Hurdle to ‘China Insider’

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who was summoned for questioning by the special investigation team under the prosecution, will not be able to attend the Boao Forum in China.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, who was summoned for questioning by the special investigation team under the prosecution, will not be able to attend the Boao Forum in China.

 

SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won will not be able to attend the Boao Forum in China, which is called an "Asian version" of the Davos Forum.

As Chey has failed to go into global business for over four months after being a subject of the investigation of the corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye, SK Group's "China Insider" strategy, which has been pushed ahead for 11 years with an aim to establish a second SK Group in China, has run into a snag. Among owner family members of other business groups, only Kim Dong-won, the second son of Hanwha group Chairman Kim Seung-youn and director of Hanwha Life Insurance, will attend the Boao Forum for two years in a row.

According to business industry sources on March 20, Chey, who was summoned for questioning by the special investigation team under the prosecution on March 18, will not be able to attend the Boao Forum to be held in China's Hainan Province from March 23 to 26.

The Boao forum, which will be the 16th forum this year with a theme of “Asia’s Development and Security Improvement trough New Challenge and Cooperation,” is the largest private business exchange event in Asia attended by 150 heads of global companies which made the list of Fortune 500 companies as well as Asian ministers and heads of international organizations.

Chey participated in the Boao forum last year for the first time in four years and actively engaged in people-to-people diplomatic activities by meeting with China’s high-ranking government officials and Chinese partner companies, including Sinopec. He has had enough interest in the Boao forum, along with Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, to serve as director until 2012.

As Chey fails to take part in the Boao forum, SK Group’s China Insider Project, which has been sought since 2006, is faced with difficulties. With an aim to build a second SK Group in China, he has put top priority on Chinese business in global management and put a lot of investment and effort. However, its Chinese business has hit a snag from the latter half of last year as the group’s butanediol joint project with Sinopec, China's state-run petrochemical company, was abruptly scratched off, and a Swiss company finally took over a stake in Shanghai Secco, a chemical company pursued by SK Innovation. Also, a project to build an electric car battery plant, which is under the joint development by the SK Group and Beijing Automobile among others, is put on hold due to the Chinese government's tightening regulations.

 

 

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