LAS VEGAS ― Samsung Electronics, the world’s top television maker, will make greater investments this year compared to last year, taking over half of the Samsung Group and its affiliates sales for 2012, said its chief executive on Tuesday.

Choi Gee-sung, vice chairman of the group’s flagship electronics arm, said the investment sum, including the sum given to software development, is likely to go over the amount listed on its 2012 business scheme by the year’s end, considering that the firm must hire more workers and gain innovative competitiveness.

“Samsung has injected 10 percent more investment than the initial business plan for last year,” he said on the sidelines of the world’s largest consumer technology show here.

“Although Samsung Electronics doesn’t speak for the group, I believe it may record about half of the group’s total yearly sales and we project to makes investments that exceed last year’s figure.”

The vice chairman’s comments reflects Samsung Group chairman Lee Kun-hee’s desire to put in active investments and employ a higher number of employees in the midst of an ongoing global economic crisis that has been exacerbated by the sluggish economies in Europe.

Lee has also said that the group’s affiliate must think outside the box and give a stronger take on new projects, new products and new technologies.

“We have put in about 22 trillion won in key technologies in 2011 and we expect to do bigger this year,” said Choi. “The global economy is still uncertain but we must think about the future with investment. We can’t become the winners in the future if we don’t inject the sums now due to today’s difficulties.”

The chief executive also said a medical device project could be absorbed within the boundary of the electronics industry, possibly becoming a new future growth engine project for the country’s technology giant.

“New innovative items are being produced with the touch of our technology and this is part of the process of extending the industrial boundary,” he said.

Considering that the total investment in the sector reaches 150 to 200 billion won, the firm is willing to pursue mergers and acquisitions that will transform it into a future growth engine, he added.

Involving future sales, Samsung is soon expected to reach $200 billion in yearly sales, for it recorded 151 trillion won in 2010 and 163 trillion won in 2011.

“Since the company has been recording double-digit growth for some time, I think it will happen before 2015,” he commented.

Setting today IT industry’s key words as “smart innovation,” cross device and cloud services and the creation of a smart solution environment are the most important aspects of the future industrial direction, said Choi.

By Cho Ji-hyun, Korea Herald correspondent
(sharon@heraldcorp.com)