Gwangyang Chamber of Commerce Holds Roundtable with Blackstone Chairman Ha Young-gu

Prospects for the Secondary Battery Industry and Related Sectors

The Gwangyang Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jeollanam-do (Chairman Woo Kwang-il) held a roundtable discussion on April 16th (Tuesday) at 2 PM in the main conference room of Gwangyang City Hall. The event was attended by about 100 people, including Jeong In-hwa, Mayor of Gwangyang; Park Seong-hyun, President of Yeosu Gwangyang Port Authority; Song Sang-rak, Head of Gwangyang Bay Area Free Economic Zone Authority; Hwang Jae-woo, CEO of Gwangyang Enterprises Co., Ltd.; Lee Yong-jae, former Chairman of Jeollanam-do Provincial Council; company executives, related public officials, and citizens interested in the economy. The discussion featured Ha Young-gu, Chairman of Blackstone Korea, the world's largest private equity fund (PEF) management company originating from Gwangyang.

The roundtable proceeded in the order of hometown love donation ceremony, welcome speech, congratulatory remarks, screening of a global issues video, discussion, closing, and commemorative photo session. During the event, a donation certificate was presented to Chairman Ha Young-gu, who donated 5 million KRW, the highest annual amount for this year's hometown love donation system. The discussion was moderated by Lee Dong-gu, Political Chief Editor of Culture News.

[Photo by Gwangyang Chamber of Commerce and Industry]

The discussion began with an introduction to Blackstone Corporation, followed by explanations on the current status and vision of AI development, a future industry, the impact of Japan's lifting of its negative interest rate policy on Korean and U.S. interest rates, the global real estate market and prospects for Korean real estate, and policies and local government approaches to declining birth rates.

In particular, macro issues such as the outlook for electric vehicles and electric vehicle battery industries related to secondary batteries, one of Gwangyang City's future industries, were covered. Additionally, many questions related to daily life were raised, including advice on personal stock investment methods, promising stocks, and views on household economic portfolios.

The Chamber Chairman said, “I sincerely thank Chairman Ha for kindly accepting the invitation out of special hometown affection, representing local businesspeople. We will refer to the valuable opinions shared today and work harder with related organizations to enhance corporate competitiveness and create a business-friendly city.”

Meanwhile, Chairman Ha Young-gu, originally from Sagok, Gwangyang, has served as President of Hanmi Bank, Chairman of Korea Citi Financial Group, the 12th Chairman of the Korea Federation of Banks, and Chairman of the SK Hynix Board of Directors. He is currently serving as Chairman of Blackstone Korea.