SK Group, a South Korean telecom conglomerate, is poised to tap deeper into the Iranian market in partnership with leading Iranian companies. SK Group said on May 4 that it will ramp up partnerships with Iranian companies in the resources, ICT and infrastructure sectors.
During South Korean President Park Geun-hye's visit to Iran earlier this week, SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and CEOs of SK Group’s major affiliates, including Jang Dong-hyun, CEO of South Korea's No. 1 mobile carrier SK Telecom, and SK Networks CEO Moon Jong-hoon, held a series of meetings with officials from various Iranian companies to discuss ways to cooperate .
Chairman Chey met with Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Rokneddin Javadi, who is also Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), to seek closer cooperation in the resources sector.
Chey said: “SK and NIOC have maintained amicable relations since SK began its first crude oil deal with NIOC 16 years ago. If SK’s capabilities in the areas of oil exploration, oil refining, and petrochemical are combined with NIOC's competitiveness in resources, I believe, we can carry out various joint projects." Rokneddin Javadi concurred with Chey.
SK carried out the Wuhan project jointly with China’s Sinopec in the area of energy and resources and teamed up with Saudi Arabia’s Sabic, Spain’s Repsol and Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Energy in the areas of petrochemicals and lube base oils.
In addition, as SK Networks signed an MoU on strategic cooperation with Saipa, Iran's second-biggest carmaker, SK is likely to export steel and chemical products to Iran and break into Iran’s car life (rent-a-car and automobile maintenance services) sector.
SK Telecom also signed an MoU with the Ministry of Energy of Iran, as well as the National Iran Gas Company (NIGC), to join forces on developing IoT platforms. SK Telecom also signed a business cooperation agreement with local energy and technology company ARSH Holdings.
With those MoUs under its belt, SK plans to push for a variety of IoT projects such as AMI (Advanced Metering Infrastructure) solutions (which automatically collect and analyze data from water meter or energy metering devices (gas, electric)), energy efficient building projects and smart home services.
