South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group which benefited greatly from last year’s memory chip boom will invest a record 27.5 trillion won ($25.9 billion) this year and hire 27,000 new employees over the next three years, according to chairman Chey Tae-won.

The conglomerate unveiled its spending plan - 44 percent bigger from last year - in a forum that invited Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon on Wednesday.

SK Group plans to spend 27.5 trillion won this year and 80 trillion won over the next three years on the back of booming global chip industry. The group’s record annual investment will be mainly led by SK Hynix Inc., world’s second-largest memory chipmaker that reported record earnings last year, and its core unit SK Innovation Co.

SK Group also plans to hire new employees that account for 30 percent of its current workforce by 2020 to help boost youth employment in Korea. Given that about 90,000 employees currently work for the conglomerate, SK Group is expected to hire 27,000 new employees over the next three years.

Chey told Kim that the conglomerate seeks to pursue shared infrastructure while pushing forward plans to effectively share its internal assets with the society. The chairman said that the group plans to more actively support projects that help create an ecosystem for start-ups by nurturing social enterprises and also contribute to creating a virtuous cycle for the economy via investment.

By Kang Doo-soon and Lee Eun-joo

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