Since 2009, we have signed and implemented a renewed “Shared-Growth and Fair-Trade Agreement” with 1,500 small-to-medium business partners each year. We provide these partners with financial assistance through an annual co-prosperity fund containing USD 178 million. We earmarked another USD 178 million for a “private equity fund for mutual growth” that helps further strengthen our partnerships (as of 2019).

In 2018, our affiliates came together to create two co-prosperity funds of their own, with USD 50 million and USD 111 million in assets, respectively. These were set up so that partner companies could obtain low-interest-rate loans. Borrowers use these funds to grow their own businesses so they can work with Hanwha on a more equal footing.

In addition, individual affiliates are trying to be more supportive of their business partners.

Hanwha Aerospace signed a fair-trade agreement with more than 80 partner companies in 2019 and pledged to form closer working relationships with them. Hanwha Engineering & Construction signed a similar agreement in 2020 with 210 partner companies to share financial, technological, and managerial support so that partners may share in mutual business growth.

Hanwha Systems took the win-win concept even further in 2020 when it provided 109 subcontractors with USD 340 million in early payments in a demonstration of our “Going Further Together” philosophy.

As part of our “Happy Sunshine” initiative, we donated a solar-power system to the remote Korean island of Jukdo. Prior to this, the island’s residents relied on diesel generators for electricity. Now, they receive clean energy from a 210 KW solar-power system and 900 KW energy-storage system.

Since the donation, Jukdo’s residents have saved nearly USD 70,000 per year on diesel fuel for their generators. Those savings were invested in developing eco-friendly camping sites and fishing parks, jump-starting a local tourist industry and boosting the island’s economy.

Our business operations support community growth as well. In 2018, employees at Hanwha Q CELLS’ flagship plant in Jincheon, Korea, made room to hire 500 new employees. The new jobs had a positive effect on the local economy. Additionally, the plant works with two local high school to provide vocational training and create a pipeline through which students can obtain jobs with Hanwha Q CELLS once they graduate.

As a global fintech enabler, Hanwha’s financial businesses are engaging in social impact investments to fund companies that are making a positive impact in Southeast Asia. This includes Hanwha Investment and Securities’ USD 10 million stake in Lightnet, a Bangkok-based firm that provides easier and safer cross-border remittance services in Southeast Asia for unbanked and underbanked Asians. Meanwhile, Hanwha Asset Management endowed USD 5 million in iStox, a Singapore-based capital markets platform that supports one-stop issuance and trading of digitized securities and makes financial investing more accessible to the layperson.

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