Korea Exchange builds school in Cambodia, offers medical checkups in Laos

This is the second in a series of stories featuring major companies’ social contribution activities at home and abroad. ― Ed.


Korea Exchange is boosting its contribution to societies in Southeast Asia.

Construction will be completed next month on the KRX IT Job Training Center, which the South Korean exchange built in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to help the locals get trained and find jobs. The center will open in October.

The center is the first global project done by the KRX Happy Foundation, which was established in 2005 with the aims to give back to society and create a world where everyone can be happy.

The center hopes to produce about 1,000 graduates every year and eventually dedicate itself to the development of Cambodia’s IT industry.

“We expect it will be a successful model of a social contribution business centered around IT, as it is KRX’s strong point. We will also apply the model to other financial partner countries in Asia,” said an official at KRX. 

The foundation was established with 60 billion won ($53 million) as a basic asset. It adds to the available asset every year by adding 1 percent of the previous year’s net profit. It plans to grow into a global foundation by enlarging the asset to 100 billion won.

Along with the establishment of the center, the foundation also dispatched the KRX Global Youth Volunteer Team to a small village near Phnom Penh in January. During the nine-day stay, the 30-member team helped to improve the housing environment and health of the local residents and also ran classes to teach less-privileged kids living there.

In April, the foundation offered medical checkups in a remote village in Cambodia to celebrate the opening of the Cambodian stock market. KRX also plans to support the training of Cambodian medical staff in Korea.

The foundation conducts volunteer work in other Southeast Asian countries as well. In January, it provided medical checkups to about 7,000 people in Laos in commemoration of the opening of the Laotian stock market.

The foundation also offered some 1,400 items of clothing, medical equipment and medicine for immediate use and supported the renovation of schools and purchased educational equipment. KRX employees regularly visit the country for further support, according to KRX.

KRX also pays attention to helping out in times of natural disasters. It donated $100,000 to Pakistan in 2005, 200 million won to China in 2009, 300 million won to Haiti in 2010, $100,000 to Turkey in 2011 and $50,000 to Thailand last year.

KRX said that it plans to further expand its global volunteer and charity work.

“We will share happiness especially with underdeveloped nations including our overseas partners like Cambodia and Laos by supporting the opening of stock markets and exporting IT systems,” said Kim Bong-soo, KRX Chairman.

In Korea, KRX is pushing the “Kids aRe eXpectation” movement to promote childbirth and hosted writing and painting competitions for children on Children’s Day. It supports birthday parties for children in low-income households throughout the nation.

The exchange also does charity work in Korea including donating computers, briquettes and kimchi. The KRX Happiness Sharing Volunteer Team, founded last year, consists of KRX employees and does many volunteer projects here such as helping out at farms and with broken homes and holding charity concerts.

The KRX Employee Sharing Fund is notable as well. It is composed of the employees’ donations of a part of their salaries and matching grants provided by the company.

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)