Hyundai Motor chief donates W500 bln to charity foundation

Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Mong-koo has given 500 billion won (462.1 million U.S. dollars) of his personal assets to a charity foundation, keeping part of his 2006 public promise to donate 840 billion won (776.3 million dollars).

This is the biggest charitable contribution by a Korean individual and also part of a recent social trend to seek greater corporate responsibility and uphold moral obligations by the rich and the powerful.

A Hyundai source said that in addition to the obligations, Chairman Chung also sympathized with talented university students having difficulties repaying their student loans.

○ Investment for the future

Chung’s donation is focused on cultivating talented individuals by providing students from low-income families with educational opportunities. He said cultivating talent from low-income families is important for the future of Korean society.

The 500 billion won will be donated to the Haevichi Social Contribution Culture Foundation that Chung established when he was under trial for negligence of duty and embezzlement.

Since its establishment, Haevichi has supported victims of traffic accidents, art majors and the families of seamen killed in North Korea’s torpedo attack on the naval corvette Cheonan last year. Chung’s previous donation of 150 billion won (138.6 million dollars) was used for such purposes.

His latest contribution will be used to help the foundation to operate programs for fostering promising students from low-income families, the children of veterans and patriots, and scientific prodigies in high-tech fields.

In addition, the money will be used to assist university students from low-income families. Chung is said to have shown great interest in the practice of university students taking out high-interest loans to pay tuition and later becoming credit delinquents.

Former Commerce Minister Lee Hee-beom is president of the foundation. Board members include Son Ji-yol, former justice of the Supreme Court, and Shin Soo-jung, former dean of the College of Music at Seoul National University.

○ Paradigm shift in donations?

Major donations in Korea have usually made by corporations rather than by heads of large corporations. Chung’s latest donation, however, has fueled expectations that individuals rather than corporations will be the main donors.

Chung`s younger brother Chung Mong-joon, a ruling party lawmaker, donated 200 billion (184.8 billion dollars) in cash and stocks to the Asan Sharing Foundation. In other countries, donations are often made by individuals, including those by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and John D. Rockefeller.

“Unlike in the U.S. and many other countries, donations by individual businesspeople in Korea are slow not only because of tax and other policy issues but also because of the traditional belief that one’s personal wealth should be inherited by his or her children,” said a source at an industry organization.

Whether the Chung family’s large donations will bring changes this trend is attracting interest.

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