SK allots 40% of local spending to non-capital areas

SK Group, South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate after Samsung, will funnel 67 trillion won ($48 billion), or about 40% of its 2022-2026 domestic investments, into its facilities located outside the Seoul metropolitan area.

A big chunk of the five-year spending will go toward its three key areas: semiconductor chips, batteries and the bio business, the group said on Wednesday.

A primary example of such investments in non-capital areas is the group's announcement last week that it would spend 15 trillion won ($11 billion) to build a new memory plant for SK Hynix Inc. in Cheongju, 110 km south of Seoul, by early 2025.

SK Group operates plants nationwide for a range of business units, including chipmaker SK Hynix, battery manufacturer SK On Co., oil refiner SK Energy Co., builder SK Ecoplant Co. and semiconductor materials producer SK Siltron Co.

The detailed investment plan for non-capital areas will align with policymakers’ efforts to balance regional development in a country where about half its 50 million population lives in the Seoul metropolitan area.

In May of this year, SK Group announced a plan to invest 247 trillion won ($195 billion) in key growth sectors over the next five years.

Of the total, it allotted 179 trillion won, or 73%, for domestic spending with an aim to create 50,000 new jobs to boost the local economy.

SK Group's 2022-2023 domestic investment plans for non-capital areas
Semiconductors/materials	48.7 trillion won
Eco-friendly businesses	12.8 trillion won
Digital technology	9.8 trillion won
Bio and others	2.2 trillion won

(The numbers in the table were corrected for the 2022-2023 period)

Write to Ah-Rah Cho at  rrang123@hankyung.com
Yeonhee Kim edited this article.