Korea Connections: Successful Business Built on Strong Relationships
Strong economic ties are founded on more than just trade – the personal relationships between leaders, policy makers, and representatives are crucial to building long-lasting global partnerships. With international trade and travel on the road to recovery, state leaders have been honored to welcome international visitors again to the state.
Recently, the State of Georgia welcomed a delegation of high-ranking officials from the Korean province of Gyeong sang Buk-Do. Representatives from the State met with the delegation to discuss how they can work together to create future opportunities for businesses from Georgia and Korea.
The State of Georgia and Korea have enjoyed a long history of mutually beneficial partnerships, investments, and cultural exchange.
In March, Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) Commissioner Pat Wilson and Mr. Soo Deuk Sohn, the Senior Executive Vice President of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), celebrated an event that has been years in the making: the opening of the new KOTRA overseas office in Atlanta. This location will be the eighth KOTRA office in the United States and the 10th in North America. KOTRA’s overseas offices host teams dedicated to facilitating trade and investment opportunities between host states and Korea. KOTRA’s presence in Georgia reflects the current strength of the Georgia-Korea connection, and it speaks to a bright future of more successful partnerships.
An Electric Story: South Korean Companies Help Drive Sustainability in Georgia
The automotive industry has been a cornerstone for the economic relationship between Georgia and Korea. As the industry’s future turns green, environmentally friendly and sustainable technology companies from Korean have found a home in Georgia, too.
Kia Motors
Relationships developed in Korea by Georgia’s international office in Seoul bloomed into a historic economic development project for the state. Just six months after Kia requested a special meeting with GDEcD officials, the Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia (KMMG), now Kia Georgia, project was announced.
Since beginning operations in 2009, Kia Georgia has attracted numerous suppliers to Georgia. HYUNDAI TRANSYS, Sewon Precision, DAEHAN Solution, and Powertech America are just a few examples of companies that followed Kia to Georgia between 2009 and 2014.
Kia’s relationships in Georgia span more than a dozen local entities that have assisted the company over the years. State partners include the Departments of Labor, Transportation, and Community Affairs, the Georgia Ports Authority, the Attorney General’s office, and the state’s technical college system.
The Technical College System of Georgia‘s (TCSG) Quick Start program partnered with Kia to construct and operate the 70,000-square-foot Kia Georgia Training Center. The center implements innovative approaches to provide customized, advanced industrial training for Kia Georgia’s employees. Quick Start also developed a maintenance certification program at West Georgia Technical College to help students fine-tune their knowledge of industrial maintenance and open emplyment opportunities with large manufacturers like Kia Georgia.
As part of its dedication to partnering with Georgia, Kia Georgia also invests in local communities. Kia Georgia sponsors local school system STEM programs as well as Troup County’s THINC College and Career Academy, a model facility giving students the chance to explore multiple career opportunities in the automotive and manufacturing industries.
The Ray, a section of West Georgia’s I-85 that’s a proving ground for evolving transportation technology, is another community project supported by Kia Georgia. As part of the corridor, Kia Georgia sponsors a free solar panel charging center and tire inspection center at the state-operated West Point Visitor Information Center.
Kia Georgia’s dedication to their adopted home state doesn’t stop there. Kia Georgia is a proud inaugural partner in Georgia Made™. The program, which requires that 50% of the final product is manufactured in Georgia, provides additional logistics, manufacturing, and marketing support to qualifying companies.
SK Group
In 2018, the announcement that SK On would manufacture electric vehicle (EV) batteries in Jackson County set in motion another ripple effect attracting investment from global electric mobility suppliers like Duckyang, Enchem Ltd, TEKLAS, GEDIA, and others.
SKC, a subsidiary of SK Group, located in Georgia in 1996, and it holds the distinction as the first South Korean company to establish a manufacturing plant in Georgia. Since that time, the company’s original Newton County facility has become one of the major polyester films (PET film) producers in North America, providing high-quality, environmentally friendly service as a base-film market leader.
In 2021, SKC and several business partners announced plans to manufacture glass-based substrates for semiconductor chips in Covington. The company will invest more than $473 million in this unprecedented venture and will create more than 400 new jobs. In the words of Dr. Sung Jin Kim, SKC Director of New Business Development, “Georgia will be a basecamp for SKC’s AI and high-speed data center semiconductor applications.”
Decades of partnerships, relationship-building, and investments in the future laid the groundwork for this successful venture. Georgia Tech also played a key role through research collaboration with SKC. For the last decade and a half, Georgia Tech has invested in advanced circuitry research and methods for packaging fragile technology as part of its Packaging Research Center. The center was launched in 1993 by Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) Eminent Scholar Rao Tummala.
In addition to the SKC location in Covington, SK On is investing nearly $2.6 billion in two battery manufacturing facilities in Jackson County to supply electric vehicles, including the Ford F-150 Lightning. Founded in 1976, SK Group is one of the largest conglomerates in South Korea, and the new facility is the third major investment by SK Group in the State of Georgia.
Qcells
Qcells was one of the companies attracted to Georgia’s emerging EV ecosystem after SK On's 2018 announcement. The Seoul-based solar panel manufacturer has already played a role in securing new investments in the state.
During its nationwide site-selection process, Meta Platforms Inc.
(formerly known as Facebook) announced that they would require 100% new renewable energy sources to power their planned $1 billion state-of-the-art facility. In 2018, Meta announced its choice: Stanton Springs, Georgia.
A large part of Meta’s decision to locate in Newton County was that Georgia’s utility providers had found a way to meet the requirement. Solar panels used to power the data center were manufactured at Qcells plant in Dalton just up I-20 and I-75 – the largest solar panel manufacturing facility in the western hemisphere. The panels were then installed and maintained in south Georgia’s Early County.
Qcells’ 300,000-square-foot facility in Dalton, which employs more than 700 local workers, produces of 1.7 GW of solar module capacity annually. The facility, which opened in 2019, produces 12,000 panels a day. Leadership from the State of Georgia and Qcells agreed that Georgia was positioned to continue to grow as a leader in the solar and renewable power industries. Creating a local supply chain that can power an industry ecosystem is important to attracting opportunities, and Qcells has become a key source of renewable energy options for new or expanding businesses.
Longtime Partners in Foreign Relations
The State of Georgia is proud of its close connection with Korea, hosting a Korean consular presence since 1971 and maintaining continuous representation in Seoul since 1985. The state also has a dedicated Director of Korean Investment based in the State of Georgia, and in 2019, Governor Kemp made an economic development mission to Korea his very first as Governor.
Interested in learning more about cultural connections between the State of Georgia and Korea? Read here
Georgia-based businesses looking to expand into new international markets should visit www.georgia.org/international/trade to learn more about the services the International Trade team provides.
For more Georgia-Korea ties, visit our Country Connections.
A business-friendly atmosphere, advanced connectivity to diverse markets, and a moderate climate are just a few of the assets that make Georgia the top state for business. To learn what more Georgia has to offer, contact us at: www.georgia.org/about-us/contact-us.