Top 30 biz groups to invest $132 bln, hire 123,000 this year

Top 30 biz groups to invest $132 bln, hire 123,000 this year. January. 14, 2012 10:27. parky@donga.com srkim@donga.com.

Korea`s top 30 conglomerates will invest a combined 151.4 trillion won (132 billion U.S. dollars) this year, up 12.3 percent from last year, but their planned hiring will fall 2.2 percent from last year to 123,000 people.

The Knowledge Economy Ministry said Friday that Minister Hong Seok-woo held a New Year`s meeting with presidents for planning and coordination from the 30 business groups at the Seoul Renaissance Hotel, and confirmed plans on investment and employment to that effect. The meeting was the first of its kind in four years.

Planned investment by the conglomerates focused primarily on next-generation growth engines, including the development of next-generation memory semiconductors and expansion of system semiconductor production lines; Expansion of production lines for organic light emitting diode displays, or OLED; construction of long term evolution networks, or LTE; development of core technology for eco-friendly vehicles; manufacturing rechargeable and mid- to large-size batteries; development of thin film solar cell modules; industrialization of wind power systems; and promotion of the solar light poly silicon business.

Except for Samsung, POSCO and Hanwha, which are the only ones that have yet to finalize investment plans among the ten largest conglomerates, SK is expected to make the largest investment this year among the top 30 business groups. SK, which is taking steps to take over Hynix Semiconductor, will plunk down a group-record 19.1 trillion won (17 billion dollars) for facility expansion and research and development and hire 7,000 employees.

Hyundai Motor will hire 7,500 people, a company record, and invest 14.1 trillion won (12 billion dollars) this year.

LG Group, which finalized its investment plan Friday, plans to invest 16.4 trillion won (14 billion dollars) and hire 15,000 people this year. The amount of investment is down 15 percent from last year, but LG`s investment will exceed 15 trillion won (13 billion dollars) for the third consecutive year.

The group will invest 4.9 trillion won (4.2 billion dollars), an LG record, in differentiation of services and research and development aimed at developing fundamental, fusion and convergence technologies.

Samsung, which invested 43.1 trillion won (37.5 billion dollars) and hired 25,000 people last year, is expected to announce this month its plans for investment, which will likely be higher than last year.

The growth rate in hiring, however, was smaller than that of new investment despite plans to recruit more high school graduates. The top 30 conglomerates plan to hire a combined 37,261 high school graduates, up 6.9 percent from 34,860 last year.

President Lee Myung-bak held a luncheon for 100 exemplary companies in job creation at the presidential office Friday. He said, "I urge companies to take the lead and give special consideration to employment as part of corporate social responsibility in difficult times,” adding, “I hope that companies consider employment as a managerial goal rather than only focusing on business operations and interests.”