Samsung Group said on Thursday that it would offer 770.7 billion won ($682.3 million) as research and development funds to its partner firms this year at its event held to promote fair trade and mutual growth.

At the event organized at Samsung’s office in southern Seoul, 11 Samsung affiliates signed a treaty with 3,270 primary suppliers, while they also signed treaties with 1,269 secondary suppliers, according to company officials.

It was attended by representatives from the Fair Trade Commission, Commission on Shared Growth for Large and Small Companies, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Federation of Korean Industries and the Korea Federation of Small Businesses as well as its 11 affiliates.

The event took place shortly after the country’s largest conglomerate was given a record fine by the state antitrust watchdog for hindering its investigations. The flagship electronics arm also received penalty fees for cprice-fixing its washing machines, televisions and laptops earlier this year.

Samsung’s primary suppliers also pledged to offer cash payment, make more use of their secondary suppliers and give them a reasonable price and written contracts for the subparts needed, said Samsung officials.

Primary suppliers also promised to provide technology support as well as educational support programs for the secondary partner firms and root out any unfair trading practices.

Samsung, which held the event focused on shared growth for the first time last year, has been giving incentives to the primary partner firms that abide the signed treaty.

As an exemplary case, Samsung Electronics offered 100 billion won to the small- and mid-sized firms that featured the most advanced new technologies as development funding.

Samsung Mobile Display also supported up to 1 billion won as its creative partnership project to its partner firms as an effort to boost their technology competitiveness.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)