KT Thinking GreenThoughts

KT has decided to actively push ahead with the Green KT, Green Korea Project in a bid to foster environment-friendly technology as a new growth engine.

Under the project, KT will build a mobile communication base station by using solar energy, a company spokesman said.

Related to this, KT will soon launch the Green IT propulsion committee, which will be led by CEO Lee Suk-chae. The committee, consisting of four subcommittees - green infrastructure, green service, green environment and green contribution - will be in charge of projects related to green growth.

KT plans to reduce carbon emissions by 10 percent by 2013 (from 2005) and slash energy-related costs by 74.2 billion won. Along with this, KT will make a strong push for green strategies in the assets, communications and working environment sectors.

In the asset field, KT will replace existing electric power and oil fuels with environment- friendly energy while establishing a portable Internet (Wi-Bro) base station by making the best use of heating and cooling facilities and solar energy.

In the communication sector, KT will reduce carbon emissions by changing the wire telephone network over to an Internet-based one, expanding optical communication networks, and increasing green Internet Data Centers (IDC).

A video conference system, currently established only in the CEO's office and the offices of major executives, will be expanded to the company's branches nationwide at the end of March.

KT expects the replacement of 20 percent of general meetings with Internet video conferences to reduce carbon emissions by 250,000 tons, worth 5.3 billion won, and cut expenses for business trips by 4.4 billion won, as well as improve 4 billion won worth of business productivity.

Samsung Thinking Other Kind of Green

In the first management strategy conference of 2009, held at the Giheung Workplace on February 18, Lee Yoon-woo, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics, stressed: "We have to strengthen market sensing so that we can monitor the market streaming, real economy, and technology trend on a realtime basis, and its results have to be reflected in management strategy. By enhancing efficiency and accelerating speedy management, we can deepen the gap between our competitors, and so we can change this global crisis into an opportunity to take off." The world economy is now meeting with deep economic depression, and because of this the prices of semiconductors and LCDs have sharply dropped and hit bottom. At this point in time, companies must pay attention to market streaming, prepare business strategies, and introduce speedy management in order to break through this crisis.

Meanwhile, along with Hynix and LG Display, Samsung Electronics has a good chance to repel Taiwan and Japan in the memory semiconductors and LCD markets. Many memory semiconductor manufacturers in Taiwan, Japan, Europe, and the USA are on the brink of a survival crisis and are now awaiting mergers. Korea is also expected to gain ground over the Taiwanese in the LCD market. According to the display industry, the combined global market share of both Samsung Electronics and LG Display expanded to 43% last year, and this trend is expected to continue with the companies set to occupy nearly half of the global market in both industries.