SK chairman to focus on Southeast Asia

Chey in week-long visit to Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia


SK Group’s chairman Chey Tae-won flew to Thailand on Thursday to kick off his week-long business cooperation expansion effort with Southeast Asian countries.

Beginning his trip by taking part in the two-day Asia Business Council Forum in Bangkok, Chey will stop by countries including Singapore and Malaysia and return to Seoul next Wednesday, according to SK officials.

Chey, who is the head of the nation’s third-largest conglomerate, is expected to engage in meetings with Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and its Deputy Prime Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong during the first two days.

The meeting between Thailand’s top government officials and Chey was arranged after Yingluck visited SK Hynix’s Icheon factory earlier in March.

At the event lead by Chey, the two parties discussed businesses like building of a flood damage prevention system and batteries for electric cars at the plant of the globally well-known chipmaker, a subsidiary of SK Group.

Chey said he did the selling of the system and products himself to the prime minister. He suggested that Thailand could create its own electric cars with SK batteries by jointly investing in the establishment of a new battery system with Malaysia.

Other items on the discussion agenda are: enhancement of information and communications technology; e-learning and e-healthcare; and better cooperation in the field of green energy.

“Chey, who is focusing on the importance of the Thailand market as the group’s way to enter the Southeast Asian market, is now going out to the field himself to get the business projects up and going,” said an SK official.

The advancement of the group’s project with Thailand’s top energy firm PTT Group is another area that is to be impacted by Chey’s visit.

SK Innovation, the conglomerate’s flagship unit, is planning to announce on Friday that the firm and PTT will work closely together on energy-related businesses that include energy infrastructure and chemical projects, its officials said.

Chey will then go to Singapore to take a look at the company’s aromatic plant in Jurong and its petrochemical trading business headquarters and move onto Malaysia to meet with Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, minister of international trade and industry.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)