GS Engineering & Construction, one of Korea’s leading builders, has vowed to boost its overseas sales to 70 percent of its total sales by 2020.

Earlier the company announced its “Vision 2020,” including mid-and-long term growth strategies, and declared its goal of growing into a “sustainable global company.”

The company said it would attain the goal by developing and investing in new growth engines.

One of the nation’s top three construction firms, GS E&C said its objective for 2012 is to increase profit from overseas operations to more than 60 percent, which would secure about 16.5 trillion won ($14.2 billion).

Recently the company integrated its global sales sectors dispersed in numerous business stations into a single global head office, headed by the chief global officer. The new “control tower” is now in charge of optimized localization and supporting overseas projects.

GS E&C also recently won a 2 trillion won ($1.8 billion) deal for the Petro Rabigh 2 Project, a jumbo-scale petrochemical complex project, from Saudi Arabia.

Formerly focused mainly on construction of power plants, the co mpany is now making active inroads into the emerging markets of Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa to expand its share in infrastructure industry connected to transportation, energy and environment.

The company also said that it plans to move gradually from simple EPC-related projects to a “propose-and-develop” type of business that involves both funding and investment.

Last year, the company won orders in emerging markets, including a 400 billion won construction order for a subway in Singapore, a 660 billion won construction deal for a gas energy complex in Surgil, Uzbekistan, and a 1.4 trillion won consortium bid from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

GS E&C also won a series of construction deals in LPG storage tanks, pressure maintenance and water purification from Kuwait ― “the most stable Middle Eastern country to run business (in),” according to the company ― which totals to 1.4 trillion won.

As part of its goals for 2020, GS aims to place itself among the world’s 10 largest water treatment conglomerates. In November 2011, the company purchased Inima OHL, a former Spanish water treatment company, which was already ranked in the top 10.

Inima’s reputation in the desalination industry will contribute to GS’ competition over desalination project deals in Asia and the Middle East. The desalination market is expected to produce annual growth of about 17 percent on average, the building conglomerate said.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)