'Gwangju job project' to establish joint venture with Hyundai Motor to create up to 12,000 jobs in city
Arirang News
2019-01-31
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The so-called 'Gwangju job project' has finally been given the green light, paving the way for Hyundai Motor to build a manufacturing plant in the Korea's southwestern city.
We have our business correspondent Kim Hyesung on the line.
Hyesung, can you tell us more?
Ji-yoon, this project is a joint venture between the Gwangju city government and Hyundai Motor, like you say,... it's a plan to build a factory in the city.
Under the plan that was agreed to on Wednesday, Hyundai will build mini-SUVs starting from 2021, with an annual production capacity of 100-thousand cars.
Workers will work 44 hours a week, get an annual salary of 35 million won or around 31-thosuand U.S. dollars, less than half the average annual wage that Hyundai Motor's unionized workers earn.
The agreement comes after months of negotiations...when Hyundai Motor first proposed the deal last June due to a backlash from the labor union who called for a revision to terms which would suspend annual wage negotiations for the first five years.
According to the compromise, collective wage bargaining will take place only after the cumulative output of the new factory reaches 350-thousand cars...with some complementary measures added for the workers, though the exact detail hasn't been made public yet.
So the deal has been reached, and an agreement ceremony will be held at around two thirty PM in Gwangju.
I see...and can you tell us more about the significance of this deal?
The deal is groundbreaking in a number of ways... as it's a public-private joint venture, aimed at creating jobs at home to help the struggling manufacturing sector and to stem falling facility investment... with the Gwangju City Government and Hyundai Motor being the top two shareholders.
It is also the first time for Hyundai Motor to build a factory in Korea in more than two decades as it has relocated to countries like China, citing high labor costs at home.
For the city, the plant will help create up to 12 thousand new jobs.
Gwangju, with a population of around 1-point-5 million people,... saw over eight-thousand residents leave the city in 2017....two thirds of whom were in their 20s and 30s.
So overall the deal is expected to boost the local economy,... while more details over how to increase demand to export the extra cars will have to be fleshed out.
Back to you, Ji-yoon.
We have our business correspondent Kim Hyesung on the line.
Hyesung, can you tell us more?
Ji-yoon, this project is a joint venture between the Gwangju city government and Hyundai Motor, like you say,... it's a plan to build a factory in the city.
Under the plan that was agreed to on Wednesday, Hyundai will build mini-SUVs starting from 2021, with an annual production capacity of 100-thousand cars.
Workers will work 44 hours a week, get an annual salary of 35 million won or around 31-thosuand U.S. dollars, less than half the average annual wage that Hyundai Motor's unionized workers earn.
The agreement comes after months of negotiations...when Hyundai Motor first proposed the deal last June due to a backlash from the labor union who called for a revision to terms which would suspend annual wage negotiations for the first five years.
According to the compromise, collective wage bargaining will take place only after the cumulative output of the new factory reaches 350-thousand cars...with some complementary measures added for the workers, though the exact detail hasn't been made public yet.
So the deal has been reached, and an agreement ceremony will be held at around two thirty PM in Gwangju.
I see...and can you tell us more about the significance of this deal?
The deal is groundbreaking in a number of ways... as it's a public-private joint venture, aimed at creating jobs at home to help the struggling manufacturing sector and to stem falling facility investment... with the Gwangju City Government and Hyundai Motor being the top two shareholders.
It is also the first time for Hyundai Motor to build a factory in Korea in more than two decades as it has relocated to countries like China, citing high labor costs at home.
For the city, the plant will help create up to 12 thousand new jobs.
Gwangju, with a population of around 1-point-5 million people,... saw over eight-thousand residents leave the city in 2017....two thirds of whom were in their 20s and 30s.
So overall the deal is expected to boost the local economy,... while more details over how to increase demand to export the extra cars will have to be fleshed out.
Back to you, Ji-yoon.
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