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LG vice chair pushes execs to invest in future technology

Koo Bon-joon

LG Group Vice Chairman Koo Bon-joon demanded company executives make pre-emptive investments to secure competitive technology for the future at a seminar of roughly 400 LG executives on Tuesday in Seoul.

“It’s important LG secures core capabilities to pursue future cash cows by using both internal and external resources,” Koo said. “We need to secure technology faster [than others].”

Koo referred to the recent acquisition of leading car headlight maker ZKW by LG Electronics and its holding company LG Corp. According to the vice chairman, the acquisition will help LG ramp up its competitiveness in the automotive parts business that it chose as a future growth engine.

LG plans to expand the product portfolio of its car parts business using resources from ZKW. LG Electronics and LG Corp inked a deal to acquire the Austrian automobile lighting supplier for 1.44 trillion won ($1.3 billion) last month.

Koo is also expecting a new research facility built last month to ramp up LG’s technology development.

LG opened up a new research campus dubbed LG Science Park to host labs for a range of businesses including electronics and chemical as well as future growth engines like OLED and automotive parts in Gangseo District, western Seoul, after investing 4 trillion won.

The lab will also focus on studying the convergence of next-generation technologies like robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous driving and 5G connectivity.

“I ask for executives’ active participation in making many success cases that can sustain the growth of LG in the future,” Koo said.

BY KIM JEE-HEE [kim.jeehee@joongang.co.kr]