Samsung Aids Pyeongchang Winter Olympics

(ATR) The Samsung Group is the newest domestic sponsor for PyeongChang 2018.

PyeongChang 2018 organizers signed a $92.2 million deal with the Samsung Group on April 6. As per the agreement, Samsung Group affiliates will contribute roughly $74.3 million in cash and $18.5 million in merchandise to organizers in PyeongChang. Samsung Electronics will also provide IT equipment for the Games.

The group is the sixth domestic sponsor for the PyeongChang 2018 Games, joining Korean Air, KT, Youngone Outdoor, Pagoda Education Group and Samil PricewaterhouseCoopers. To date, the POCOG has reached 41 percent of its sponsorship target of $737.7 million.

According to Sangjin Park, president of corporate relations at Samsung, the Seoul-based company is sponsoring the 2018 Games to "provide additional support for the PyeongChang 2018 organizing committee to contribute to the successful Olympic Winter Games."

"This sponsorship agreement furthers our efforts to commit to social responsibility as a corporate representative of Korea," Park said at the signing ceremony.

"We are happy to have Samsung support in addition to the TOP partner agreement with POCOG," committee president Yang Ho Cho added.

"We are confident that this sponsorship agreement will encourage other Korean companies to join as sponsors for the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games."

Samsung sponsored the Seoul 1988 Games, and signed a worldwide TOP sponsorship with the IOC under the Wireless Communications category in 1998.

The POCOG also signed a partnership with the state-run Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) on Monday. A team of KOICA volunteers will be dispatched to 46 countries to help promote the 2018 Games. Foreign civil officials will also have opportunities to visit Olympic venues.

Written by Andrew Murrell.

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.