Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jay-yong poses with students of the Samsung S/W Academy for Youth (SSAFY) branch in Gwangju as he toured the institution on Aug. 20. (Photo: Samsung Electronics)

Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jay-yong toured Samsung Research at Samsung Electronics Seoul R&D Campus in Umyeong-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul, on Sept. 11 and took stock of strategies to develop AI, next-generation telecom/display, and robots.

Under the stewardship of Vice Chairman Lee, Samsung Electronics entered an emergency management mode in June as the company was struggling with poor performances and external uncertainties.

Starting last month, Vice Chairman Lee began to tour major site operations of Samsung Electronics and subsidiaries of Samsung Group and have meetings with CEOs. His latest tour to Samsung Electronics’ R&D hub may be construed as his emphasis on the significance of growth engines and future technology investment.

Samsung Electronics Seoul R&D Campus, which began to move in November 2015, has about 5,000 employees specializing in R&D, design and patents. Samsung Research, born after a merger of DMC Research Institute and Software Center in 2017, serves as an integrated research institute specializing in R&D related to TVs, home appliance products and handsets.

Samsung Research has R&D hubs in 14 countries around the world and about 10,000 research manpower who work on research related to technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution, including AI, IoT and software/hardware and convergence technologies. It was the first time he toured Samsung Research.

At the latest tour, Vice Chairman Lee said, the bigger uncertainties are getting, the more we have to do what we have to without wav erring. “What Samsung Electronics is today, was the future of what impossible things were in the past,” he said. Lee emphasized thorough preparedness and endless challenging spirit to create a new future with new technologies that have been not seen so far.

On hand were Samsung Electronics President Kim Hyun-suk; President Noh Hee-chan in charge of management support; President Han Jong-hee, head of the Visual Display Business; President Noh Tae-moon, head of the Mobile Communications Business; Cho Seung-hwan, vice president of Samsung Research, and Senior Executive Vice President Chun Kyung-hoon, head of the Network Business.

In a related development, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee toured a subway construction site of Samsung C&T in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital, on Sept. 15. Vice Chairman Lee toured overseas operations of Samsung Electronics on several occasions, but it was the first time Lee made an inspection tour at a construction site of a non-Samsung Electronics subsidiary of Samsung Group.

The Riyadh metro project calls for constructing a 168-km-long subway line, the first of six subway lines in the Saudi capital. Vice Chariman Lee gave words of encouragement to executives and staff members working at the construction site during the traditional Korean Chuseok holiday.

Lee said, “The Middle East is emerging as a land of new opportunities as post-petroleum projects have been implemented. Your sweating by keeping on working at the site without spending the chuseok holiday with your families will bring new opportunities to fruits of tomorrow.”

Samsung Electronics’ New Tech Demonstration Session in Japan

Despite the possible consequences Japan’s export curbs on Korea will have on Samsung Electronics’ bid to nurture a semiconductor foundry business, the Korean electronics giant is stepping on the gas to develop the foundry business.

Samsung Electronics plans to hold a foundry tech forum in September as planned and introduce an extreme ultraviolet production process to Japanese demand companies and business partners.

The Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF) 2019 Japan is to take place on Sept. 4 as planned at the Sinagawa Inter City Hall in Tokyo.

The event is one of annual series of semiconductor forums being held in major countries, including the United States, China and Korea. A similar event is to be held in Germany in October.