Hyundai’s US$26 billion investment plan in the US to continue despite immigration raid, says CEO
Its workers were detained at a plant it had a stake in
[SINGAPORE] Automotive giant Hyundai’s plan to invest US$26 billion in the US between 2025 to 2028 will continue as planned.
This is even after its workers were detained in an immigration raid at a plant it had a stake in.
Its chief executive officer Jose Munoz said on Wednesday (Nov 19) that the incident has not dented the South Korean company’s commitment to the US.
“We are not (in the US) for the short term. We’ve been in the country for many years. It is the No 1 market, it’s where we make the most. We cannot just simply – because something happened – say this is going to change our plans,” said Munoz, who was speaking as a panellist at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.
“On the contrary, I say we double down. We want to maintain our investment in the country, and we think that in the mid to long term, things are going to get better,” he added.
About two months ago, more than 300 South Korean workers were arrested by US immigration officials during a raid at a battery plant in the state of Georgia, sparking tensions between both countries and raising concerns that this might deter other South Korean companies from investing in the US.
However, Munoz said the positive outcome from this incident was that the immigration process for workers with specialised skills was sorted out after several discussions involving the company, the federal and state government in the US, as well as immigration officials in both countries.
“We found a very good permanent solution, not only for our suppliers, but for our own people. We have thousands of people who come (to the US), establish operations, and then go back to Korea... We are coordinating much better among the companies that are impacted.”
The problem previously was that the US did not have an immigration process that recognised specialised workers who had the skills to operate certain processes or technologies that were not available in the country.
Munoz added that the White House personally called him to apologise for the incident, and said that it was not aware that this immigration raid was going to take place.
Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, also said the same, adding that he had no idea what happened and that the raid was not under the jurisdiction of his state.
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