Hyundai Motor foundation to donate 20bn won to enhance culture

The charity foundation named after Hyundai Motor Co. Chairman Chung Mong-koo said Monday it will donate 20 billion won (US$17 million) to support various cultural programs for South Koreans over the next five years. The deal inked between the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation and the culture ministry called for the strengthening of cultural education for students and bridging the cultural divide in a country where people in provincial areas have limited access to culture. The foundation said it will also expand a voucher program so that students in poor families can enjoy cultural programs. Students majoring in arts and culture will also be eligible for scholarships. Culture Minister Yoo Jin-ryong said the contribution will "lay a basis for cultural prosperity" in South Korea. The foundation said it is pleased to play a role in improving people's quality of life and developing the country through culture. The latest move came more than a month after Chung donated all of his 360,000 shares in Innocean Worldwide Corp. -- an unlisted marketing firm of Hyundai Motor Group -- to the foundation. Chung donated 650 billion won to the foundation between 2007 and 2011 after he pledged to donate 840 billion won worth of his assets to society in an apparent attempt to gain leniency over his legal troubles. In June 2008, Chung was sentenced to a three-year prison term for embezzling 70 billion won and breaching trust in a retrial, though the sentence was suspended for five years. Chung did not serve time in jail, as he stayed out of trouble, and he received a presidential special amnesty along with other convicted business tycoons in August 2008. Hyundai Motor forms the world's fifth-largest automaker together with its smaller sister company Kia Motors.