees as software developers to date. Regarding SSAFY, which he fully supports, Chairman Lee said, "Nurturing software talent is essential to expand the IT ecosystem base, so even if it is difficult, we must plant the seeds now for the future."

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