Korean companies offer support for Scouts

Korean companies have stepped up efforts to support the World Scout Jamboree as the event's host announced an early withdrawal from the campground in North Jeolla Province due to inclement weather on Monday afternoon.

Some major conglomerates, including Samsung and Hyundai, have invited Scouts to their business sites, following President Yoon Suk Yeol's order to offer tour programs for the jamboree participants.

Hyundai Motor Group on Monday opened its commercial vehicle plant in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, for a field trip for young participants from the Netherlands, Japan and Malaysia. The program runs through Thursday.

It is also considering providing them with a tour of the carmaker's research and development center in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, to help increase their understanding of the Korean automobile industry, Hyundai Motor officials said.

Samsung Group will also invite around 550 Scouts per day to tour Samsung Electronics’ chip factories in Pyeongtaek or Hwaseong, as well as the innovation museum in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, where the tech giant's headquarters is located.

LG Group is considering hosting tours of its factories and other facilities, including LG Electronics’ home appliance manufacturing plants in Changwon and Gumi in Gyeongsang Province, as well as the Innovation Gallery inside LG Science Park in Seoul and Hwadam Botanic Garden in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province.

SK Telecom said Monday the ICT experience center located at its headquarters in Seoul would be open to the jamboree participants to explore technologies such as augmented reality.

Starting Tuesday, SK hynix will run a fab window tour at its Icheon and Cheongju sites, inviting 100 Scouts per day to introduce the chipmaker's production process and technology.

Prior to the World Organization of the Scout Movement's announcement of early departure from the Saemangeum campsite, major Korean companies have been sending supplies, volunteers and health care professionals to the area to assist young participants amid a suffocating heat wave.

Samsung dispatched about 150 employees to the Saemangeum campsite area on Monday to help clean up. Over the weekend, the group sent an 11-member medical team from Samsung Medical Center and supplied portable toilets, electric carts and sports drinks.

Hyundai Motor also provided buses and mobile offices so that participants could rest and conduct their duties while reducing the risk of heat exhaustion, the conglomerate's officials said on the same day. Along with the installation of portable toilets, the group also provided ice box coolers, bottles of mineral water, sunshades and 100 cleaning staff.

LG also sent 300 makeshift shelters to allow participants to rest in the shade. The conglomerate had already provided portable electric fans, cooling scarves, sports drinks, mineral water, hygiene kits and refrigerator trucks.

Affiliates of SK Group, the country's second-largest business group in terms of assets, have offered separate assistance to support the jamboree event, such as an SK Telecom shelter at the site.

The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won serves as chief, sent 400 large iceboxes to the campsite.

Other big companies took similar steps to improve conditions at the global gathering. Steel giant Posco Group delivered 10,000 cooling scarves to the jamboree site through the Hope Bridge Korea Disaster Relief Association to help prevent heat-related illnesses.

President Yoon on Friday called for “unlimited” air-conditioned buses, cold-water trucks and hundreds more sanitary and medical staff to be brought in to protect participants of the jamboree. However, thousands of attendees from the UK, US and Singapore left the campsite over the weekend over health concerns after hundreds fell ill from the soaring temperatures.