[JY Era 100 Days] Worked Abroad One Day Out of Four

④ Lee Jae-yong's First 100 Days in Office
Busy Exploring Global Food Markets from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and Europe

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Pyeonghwa] Since his inauguration in October last year, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong has shown a hectic management pace for nearly 100 days. In particular, he focused on overseas activities by leveraging global network capabilities. During this period, Chairman Lee visited various overseas production bases and actively discussed future business opportunities with global political and economic figures. About a quarter of the 100 days were spent working abroad.

On the 17th (local time), Chairman Lee attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting (WEF, Davos Forum) held in Davos, Switzerland the day before. He accompanied President Yoon Seok-youl on his first overseas trip of the new year, along with business leaders including SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won.

This year's Davos Forum was held over 4 nights and 5 days under the theme of 'Cooperation in a Divided World.' Chairman Lee, along with other business leaders, met with political and economic figures from various countries at the forum. At the global CEO luncheon hosted by President Yoon on the 18th (local time), he spent time with global figures such as Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO, and Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm CEO. He also actively promoted Busan's bid to host the 2030 World Expo.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong is listening to President Yoon Suk-yeol's keynote speech at the Korea-UAE Business Forum held on the 16th (local time) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, Chairman Lee was named to the economic delegation accompanying President Yoon on an 8-day, 6-night visit to the UAE and Switzerland. Through the delegation, he visited the UAE and secured cooperation projects aligned with the UAE's business purpose of responding to environmental changes. Samsung C&T signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) for 'hydrogen and renewable energy' and 'power transmission and gas power generation' projects during this process.

The UAE was the first overseas business site Chairman Lee visited since his inauguration in October last year. In December last year, he visited the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant construction site in Al Dhafra Region, Abu Dhabi. This is the site of Korea's first overseas nuclear power plant construction project, in which Samsung C&T is participating.

Before visiting the nuclear power plant, Chairman Lee met with heads of Samsung C&T, Samsung Engineering, and Samsung Electronics' Middle East regional offices to discuss local business status and mid- to long-term strategies. It is reported that he attended a private forum hosted by UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Nahyan during their meeting.

Another overseas market that Chairman Lee has focused on since his inauguration is Southeast Asia. At the end of December last year, he visited Vietnam to attend the completion ceremony of the Samsung R&D (Research & Development) Center held in Hanoi. This center is a place Chairman Lee showed great interest in, having attended the groundbreaking ceremony in 2020. It is considered a global strategic hub for comprehensive R&D.

The day before the completion ceremony, Chairman Lee visited Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display subsidiaries near Hanoi to inspect smartphone and communication equipment production plants, respectively. Although the schedule after the completion ceremony until his return was not disclosed, it is speculated that he visited major Southeast Asian markets such as Malaysia and Singapore.

Chairman Lee's global business activities continued domestically as well. Whenever political and economic figures from major countries visited Korea, he held meetings to secure possible cooperation projects and business opportunities. On December 17 last year, he met with Oliver Zipse, BMW CEO, who visited Korea to participate in a domestic event, and discussed business cooperation tasks including batteries.

He also devoted efforts to finding global cooperation tasks in the semiconductor sector, his core business. In November last month, he met with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S?nchez, who visited Korea, followed by meetings with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and ASML CEO Peter Wennink to discuss semiconductor and related industry cooperation plans. In the same month, he discussed the NEOM City project, a future city project in Saudi Arabia, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who visited Korea.