Korea’s largest steel maker expands community investment programme

POSCO, South Korea’s largest steel maker, has expanded its corporate social responsibility activities with its “For a Better World” vision, focusing on raising funds and sharing them with communities both at home and abroad.

Among its many activities, POSCO’s charity foundation increased its donation to KRW 8.5 billion last from KRW 4.5 billion in 2014.
POSCO set up the charity foundation in 2013 to manage donations gathered from its employees for charitable activities. The participants, some 28,777 employees of POSCO and its subcontracted workers, donate 1% of their monthly salary for charitable activities in Korea and abroad. The company matches the donations from individuals.

With the funds, the company supports the underprivileged in Korea and foreign countries where the firm operates.

As the domestic leader in the steel industry, POSCO is building Steel Houses tailored to the needs of local communities. The first Steel House, the Happy Steel House, was built in January 2013, to serve as an institution for low-income seniors in Pohang.

A year later, POSCO built the Happy Steel Welfare Center for the visually impaired in Gwangyang,, which provides IT education and consulting programs through sign-language interpreters.

The most recent Steel House, the Gangbuk Dream Center in Seoul, supports teenagers having trouble with their families or in school. The company plans to build more Steel House establishments for local communities in collaboration with local governments and architects.

Last year, it also launched educational programmes for 60 multicultural children from poor families who have few chances to learn skills for job opportunities. It provides several courses for children such as hair makeup, baking, and language.

The company is also expanding its CSR programmes in overseas countries.

For example, the POSCO Village in Vietnam is situated in Vung Tau, where POSCO’s Vietnam office operates. The project was planned under an initiative to provide lodging to low-income families in the region and aims to build a total of 85 residences by the end of 2016.

In Indonesia, POSCO sponsored the “KP Social Enterprise” last November to help Indonesian youths find jobs in the area near POSCO’s Indonesian plant. The enterprise supports job training and job information to help those young jobseekers get hired.

Last December, POSCO and its affiliates donated KRW10bn to the Community Chest of Korea. POSCO’s employees have been donating every year since 2007 as part of the company’s CSR activities.