Big Korean corporations with a global reach are getting busy to show their gentle side in countries where they operate ahead of the introduction by the international organization for standardization of the ISO 26000, an index that measures how well companies fulfill their corporate social responsibility. The new standard will be introduced in 2008.
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A Picture on the website of LG volunteer community./Courtesy of LG volunteer community
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The Samsung Group has boosted its annual budget for social contributions overseas by some W3 billion (US $1=W 955) to W28 billion this year. That still falls short of the W470 billion the group has earmarked for such activities at home, but it is by no means trivial since it will be spent in developing countries. LG Electronics raised funds of US$500,000 at the LG Pan Asia Family Festival 2006 in Singapore this month and donated the money to United Way International. Hyundai Motor last year established the Hyundai Motor Foundation in India. The car maker plans to put aside $2.2 for each of the 300,000 cars it sells there annually and use the $660,000 to support local social activities and scholarships.
POSCO, which is to build an integrated still mill with annual production capacity of 12 million tons in Orissa in eastern India by 2008, is starting a program to make contributions to local society this year. The steel maker has sent 13 medical volunteers including seven dentists from Seoul National University to India to offer free surgical repair of cleft palates and harelips to 40 Indians.
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A Picture on the website of Samsung Love./Courtesy of Samsung Love
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The ISO 26000 is a challenge for big Korean corporations. ˇ°This is really an urgent issue,ˇ± a Samsung staffer says. ˇ°If big corporations with global reach such as our group fail to get the certification, their business in overseas markets will be in trouble.ˇ± Experts recommend basic welfare activities such as free medical treatment in developing nations, building schools and scholarships, and volunteer work and support for cultural activities in advanced nations. They say corporations need to start doing this in a systematic way from the moment they set up operations there.
ˇ°Big Korean corporations are still in their infancy in terms of making contributions overseas,ˇ± says Choi Hyuck-joon, the CEO of Lime Globe, a consulting firm specializing in corporate social responsibility. ˇ°They need a strategy to brand their social contributions just like Merck, the pharmaceutical multinational, does with its program to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa.ˇ±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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