Sweden's Wallenberg Group Proposes More Cooperation with South Korean Companies

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) chairman Marcus Wallenberg attended the Sweden-Korea Business summit in Seoul on Dec. 18. The summit was co-hosted by the Korea International Trade Association and Business Sweden, which is a Swedish trade representative.

The chairman delivered a keynote address on cooperation for digitalization and sustainable growth. “South Korea and Sweden are similar to each other in that global enterprises on the upper sides of value chains are leading economic growth and, as such, South Korean and Swedish companies can create a continuous synergy by working together with each other,” he said, adding, “They can more effectively cooperate in the fields including artificial intelligence, 5G communications, smart city, eco-friendly development, pharmaceuticals and national defense.”
 

Much attention is being paid to whether the chairman and Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong will have a meeting in that the fields he mentioned include Samsung Electronics’ future growth drivers. The chairman is the head of Wallenberg Group, which accounts for one-third of Sweden’s GDP. The group has approximately 100 companies, including SEB, Ericsson, Saab, ABB, AstraZeneca, Atlas Copco and Electrolux. The chairman attended the summit with the CEOs of major subsidiaries, which implies substantial cooperation is possible between the group and Samsung.

At the business summit, Hyundai Motor Group signed a memorandum of understanding with Impact Coatings, a Swedish precision coating company, for hydrogen fuel cell technology refinement. In addition, LG Chem and Volvo Cars agreed to work more closely with each other in the electric vehicle industry in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.