KT&G (CEO Min Young-jin) is to carry out activities to protect and disclose local cultural properties that are beyond the reach of proper management by assigning one cultural property to one department to take care of them.

The activity of “acting as guardians of our cultural assets” is a volunteer work tailored to the needs of the local community to protect cultural properties that are beyond the reach of national care. First, KT&G is scheduled to carry out these activities, mainly through sales branches across the country, and will spread them to the head office and the manufacturing plants later on.

KT&G has first selected 100 cultural assets scattered across the country, and officers and employees at a branch are planning to carry out various types of activities, including cleaning up the surrounding areas, distribution of guidebooks, holding events to increase visitors, and so forth, taking into account the circumstances each cultural property is in.

KT&G Social Contribution Manager Lee Eung-chul said, "We may be able to disseminate love for our cultural assets and pride in them by acting as guardians of the local cultural properties across the country which are valuable, but forgotten.”

Meanwhile, KT&G officers and employees plan to create a fund out with donations of ₩10,000 for every one hour of volunteering to act as a guardian of cultural property, putting the amount aside for the Sangsang Fund. The Sangsang Fund is a social contribution fund that was created with voluntary donations by KT&G officers and employees from their paychecks and the same matching amount from the company. It is mainly used to cover the expenses for operations for children from low-income families. The annual operational budget scale reaches approximately ₩3.5 billion.