쌍용건설

Despite the global COVID-19 pandemic, Ssangyong E&C’s Chairman and CEO S. Joon Kim headed to Dubai, in a rare move considering the general reluctance in the construction industry to undertake overseas business trips of late.

According to Ssangyong E&C, Chairman and CEO S. Joon Kim left Korea on September 22 to visit the Royal Atlantis Resort and Residences, currently the company’s largest overseas construction site scheduled to be completed in June 2021, to discuss pending issues and coordinate ideas with the client.

Royal Atlantis Resort and Residences include 795 rooms in a 46-story building. The complex features a one-of-a-kind exterior design: Seen from the sky, the entire complex is S-shaped seen from the front, it resembles irregularly stacked Lego blocks. The project is valued at more than USD 1 billion. By the time the postponed Expo 2020 Dubai opens in October next year, the Royal Atlantis Resort and Residences will have emerged as Dubai’s landmark hotel.  

“Because of the site’s enormous scale and numerous pending issues, teleconferencing has never been a fully satisfying communications medium,” a company official said. “Through this trip to Dubai, Chairman and CEO S. Joon Kim will be able to find mutually beneficial solutions by coordinating diverse pending issues with the client through in-person discussions.”

In addition to the Royal Atlantis site, Chairman and CEO S. Joon Kim will be visiting six other project sites in the UAE, to check on-site circumstances and provide encouragement to workers. In particular, to boost the morale of the on-site staff, who have been unable to visit Korea for the past 8-9 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to help relieve their homesickness, the company extended their holidays to include the Korean Thanksgiving holidays.  

Since the Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), a sovereign wealth fund valued at a staggering KRW 310 trillion (approx. USD 283 billion), became Ssangyong E&C’s largest shareholder in 2015, the company has been involved in nine construction projects totaling USD 2.1 billion.