Korea Gas Safety Corp. (KGS) has been pursuing its target to reduce the number of gas-related accidents to the lowest in the world by 2017, KGS President Park Gi-dong said in a recent interview.
“Gas accidents peaked at 557, the largest-ever level, in 1995, but the figure nosedived to 120 cases last year,” KGS President Park noted.
Japan made history by logging the lowest gas accident rate in the world last year.
KGS President Park was selected as one of the beneficiaries of the corporation’s first overseas training programs to study in Japan in 1991.
“At that time, Korea was in a position to acquire technology from Japan in return for money, but the country has introduced international safety standards and evolved technology, so Japan surprisingly is trying to take its cues from our policies and technology while attending international conferences,” he said.
He went on to say that Korea could surpass Japan’s safety record to become the safest nation in the world when it comes to a gas-related accidents.
Park climbed the corporation’s hierarchy to become the first CEO appointed from within KGS last December. He entered KGS in 1980 as a freshmen technician, hired in the corporation’s first public competition. He was charged with safety management of large-scale petrochemical gas and other facilities prone to large accidents for 21 years. Since then, Park has been dubbed as a “gas safety maestro,” who has the right stuff in both the technology and administration fields, as he has held such positions as the chief of the Planning and Coordinating Office, technology director, and senior executive vice president.
KGS will dedicate the Energy Safety Experimentation Research Center next September, a project KGS President Park himself planned and translated into action while serving as the chief of the Planning and Coordinating Office in 2011. The center, to be set up in Yeongwol, Gangwon-do, will be equipped with 86 kinds of 165 advanced equipment and testing devices as well as labs capable of experimenting gas-ignited fires and explosions. It will also test and certify products in ultra high- and low- temperatures. The center will not only determine the exact causes of gas-ignited fires and explosions, but also conduct tests for certifying performances of such ultra-high products as compressed natural gas (CNS) and hydrogen as well as such ultra-low products as liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen that have so far been commissioned abroad, he said.
“There are parts of regulations on gas safety, including the ones on distances for safety that are groundless and whose effectiveness is unconfirmed, and if the center is set up, it will overhaul these,” he said.
KGS is taking steps to prevent gas accidents that normally occur during the winter season, and to this end, the corporation is strengthening measures including field inspections.
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President Park Gi-dong, holding the trophy, poses for a photo session following the company’s win of the Presidential Award in the Korea National Quality Award in the organization category at the Korea National Quality Management Convention held at Coex in southern Seoul on Nov. 18, 2015.(Photos:KGS)
KGS Honored with Presidential Award
KGS won the Presidential Award in the organization category (human development) of Korea National Quality Award at the 41st National Quality Management Convention at COEX Auditorium in Seoul on Nov. 18.
KGS President Park declared his determination to innovate personnel management when he took office as the first CEO appointed from within the corporation. He has implemented a personnel management system based on capabilities and performances, departing from the conventional seniority-oriented model. He is sticking to a no tolerance policy for those who are involved in malpractice and wrongdoing and a personnel management system in which staff members are transferred to jobs they want to work to allow them to be home sooner after work.
KGS, setting human resources development as part of the corporation’s core values, is fleshing out mid- and long-term management strategies to develop human resources. Last April, the corporation established a roadmanp to nurture the top 13 world-class core technologies by 2020 to secure the corporation’s technology prowess.
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