KHNP Expands Investments

Focuses on fixing management woes and advancing management

At 8:30 a.m. every Friday at the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Company (KHNP) president's office in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, the planning & administration division head, power generation division chief and other key officials as well as the public relations chief and chief secretary huddle for an emergency management meeting presided over by KHNP CEO Kim Jong-shin.
KHNP has been put on an emergency management footing in order to solve management problems and advance management.
The power generation company has an ambitious plan to invest a total of 5.3 trillion won during this year and also save 600 billion won in maintenance and repair costs in order to contribute to reinvigorating the national economy. If 1.3 trillion won for importing nuclear fuel and components and equipment is excluded, the company's 2009 domestic investments will amount to 4.66 trillion won, 1.3 trillion won more than last year. A majority of the investments were front-loaded in the first half.
The sharp rise in investments for 2009 was owed to a surge in investing in the construction of eight nuclear power units and power equipment. In an effort to advance investments, KHNP plans to speed up the process of projects to construct nuclear power units and launch new power unit projects earlier than originally planned and pay off the bills for purchasing components and equipment at the earliest possible date.
KHNP is focusing on advancing management in order to ensure overall management efficiency and secure competitiveness.
Initially, the company plans to lay off about 1,000 employees or a 13 percent excess of the manpower quota. Employees at management and support divisions have been redeployed to construction sites and other field jobs, reducing from 15 divisions and offices to 11 divisions and offices. With the introduction of teams at working-level departments of the KHNP head office, the number of departments has been reduced from the former 110 to 80 to reorganize KHNP into an efficient, slim organization.
As a result, the KHNP headquarters had manpower reduced by 15 percent over the last year. With the relocation of the KHNP head office to a regional area, its head office's functions will be delegated to each nuclear complex, which will change into an independent business entity, a move to slim down its headquarters.
KHNP is spearheading a nationwide bid to turn around the national economy by creating new jobs, expanding the freshmen quota of its nuclear power unit construction technicians training institute to 590 for the 2009 academic year, a five-fold surge over the previous year. Graduates completing the course will be deployed to contractors and subcontractors responsible for the construction of nuclear power units.
The company has recruited 353 interns in order to reduce the jobless rate among youth and share jobs. It also plans to increase its purchases of goods and services from SMEs to approximately 180 billion won, a 17.6 percent jump from last year, in order to provide a helping hand to SMEs under the cause of co-prosperity. nw

KHNP President Kim Jong-shin

Holiday-makers crowd a beach near the Yonggwang Nuclear Power Complex in Jeollanam-do.