The Korea Tobacco & Ginseng Corp. (KT&G) of South Korea has provided the Indonesian government with KRW100 million ($81,140) worth of kits for diagnosing Covid-19.
Indonesia is in short supply of basic medical equipment such as diagnostic kits and protective clothing due to the rapid spread of Covid-19. KT&G secured a large number of diagnostic kits in Korea last month and sent them to Indonesia.
A local branch of KT&G delivered the kits directly to the Indonesian National Emergency Management Agency.
“We decided to provide emergency aid to help our company’s overseas branch to overcome the hardship, said Gyeongdong Kim, the head of social contribution at KT&G.
“I hope that it will be of great help to the Indonesian people who have had a long-standing friendship with South Korea.”
In related news, KT&G reported net profit of KRW293.88 billion in the first quarter of 2020.
The figure was up 7.3 percent over the prior-year quarter as cigarette sales grew steadily during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nonetheless, KT&G’s revenue dropped by 0.6 percent to KRW1.19 trillion as operating profit fell by 9.5 percent to KRW315.01 billion.