Siemens Korea chairman and CEO Kim Jong-kap said that the company aims to double its sales to about 3.6 trillion won (about $3.26 billion) in five years, stressing that its high rate of growth will continue.

“The goal is not so ambitious for Siemens,” Kim said in a press conference on Tuesday organized to review his first year as the CEO. “Achieving 15 percent of sales growth over five years will suffice to double the sales.”

The automatic solution company is gearing up to increase investment in sustainable sectors including wind energy, secondary cells, motors for hybrid buses and eco-friendly power plants that use high-efficiency gas turbines.

The Korean operation of the Germany-based multinational conglomerate plans to strengthen strategic partnerships with Korean local construction firms over national and overseas deals.

Looking back on his first year of office as the Siemens Korea’s CEO, Kim admitted that one year was too short to see much progress in the localization of Siemens Korea’s products. However, the chairman estimated that in the long term, the company’s products would be made with up to 50 percent of its materials made domestically.

In the past, Siemens’ headquarters used to classify Korea as an “aging country” with excessive regulations and labor-management standoffs, the chairman said.

“Siemens tended to be careful about making an inroad into the country, in comparison to other Asian nations including China, Malaysia and Thailand,” Kim said, adding that Korea’s reputation as a research and development base for healthcare has been elevated over past years.

The chairman said that the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect last July, acted as a symbol of Korea’s economic openness to global trade rather than as a dramatic profit-booster.

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