FKI opens child care center in Siheung

The Federation of Korean Industries(FKI) held an opening ceremony on May 23 of the 'Jeongwang Bodeumi Nanumi (meaning caring and sharing) Child Care Center' in Jeongwang-dong, Siheung, Gyeonggi-do. Construction of the facility is to help moms working for SMEs in industrial complexes, and the event was joined by the Korea Industrial Complex Corporation(KICOX) and the Community Chest of Korea.

Reflecting the features of the employees within the industrial complex, the new facility will be providing tailored services and operating around-the-clock. The Sihwa Industrial Complex now houses 9,400-odd companies, employing nearly 98,000 workers, and 17,000 of them, or 18 percent of the total, are female. Despite such huge demand, the complex has had only one child care facility.

The completion of the center is a part of the Federation's project which began in 2006 to establish child care facilities across the nation to help resolve low fertility, and utilize more female human resources. The new facility can accommodate 137 kids in two wards, one for infants and the other for toddlers. Sixty percent of its users are working in the Sihwa Industrial Complex.

In his remarks at the opening ceremony, FKI Vice Chairman Seung Cheol Lee expressed his hope, "The new center will help you work out your child care problems, and it will turn out to be the best workplace for you."

Over the last four years, FKI has worked on a project to build seven daycare centers in industrial complexes. Five of them have been completed in the Gajang Industrial Complex in Osan, the Gimpo Golden Valley, the Gwangju Hi-tech Industrial Complex, the Digital Industrial Complex, and the Siheung Industrial Complex, and more than 540 working moms with SMEs have been benefitting from the project.

Currently, facilities are under construction in the Fourth Industrial Complex in Cheonan, and the Namdong Industrial Complex in Incheon. The child care support project initiated by FKI and the nation's business circles is designed to help solve low fertility, and prevent working moms from leaving companies earlier due to childbirth or child care. The business community will open a total of 100 centers by 2016, and 52 centers have been either completed or under construction. 16 business groups, including Samsung, Hyundai Motor Company, SK, LG, Lotte, POSCO, GS have joined hands in this corporate philanthropic project.