LG Chairman Koo Kwang-mo on Thursday stressed the importance of securing competitiveness in the development of new materials and components to ensure the group’s future growth, the company said. During a visit to LG Chem’s research and development unit in Daejeon, some 120 kilometers south of Seoul, Koo asked the company’s employees to jump into challenging R&D projects instead of focusing on mere short-term goals, to create “truly innovative value for customers.”

“Securing competitiveness in key materials and components is the foundation of strengthening LG’s product quality and new growth engines for the future,” he said.

“The need to nurture the materials, component and device industries has been raised recently,” he said of pangovernmental efforts to support the materials sector in response to unexpected trade disputes with Japan.

“LG Chem needs to have confidence in its R&D work as its achievements not only strengthen the competitiveness of domestically developed materials and components, but also help to establish a stable supply of those to future industries.”

The 41-year-old chief was accompanied by No Ki-soo, chief technology officer of LG Chem, and Kim Myung-hwan, president of LG Chem’s battery R&D unit, the company said, adding that the three had discussed ways of innovating R&D processes to speed up the development of new materials and components.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)