A number of financial firms in Korea are establishing various support and resource centers overseas as part of their efforts to participate in volunteer work and raise global brand awareness, sources said.

Shinhan Financial Group recently opened a vocational training center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for the youth of low-income families, the company announced last week.

Shinhan Financial will support the training center with 800 million won ($746,600) over the span of three years and hopes to offer training opportunities for roughly 3,000 underprivileged teenagers throughout the period.

The company also said the center will aim to provide courses for learning Korean, accounting and IT for those wanting to find work under Korean firms conducting business in Vietnam or other lines of work involving Korean clients.

KB Kookmin Card also began construction of its “KB Star Children’s Center” in Myanmar late last month and participated in community services to improve the local educational environment.

The children’s center will include basic necessities like desks, chairs, computers and educational tools as well as facilities for other extracurricular activities, according to the company.

Moreover, KB Kookmin Bank has been operating an overseas community service group comprised of college students ― called RaonAtti ― since 2007.

The ninth RaonAtti group selected this year had 30 members visit India, Bangladesh, East Timor, Thailand, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Cambodia over five months and offer language education and career training for disabled children.

KB Investment & Securities also set up a remodeling agency to help build or rebuild classrooms in developing countries such as Cambodia and Laos.

“Domestic financial firms are continuously expanding their domain of social contributions to abroad,” said a finance official. “Youth occupational training, childhood education and book donations are some of the various forms of contributions being made.”

By Kim Joo-hyun (jhk@heraldcorp.com)