SK Corp. Chairman Chey Brings Many Gifts to His Firms
- From tour accompanying President Roh to India, Vietnam

SK Corp. Chairman Chey Tae-won, who was a member of an entourage for President Roh Moo-hyun's visit to India and Vietnam Oct. 9-12, returned home all smiles. He came back from the trip with many gifts for his companies to the extent that SK Group benefited from the Presidential tour the most.

The biggest gift was in the energy area.  Chairman Chey, in a meeting with president of PetroVietnam Tran Ngoc Canh, reached an agreement  on matters related to the operation technology of an oil refinery, manpower training, the transfer of technology and participation in exploration of a new mining block in Vietnam. The two men also agreed to hold  a regular meeting of top managers of the two companies and SK Corp. decided to set up a special task force under its research and international office to take charge of various matters related to the cooperation and exchange with Vietnam.

SK Telecom also benefited much from the visit. President Roh and his Vietnamese counterpart agreed to turn cooperation in the information and communication sector to a joint venture format from the BCC(business cooperation contract) method, which limits cooperation in the area to 15 years. With the change, SK Telecom would be able to invest in the project without restriction on time.

The telecom affiliate said the number of mobile phone subscribers in Vietnam total only 3.4 million, only 5 percent of its total population and there is so much room for growth. The company said it plans to expand the mobile phone service from large cities to local provinces, too, next year. The company will operate the high-tech communication service in Vietnam from next year. For this purpose, he invited Vietnamese Information and Communication Minister  to an event related to "S-Fone," CDMA(code division multiple access) service in Vietnam and held detailed talks on bilateral cooperation in the information-communication sector between Korea and Vietnam.

In the meantime, SK Corp. celebrated the 42nd founding anniversary Oct. 9 at a soccer field of the Incheon Logistics Center in Incheon with 2,800 officers and employees and their families attending under the slogan of "All Together SK, Progressing SK." On the day before the ceremony at the soccer field, the oil marketing sector and oil production sector played a football and a volley ball matches and the oil production team won both matches. On the following day, the two rival teams met again in a soccer match in which the production sector won again.

Chairman Chey, in a congratulatory speech, said  we have to prepare for the future development learning from our 42 years of experience and results. He said he truly wants the company to command respect and support from customers, "selected company" and the company that works happily.

Nam Dae-woo, outside director, in a congratulatory speech, said the year-ring of a 42-year old tree shows off the toughness of the tree braving hot and cold weather while its rough skin symbolizes a medal for its powerful will for survival in snow, rain, mist and wind. He said SK Corp is like that tough tree growing for 42 years as a core company in the country and its employees will continue to work hard to have the company remain a top firm in the world.

In the meantime, SK Corp. played a big role in the success of Marib oil field in Yemen. The company held a reception on Sept. 7 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of tapping the oil field in the Middle East with many guests including Yemeni Oil Minister Rasheed Baraba.

The company has made a great contribution to securing offshore oil fields for Korea  in the past two decades.  In 1980, the late chairman Chey Jong-hyun initiated the idea that Korean can be an oil producing country without oil fields in the country by investing in oil fields in foreign countries.

Up until now, the company secured around 300 million barrels of oil through its stakes in overseas oil projects, which is about half of the oil consumed annually in the country, about 24,000 barrels per day.   nw