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Industry and goverment officials including POSCO chief executive Chung Joon-yang (fourth from left, front row), Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kim Dong-soo (fifth from left, front row) and head of the Commission on Shared Growth for Large and Small Companies Chung Un-chan (sixth from left, front row) at POSCO’s office in Seoul after the steelmaker and subsidiaries signed an agreement to promote fair trade and shared growth Wednesday. (POSCO) |
The steelmaker POSCO and 12 subsidiaries signed an agreement to implement fair trading practices and to promote shared growth with 953 suppliers and associated businesses on Wednesday.
The agreement was signed by POSCO companies with their 637 suppliers, who in turn forged such agreements with second-, third- and fourth-layer suppliers, POSCO said.
Benefits afforded to suppliers under POSCO companies’ shared-growth promotion program include full payments to suppliers within three days of delivery. The steelmaker also plans to inject 220 billion won ($204 million) into supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises’ research and development, and facilities investments this year.
The steelmaker said that it will also expand the “Techno Partnership” program, which provides technological support to smaller companies, to include companies in Gyeonggi Province. At present the program only covers Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, and Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province, where POSCO operates integrated steelworks.
In addition, POSCO and its subsidiaries announced the expansion of its Compliance Program to include second layer suppliers. According to POSCO, it is the first Korean business group to implement Compliance Program to second layer suppliers.
Under the Compliance Program, executives are provided with fair trade guidelines to prevent unfair practices and to deal with related issues quickly if violations occur.
By Choi He-suk (
cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)
