Ground has been broken for the new headquarters of Hana Financial Group in Cheongna International City in Incheon.
The Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority announced on Feb. 15 that it held a ground-breaking ceremony on a special stage in Hana Dream Town in the international city.
Hana Dream Town is a large-scale project which has seen more than 730 billion won in project cost investment on 246,671-square-meters of land in Cheongna to build the Hana Data Center, Hana Global Campus and the group headquarters as key facilities of Hana Financial Group.
The project has been in full swing since 2014 and is the only such case among Korean financial groups.
In the first phase, the integrated data center was completed in 2017. About 1,800 employees are currently working at the center. Hana Global Campus was completed in 2019 as a second-phase project.
The third stage involves the construction of the group’s headquarters building. The edifice will have seven basement floors, 15 floors above ground and a total floor area of 128,474 square meters when completed in 2025.
It will be home to six Hana Financial Group affiliates — Hana Bank, Hana Card, Hana Financial Investment, Hana Life Insurance, Hana Insurance, and Hana Financial Group.
In order to take a leap forward in line with the digital and global era, Hana Financial Group is integrating information technology (IT) infrastructure, personnel training, and work capabilities that were previously distributed and managed by affiliates.
When the group headquarters building is completed, Cheongna will establish itself as the center of finance with the building regarded as a landmark of Cheongna.
The headquarters building was designed by NBBJ, an authoritative U.S. architectural design company. The design work was honored as Asia’s first “Best Project of the Year” among more than 300 projects carried out by NBBJ.
It also took home three prizes in the world’s design sector, including being selected as the winner in the non-completion category of the 2021 Best of Year Awards hosted by U.S. Interior Design.
The headquarters will be run as an open space shared with local residents and business people. It will offer spaces for Korean and foreign IT experts to gather and work together.
“The group headquarter will be open to everyone 365 days a year to promote win-win growth with local communities and people,” said Chairman Kim Jung-tae of Hana Financial Group in a commemorative speech.
“We hope that the uniquely designed building will become a hot spot that foreigners can find when traveling Korea.”
In the meantime, Hana Financial Group announced on Feb. 23 that it has signed an ESG future strategy business agreement with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) aimed at solving climate change problems, converting to a low-carbon energy economy and expanding new and renewable energy.
Carbon neutrality is the concept of making net emissions “zero” so that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere will increase no longer.
It means greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are reduced as much as possible and actual greenhouse gas emissions fall to zero with forest absorption and carbon capture, storage, and utilization (CCUS) technologies.
In line with the growing global trend of carbon neutrality, Hana Financial Group and the KAIST expressed their ambition to promote sincere industry-academic cooperation while contributing to global carbon neutrality policies with the aim of developing new ESG technologies and creating values.
Hana Financial Group will contribute to the creation of various added value, including converting the economic structure to a low-carbon one and the creation of a low-carbon industry ecosystem through active cooperation with the KAIST and support for the field of artificial photosynthesis which is part of CCUS technology.
Artificial photosynthesis technology uses solar energy to upcycle carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as a useful substance by imitating the principle of plants’ photosynthesis.
Hana Financial Group will provide 10 billion won in academic activities for basic science and convergence technology, and 10 billion won in investment in the establishment of the Artificial Photosynthesis Research Institute.
It expects the financial sector to provide a new direction for carbon-neutral EGS management.
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