Samsung Supports Chuseok Domestic Demand Activation... Early Payment of 870 Billion KRW to Partners

12 Affiliates Including Electronics, Trading, and Biologics Participate... "Up to 15 Days Advanced"
Win-Win and Material-Fund Operation, Smart Factory Establishment... "Continuous Efforts for SME Cooperation"
Employees Operate Online Chuseok Market... "Expecting Local Economy Revitalization"

Samsung is advancing payment for goods and operating an online marketplace for employees ahead of Chuseok to support smooth fund management for its partner companies. This is part of efforts to stimulate the domestic economy. Twelve affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, are participating and will make payments up to 15 days earlier than the originally scheduled dates for each company.

Samsung employees are purchasing products at the 'Chuseok Online Market.'
[Photo by Samsung Electronics]

On the 1st, Samsung announced that it plans to make early payments of 870 billion KRW for goods to partner companies before the Chuseok holiday.

The early payment for goods involves 12 affiliates: Samsung Electronics, Samsung Display, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung SDI, Samsung SDS, Samsung Biologics, Samsung Bioepis, Samsung C&T, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung Engineering & Construction (Samsung E&A), Samsung Welstory, and Cheil Worldwide. Since 2011, Samsung’s major affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, have increased the payment frequency from twice a month to 3-4 times a month to help partner companies manage their funds systematically.

Samsung also operates win-win funds and goods payment funds to stabilize the management of partner companies. The scale of these win-win and goods payment funds has grown from 2.3 trillion KRW in 2010 to 3.4 trillion KRW currently. Partner companies can use these funds to secure capital for facility investment and research and development (R&D).

Since 2015, Samsung Electronics has been running the "Smart Factory Construction Support Project" to help improve the manufacturing environment of partner companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). So far, 3,274 smart factory construction projects have been carried out. Since last year, Samsung has also been promoting the "Smart Factory 3.0" project, which upgrades existing smart factories into intelligent factories using artificial intelligence (AI) and data technologies. A Samsung official said, "Through the smart factory project, we are contributing to regional economic revitalization and balanced regional development by reducing the gap between large corporations and SMEs."

Samsung has opened a "Chuseok Online Marketplace" for employees, starting sales of specialty products from affiliate sister villages and products made by SMEs with smart factories. This is to support the revitalization of the domestic economy. Seventeen affiliates, including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung SDI, Samsung Biologics, Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Samsung C&T, Samsung Heavy Industries, Hotel Shilla, Cheil Worldwide, and S-1, are participating in the online marketplace. Samsung plans to actively promote the marketplace internally through company bulletin boards to encourage voluntary participation by employees.

Eighty-six SMEs that received support for smart factory construction from Samsung Electronics are also participating in the Chuseok online marketplace, selling about 120 types of products such as Korean beef sets and fruits. The online marketplace operates by utilizing each company’s internal bulletin boards, local government, and NongHyup’s online shopping malls. This provides SME employees with opportunities to sell products and generate stable income.

While offline direct transaction marketplaces have been held at business sites nationwide every holiday season, the pandemic caused by COVID-19 led to a shift to online marketplaces starting from Chuseok 2020. This Chuseok, some offline marketplaces will be additionally set up at certain business sites to encourage greater employee participation.

Samsung employees purchased products worth approximately 6.5 billion KRW at the online marketplaces during this year’s Lunar New Year and last year’s Chuseok holidays.