Shanghai Forum 2019

Traveling between China and Korea from May 24 to 26, Chairman Chey took the lead in the expansion of ‘Social Value-Oriented Management.’ He had a ‘Happy Talk’ meeting with global SK People of SK affiliates in Shanghai, China and went on to attend ‘Shanghai Forum 2019’ to deliver a key note speech where he asked the audience to be part of social value creation.

Asia’s Challenges, Developments, and New Paradigms

On May 26, ‘Shanghai Forum 2019’ was held at the Shanghai International Convention Center under the theme of ‘Asia Amidst Global Reshuffling: Challenges, Developments, and New Paradigms.’ Shanghai Forum, in its fourteenth year, is an international academic forum co-hosted by KFAS (Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies) and Fundan University focusing on Economics. The opening ceremony was attended by around 500 global figures in political and financial fields including Susan Shirk, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, and Michael Spence, Principal of the University of Sydney.

During the speech, Chairman Chey stated, “I believe that no company is sustainable without sustainable societies,” and requested “companies and civic groups alike to participate in the effort of creating social values”.

Corporate Social Value Creation for Innovation, Sharing and Sustainability

The Social Value session took place on May 26. While Shanghai Forum has included ‘Social Enterprise’ as a regular session since 2015 in an effort to expand social values in China, the session this year was arranged to discuss social issues and the role of enterprises in China. In particular, social value cases were shared by Miguel Poiares Maduro, former Portuguese Minister for Regional Development, and global companies including BASF and IKEA.

Following his attendance to Shanghai Forum, Chairman Chey met up with Lou Qinjian(婁勤儉), Secretary of Jiangsu Province, China, at Seoul Walkerhill Hotel on the 26th and reached an agreement to continue the creation of a Win-Win model through global partnering in various business areas. Innovative cities including Nanjing, Xuzhou, Wuxi, and Yancheng are located in Jiangsu Province, where SK is developing its core businesses with SK hynix operating a semiconductor factory in Wuxi and SK Innovation’s Changzhou battery factory under construction.

Meanwhile, Chairman Chey also hosted the ‘Social Value’ session for the first time in the World Economic Forum (WEF) which was held from January 22 to 25 this year in Davos, Switzerland to emphasize the importance of social values and expand global consensus. Now, we are keeping more people informed about why companies should pursue social values and how much happiness can be created by these values. At the same time, we continue to take up new challenges. SK’s powerful strides are paving the way for an enormous change.