SK Goes Global
Explores six strategic bases overseas

SK Group aims to raise 65 trillion won in sales during this year, up 8 percent from last year's 60 trillion won. The group celebrated the feat of surpassing 60 trillion won in sales last year in four years after it broke the 50 trillion won barrier in 2001.
The group wants to develop its energy and chemical division into a major company in the Asia-Pacific area while expanding its overseas presence in information and telecom and plant industries. If its vision is realized as planned, group officials say the conglomerate sets its sights on achieving 100 trillion won in sales by 2010.
To this end, SK plans to expand investments to some 6 trillion won this year, a 20 percent surge from last year's 5 trillion won. The group sees that securing growth potential through active investments is considered essential for strengthening global competitiveness. The group set aside 3.5 trillion won in 2003, 4.2 trillion won in 2004 and 5 trillion won in 2005, marking the 20 percent range in investment growth rate for the third straight year.
SK Group posted $20 billion worth of exports last year, a 5.3 percent increase over $13.1 billion in 2004. The $20 billion the group recorded last year accounted for 8 percent of Korea's total overseas shipments, emerging as one of Korea's major exporters.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won expounded growth through globalization strategies centering on China as its core task during his New Year's message.
He sees globalization as future growth engines aimed at securing conditions for survival.
The conglomerate has established a long-term plan designed to evolve into a corporation with a global networking comprising of six strategic bases for global businesses - China, the United States, Japan, India, Vietnam and Kuwait.
In China, the so-called Second SK Group project is under way. The project is entering a stable stage with the establishment of a holding company of such SK affiliates as SK Telecom China. The business group is envisioning a global network business structure connecting the markets of advanced countries like the Unites States and Japan, India and Vietnam with a growth potential, and oil-rich Kuwait. SK Group plans to make a foray into the United States with new mobile telecom services, Cyworld, an on-line community homepage and oil exploration projects. Kuwait and Vietnam are becoming strategic positions essential for a leap into a major in the Asia and the Pacific area. In Kuwait, SK E&C landed a $1.2 billion project for constructing a crude oil storage terminal. In Vietnam, SK is implementing oil exploration projects and the subscribers of S-phone services topped the 300,000 mark as of September 2004. SK Telecom plans to invest $700 million in the first half of this year to build an additional 400 base stations as part of its efforts to expand communication networks.
A global committee, headed by SK Corp. President Shin Hyun-chul, has been set up within the business group with the goal of collaborating common overseas projects among related group affiliates and sharing global infrastructure including information on overseas markets. nw

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won delivers his New Year's message at the SK Group headquarters.