KORCHAM asks Bill Gates to attend Carbon Neutrality seminar

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft founder and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will visit Korea next month. He is expected to meet with the Korean Chamber of Commerce (KORCHAM) Chairman and SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won to discuss ways to cooperate on carbon neutrality.

According to the business community on Tuesday, the KORCHAM asked Gates to attend the International Seminar on Carbon Neutrality, scheduled for May 3-4. Reportedly, Gates is very likely to attend.

Last year, the KORCHAM hosted a series of seminars on carbon neutrality to understand the situations at Korean companies. The upcoming seminar will recap the requests and research compiled through previous seminars and hear from global companies.

Gates and Chey have a special relationship based on carbon neutrality. Last year SK Corporation and SK Innovation invested 25 million U.S. dollars in Terra Power, which was founded by Gates in 2018 and designs small modular reactors. Chey supported Gates’ view that “carbon neutrality can be achieved.”

Once Gates’ visit is determined, he will likely meet with President Yoon Suk Yeol, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, and other political/business figures. Gates met with President Yoon, Chairman Lee, and Chey last August when he visited Korea to discuss carbon neutrality and cooperative vaccine plans.


Teuk-Gyo Koo kootg@donga.com