Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Hana Financial Chairman Kim Jung-tai, second from left, poses with athletes and coaching staff of the national luge team at a stadium in PyeongChang last Oct. 18, after delivering its sponsorship funds. Courtesy of Hana Financial |
By Park Hyong-ki
Kim Jung-tai, chairman and chief executive of Hana Financial Group, will be heading for North Korea to watch a youth football match for the 4th Ari Sports Cup held in Pyongyang from Aug. 13 to 18, according to the Ministry of Unification and the South and North Korean Sports Exchange Association.
The chairman is expected to be joined by KEB Hana Bank CEO Ham Young-joo and several other Hana executives on his trip to the North.
The association and the group said Wednesday he has been invited both as "a spectator and a sponsor" of the Ari Sports Cup U-15 competition. Kim is expected to return to Seoul right after the event. KEB Hana Bank is one of the sponsors for the Korea Football Association, and was one of the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics sponsors, the group noted.
The government recently allowed 150 South Koreans to travel to Pyongyang via a land route for a football tournament.
Teams from the two Koreas, China, Russia, Uzbekistan and Belarus will be competing for the championship cup. The first Ari Sports Cup was held in South Korea's border town of Yeoncheon in 2014.
Hana Financial has mobilized its key subsidiaries such as KEB Hana Bank, Hana Financial Investment and Hana Alternative Asset Management to each form a taskforce and study ways to foray into North Korea as inter-Korean relations improve in the future and U.N. sanctions are lifted.
Last week, the group held a forum in Seoul to exchange ideas with government officials and businesspeople regarding potential opportunities in the North.
"We are looking into ways to design a project where Hana's investment banking unit can contribute to increasing business exchanges between the two Koreas in the future," said Hana Financial Investment CEO Lee Jin-kook at the forum on Aug. 7.
The group said it would seek to join hands with construction companies such as Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Daelim Industrial to provide financing for the development of the North's infrastructure. Hana Financial Investment said it could launch a fund investing in the North's infrastructure.
It could also push KEB Hana Bank to the forefront to provide banking services via China where the lender is present in 31 regions, including in Liaoning and Jilin provinces.
Last month, Hana Chairman Kim met with officials from the Jilin government to enhance ties.
