Telecom, energy giant to focus on green energy, overseas resources, new mobile technologies

SK Group said Thursday it would increase investment 30 percent this year to a record high 10.5 trillion won ($9.4 billion) to power future growth in clean energy, overseas resources and advanced mobile technologies.

Korea’s third-largest conglomerate also plans to hire about 3,000 new employees, 25 percent more than 2010.

SK Group affiliates’ business plans will focus on aggressively seeking future businesses, said Lee Man-woo, executive vice president of SK Holdings’ Brand Management Office.

The group decided to allocate 8.8 trillion won, or 84 percent of the total investment in its domestic business. Of that, 5.7 trillion won will be spent on establishing information and communications infrastructure and improving energy facilities.

The group will spend 1.4 trillion won on research and development projects, including 300 billion won on clean energy resources, 800 billion won on innovative technologies and another 300 billion won on new growth engine businesses, it said.

“A firm’s essential competitiveness for its long-term growth, especially amid fierce global competition, depends on securing prospective technologies and quality human resources,” SK chairman Chey Tae-won said. 

Its flagship affiliate SK Telecom Co., the nation’s top mobile carrier, will speed up its transition to the next-generation network, its new chief executive Ha Sung-min said Wednesday.

The nation’s largest oil refiner SK Innovation, formerly SK Energy, will focus on securing a stable domestic oil supply and developing rechargeable batteries. In particular, it will inject 1.7 trillion won into overseas resources development, the group said.

Since discovering crude oil in Yemen in 1984, SK has been producing 150,000 barrels of oil a day there since 1987. The group currently produces 500 million barrels a day from 16 countries and is planning to double that amount in the long-term, officials said.

Meanwhile, the group said it will hire 3,000 new and experienced workers this year. Alongside jobs at the group’s subsidiaries, it pledged to generate more jobs at the social enterprises it operates or sponsors.

SK Group was the first conglomerate to launch a social enterprise here in 2009. Through its social enterprises including Happy School and Agaya, the group has already created more than 6,000 jobs in the past five years and is planning to establish eight more of such companies in 2011.

“Donation-type social responsibilities are now insufficient to solve diverse social problems that exist in society. It would be more effective to adopt the social enterprise-model, utilizing our corporate mechanisms,” Chey said earlier.

The chairman also noted earlier that SK’s Happy School, which provides affordable after-school programs for elementary students and jobs for unemployed teachers, has created 30 times more social value than donations the group has been making.

By Koh Young-aah (youngaah@heraldcorp.com)