Eomyeongso LX President: "Operating Losses to Widen This Year... Business Normalization Within 5 Years"

"Sharp Decline in Surveying Demand Due to Construction Slump"
LX's Self-Help Efforts Including Idle Asset Sales and Branch Consolidation
2024 K-GEO Festa 'Digital Twin' Competition

Uh Myung-so, President of the Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corporation (LX), stated on the 6th, "We will overcome the management crisis caused by the sharp decline in cadastral surveying demand and achieve a new leap forward through digital transformation."

Eom Myung-so, President of Korea Land and Geospatial Informatix Corporation (LX), is speaking at a press conference marking his first anniversary in office on the 6th at the 2nd Exhibition Hall of KINTEX in Ilsan. / Photo by Noh Kyung-jo

On the same day, Uh held a press conference marking his first anniversary in office at the Kintex Exhibition Center 2 in Ilsan, where he shared his reflections on the past year and announced LX's major business achievements and future plans.

LX is a national land information specialized agency that contributes to efficient land management and the protection of citizens' property rights through cadastral surveying, spatial information projects, and cadastral re-survey projects. However, in 2022, it recorded its first-ever deficit of 11 billion KRW since its establishment and received a D grade (unsatisfactory) in management evaluations for two consecutive years.

Uh said, "With the sharp decline in cadastral surveying demand, an operating loss of about 85 billion KRW is expected this year following 71.6 billion KRW last year. Due to the downturn in the construction market, cadastral surveying demand is expected to decrease for the time being, so we are pushing for intensive management innovation and self-help efforts."

Cadastral surveying accounts for more than 90% of LX's business. However, as construction investment has decreased, cadastral surveying revenue is reported to have dropped by more than 90 billion KRW compared to previous years. Moreover, Uh explained that LX faces greater difficulties because fixed costs such as labor expenses account for more than 85% of total costs.

Uh emphasized, "It is not easy for public institutions to carry out artificial restructuring, so the management team is voluntarily reducing wages by 20%, employees are returning their pay raises, and various low-urgency projects are being boldly streamlined. We aim to normalize management within five years."

In fact, immediately after taking office last year, Uh switched to an emergency management system to secure financial soundness and has been implementing high-intensity self-help measures such as cost reduction, asset sales, and new business discovery. He is also actively involved in selling idle assets, including converting the Seoul Regional Headquarters into a REIT.

For organizational efficiency, 11 branch offices were also consolidated. Considering workload, geographical conditions, and minimizing public inconvenience, LX plans to gradually integrate 30 headquarters and branch offices by 2026 and 39 idle assets by 2027.

The scene of the '2024 K-GEO Festa' held at Ilsan KINTEX Exhibition Hall 2 / Photo by Noh Kyung-jo

Based on its expertise in cadastral surveying, LX is also seeking to create new added value by converging and integrating various spatial information. In particular, it is expanding citizen-oriented services in areas such as public property management, urban maintenance through digital twins, and disaster response, while focusing on the digitalization of public infrastructure like digital road registries and integrated underground information maps.

In line with this, LX achieved a significant milestone by exporting a digital twin worth 10 billion USD to Saudi Arabia in collaboration with Naver. Uh said, "I plan to visit Saudi Arabia this coming Saturday to inspect the project," adding, "We also intend to cooperate on land information systems with Saudi Arabia and plan to expand to other countries such as Kuwait and Qatar." He further noted that in Mongolia, LX is jointly establishing a standard model for K-Address information under the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Uh refers to himself as the number one salesperson. Reflecting on the past year, he said, "I believe the best thing we did was to have the company properly recognize reality and enable employees to respond to the crisis," adding, "Work is done by organizations, not individuals."

He continued, "As a national land information public institution, we will continuously innovate and challenge ourselves with a sense of mission," and added, "Together with our employees, we will overcome the crisis and build a more solid and robust LX."

Meanwhile, the '2024 K-GEO Festa' was held at Kintex on the same day. At the event, public institutions such as the Korea Rail Network Authority and Korea Airports Corporation, as well as private companies like iNavi Systems and Difree, competed in the 'digital twin' arena. The Airports Corporation is exporting altitude restrictions and control systems as Team Korea in collaboration with small and medium-sized enterprises, and it was reported that a site inspection was recently conducted by Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Japan. Specialized high schools such as Suwon Technical High School also participated, showcasing their skills.