Ladies and gentlemen, my colleagues, I am here to speak to you today as the new president of SK Telecom, filling the shoes of Vice Chairman Dr. Jung Uck Seo, whom I admire deeply. I would like to offer my heartfelt respect and gratitude to Chairman Kil Seung Sohn and Dr. Seo for putting the company on the firm footing as the largest telecom service provider in Korea And I also would like to thank each and every one of you for your strong commitment to your responsibilities and the growth of the company. Had it not been for your sweat and tears, SK Telecom could not have made it. Because of your hard work, we could achieve sustainable growth against countless odds put upon us by intensified competition and economic crisis. .
Today, the global telecom industry is being integrated at a fast rate as the traditional boundaries between voice and data communications crumble and new hybrids between wire and wireless services are appearing. Undaunted, the carriers and service providers are seeking strategic alliances through mergers and acquisitions to reinforce their competitiveness in the global markets, quickly responding to and even accelerating these dramatic changes. Physical boundaries can no longer bind them.

Similar changes are happening in the domestic market, too. As the nation was hit by a region-wide currency crisis and subsequently bailed out by the International Monetary Fund, the growth rate has visibly slowed down. Worse, the profit margin is getting slim as severe competition makes the service providers turn to restructuring. Some of our competitors established partnership with foreign carriers for an injection of foreign investment. Our war with them for survival and market leadership has already begun.

Therefore, in order for us to maintain leadership throughout the sweeping changes of industrial restructuring and achieve sustainable growth and stability, we must significantly improve our competitiveness by means of corporate restructuring. And to achieve that goal, as the new president of the company, I will undertake a company-wide corporate innovation swiftly and decisively.

First, we will define our core competence to meet the challenges in the fast-changing environment and concentrate the corporate resources on it to strengthen our competitiveness. Second, we will clarify the roles and responsibilities of each business unit under the principle of management accountability. The function of each unit will have to be optimized to produce maximum results. Third, all business activities encompassing strategy planning and sales operations will be undertaken with a strong emphasis on value creation. We will continue to increase the innate strength and value of the company.

With our enhanced competitiveness, I believe we will be able to achieve our vision of becoming the world’s premier telecom service provider and equipment manufacturer in the twenty-first century earlier than we projected. And to make that happen, I propose four-point management strategy as follows.

First, we will pursue "total customer satisfaction management" to become a top ranking corporation in the world. Our customer service will not end at the customer contact points such as sales people and operational staff. Our customer service will come from every member of the company, top to bottom. Moreover, all systems will be designed and operated according to the needs of the customer.

Second, we will invest aggressively in technology development to lead the telecom markets in the next century. The world is now moving towards the convergence of telecom and broadcasting due to technological breakthroughs in network and equipment manufacturing. Needless to say, we need to become a leader in technology to become a dominating force in the converged industry. SK Telecom already entered the Internet industry with Netsgo, began to provide GMPCS as a partner for IRIDIUM consortium and is now trying to get the upper hand in the equipment technology by establishing SK Teletech. SK Telecom was the world’s first to provide commercial CDMA service. Our leadership in this area will help us to improve our R&D capability to provide integrated services over the upgraded networks and to lead the development of the so-called next generation mobile technology such as IMT-2000 that allows voice, data and video transmission.

Third, the mobile communications market has been muddied by overheated competition among the late-starters. We will help it regain stability and order by consolidating our leadership.

Fourth, we will use our market leadership to help the fair competition rules take firm roots and to pursue increases in profitability and balanced growth of the market. Service providers will be able to have mutually reinforcing relationships and compete on an equal footing with one another.

SUPEX cannot be successful without your voluntary will and creativity. We will provide you with a free and pleasant environment where you can experiment as much as you want and need to reach your full potential. I would like to help all members of SK Telecom see their dreams and visions realized as the company reaches its goals of becoming the world’s premier telecommunications operator.

Ladies and gentlemen,
We have a management principle named SKMS and a strong managerial tool called SUPEX. If we succeed in undertaking company-wide corporate innovation and achieving four strategies I proposed through SKMS and SUPEX faced with historical shifts in the market, our long-term vision of becoming the world’s premier company will be realized sooner than we expected and at the same time we will be able to achieve the individual growth of all company members.

In conclusion, I would like to call for your support to materialize our vision because it will take our collective efforts to achieve.

Thank you very much.