New Year’s Address by Kim Seung-youn, CEO

Great Challenge 2011’ is Hanwha Group’s slogan for long-term business sustainability. Kim Seung-youn, CEO of Hanwha Group praised employees, noting that the Group outperformed management plans despite unfavorable market conditions in 2009 in his New Year’s address on January 4, 2010. Kim defined 2010 to be the year to overcome the company’s limitations and move forward by accelerating overseas market growth.

Kim said that the area of finance would be central to energizing the whole Group’s business, and urged employees in the area of integrated indemnity insurance to do their best to become the leader in the insurance industry along with the successful listing of Korea Life Insurance Co., Ltd. He also asked Hanwha Finance Network to form a close cooperation system to achieve one-stop finance services. In addition, Kim encouraged hotels and resorts to increase their market size and promote synergistic effects, saying that Hanwha was Korea’s best premium leisure provider.

Kim found the prospect for overseas development encouraging as China’s PVC factory should begin commercial manufacturing from the end of the year, while in the Middle East a Korean company will be involved in the construction of a petrochemical plant for the first time. Korea Life Insurance successfully entered into the Vietnamese market last year, while its plan for China is now materializing. The Group won a series of plant construction orders in the Middle East, with the automobile parts business of L&C also marked as an overseas success.

While emphasizing strengthened competitiveness, improved enterprise-wise service capacity, development of core and proprietary technologies, and security of innovative global labor, Kim pointed out that the lesson from the financial crisis would be ‘Back to Basics’. Therefore, he stressed the importance of customers and asked all business areas to become customer-oriented in their decision-making and external affairs.

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