Multicultural Families
Kumho Tires announced that 10 Vietnamese families in Korea flew to their home country in the morning of January 24 through its Homecoming Program for Korean-Vietnamese Multicultural Families. The company selected 20 participants for the program to achieve their long-cherished dream for six days in a fully-sponsored project.
“I could not go back to my country for nine years since marriage, due to the lack of time and economic situation, but I am so happy now as I can show my kids to my parents for the first time ever,” said one of the participants, adding, “I truly appreciate Kumho Tires, which is doing business in Vietnam as well, for helping me visit my own country and family.”
“This program has the purpose of helping married Vietnamese women living in Korea to better settle into Korean society,” managing director Kim Soo-ok of the company explained, continuing, “We will keep trying to become a bridge between the two countries, providing continuous support for multicultural families in Korea and the Koreans living in Vietnam.”
In the meantime, Kumho Tires sponsored the 3rd Vietnam Cultural Festival for the promotion of cultural exchange between Korea and its population residing in Vietnam. The festival was attended by the Vietnamese ambassador to Korea Pham Huu Tri and approximately 2,000 local residents, multicultural family members, etc. The event provided a variety of programs such as a singing contest, an exhibition of traditional cuisines of Vietnam, a quiz event, and a special performance by the Ho Chi Minh City Art Company. Kumho Tires was awarded an appreciation plaque there for its contribution to bilateral exchange, too.
“We have organized the event so that Koreans living out of their own country can be better blended into the society and feel compatriotic affection,” the company remarked, adding that it would continue to foster the development of amicable relations between Korea and Vietnam. Kumho has opened cultural festivals and run Korean language classes in the country since it signed an MOU last year for the support of Korean communities there.
Kumho Tires sponsored the 3rd Vietnam Cultural Festival last year. In the meantime, Kumho Asiana Group Chairman Park Sam-koo met with Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc on January 19 at the Westin Chosun Hotel Seoul. They discussed how to promote bilateral relations and economic cooperation between the two nations.
The Deputy Prime Minister expressed gratitude for the Kumho Asiana Group’s active investment in Vietnam and its contribution to cultural exchange and social contribution. The chairman responded by saying that he would do his utmost down the road for common economic and cultural prosperity.
Kumho Tires entered the Vietnamese market in 2007, when it set up a natural rubber processing plant there. It built Vietnam’s first tire manufacturing facilities in the following year in Binh Duong Province, too. At present, it is producing 3.3 million units of tires there each year. Additionally, the group established the Kumho Asiana-Vietnam Scholarship Foundation in 2007, and has provided scholarships to a large number of local students.