RIYADH, 15 November 2006 — More than 250 Samsung employees, working like environmentalists in their own style, gathered at the Jubail sea coast on Sunday and cleaned some of the dirtiest parts of the beach.
In one day, the team led by Samsung Vice President Shin-Youl Kang, collected hundreds of bags of rubbish including papers, cloth rags and pieces of carpet besides old car parts and many other types of pollutants.
“Samsung launched this cleaning campaign as part of a broader initiative under which this Korean company is all set to extend aid and assistance to different voluntary groups and institutions in the Kingdom, which are working for the betterment of Saudi society,” said Kang, who is also the regional director of Samsung. The electronic company is running the community initiative under the slogan “Running Together 2007.”
Samsung, which has a business philosophy to help and integrate itself with the local society, has won several major contracts in Saudi Arabia. It is currently executing projects worth over $2.1 billion, mainly in the Eastern Province. The company, which has world-class expertise in handling energy and environmental projects, has emerged as a major international player with substantial business interests in the Middle East.
Referring to the enthusiasm of Samsung employees in the beach cleaning campaign, Kang said: “We saw the state of the beaches and realized that if we don’t do something then no one would.” He added that the campaign focused on the beaches near Jubail, which is rich in biodiversity. The beaches in Jubail are arguably the most beautiful in Saudi Arabia. In one day, the group cleaned several kilometers of the coastline.
“I’ve been amazed by how hard everyone has worked,” said Kang, who himself participated in the project. “The more rubbish we find the harder we work — people are really passionate about this (cleaning campaign),” he said, adding that although a lot of the garbage is washed ashore by the sea, a substantial amount of it comes from tourists using the beaches. Plastic bottles and dirty papers made up the bulk of the rubbish but volunteers also discovered many other things that they suspect had been dumped at sea carelessly.
