OREANDA-NEWS. December 04, 2014. POSCO has extended the scope of its shared growth activities to secondary and tertiary cooperative enterprises and enterprises with which it`s not doing business.

The Korean Commission for Corporate Partnership jointly hosted the 2014 Shared Growth Week Ceremony with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Small and Medium Business Administration. During the week, POSCO agreed to the creation of an open shared growth platform and the introduction of a coexisting payment system with the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, along with major companies such as commercial banks, Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor Group.

An open shared growth platform is a combined cooperative support platform, with the government expanding the available support to include companies not in a direct business relationship. In other words, more companies can now participate in the shared growth program organized by major companies by making and interconnecting the database of the shared growth programs.

The platform being constructed has been named `Shared Growth Valley` and is expected to support the continued growth of cooperative companies and small and medium-sized companies in various areas, particularly start-ups, and those engaged in technical development and productivity improvements.

POSCO will continue to take the initiative to forge a strong industrial ecosystem by grafting programs for shared growth and creative economy like the Idea Marketplace onto this system.

In addition, the newly agreed coexisting payment system will improve the payment conditions between primary and secondary cooperative companies. The system involves monitoring the payment of primary cooperative companies for cash payment by the major companies to continue to the secondary cooperative companies in the same way.

POSCO has started to monitor the payment between primary and secondary cooperative companies by pre-emptively introducing `POSCO Wink`, a coexisting payment type launched last year. POSCO will now seek to use the new arrangements to improve payment conditions between primary and secondary cooperative companies.

Meanwhile, a joint job fair for excellent cooperative companies and major companies was held, followed by a ceremony.

Nine cooperative companies, including Seoul Engineering (President: Lee Won Seok) and Korea Houghton (President: Lim Seok Soon), two of the cooperative companies of POSCO Group, participated in the expo to address problems in the job market. In addition, POSCO showed its commitment to shared growth by actively participating in the entire event; POSCO Steel Solution Center presented the POSCO R&D promotion status and cases in the R&D Forum with major, and small and medium-sized companies, while the Shared Growth Group engaged in one-to-one consulting with small and medium-sized companies.

In particular, efforts to further shared growth at the corporate level in POSCO Group were recognized externally; POSCO won the `Grand prize for Korea`s shared growth company` commendation by the chair of the Korean Commission for Corporate Partnership, awarded for excellent companies on the basis of the shared growth index in 2013, and POSCO CHEMTECH also won a commendation by the Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy as an excellent company for result sharing.

POSCO will now ramp up its efforts to enhance shared growth to include secondary and tertiary cooperative companies by carrying forward various cooperative activities between major companies and small and medium-sized companies.