SINGAPORE - Keppel Corporation has developed a plan that leads up to the year 2020, its chief executive Loh Chin Hua told its employees in a New Year message on Friday.
This plan, developed last year, comes alongside a set of new vision and mission statements, operating principles and a growth strategy to "propel us on our next stage of growth", he wrote.
No details were revealed in the missive; they are slated to be shared at the Global Keppelites Forum, an internal company event, later this month.
The letter, addressed to the conglomerate's more than 40,000 employees across the world, said: "It will involve building upon what we have done successfully, and doing some things differently, with the agility to seize new opportunities. Our clarion call across the group will be how we work together and develop ourselves into a successful global organisation."
Mr Loh, a year into taking the reins at Keppel after having moved up from being the group's chief financial officer, described 2015's waters as "choppy": "Turbulence looks likely to reign in the oil markets as producers and consumers deal with the new normal."
Even so, lower oil prices will present opportunities, as consumer spending and growth will be encouraged over the medium term.
As things stand, Keppel Offshore & Marine has orders lined up until 2019. "We will push to further upgrade our regional yards such as Bintan and Nantong into highly efficient production yards. This will stand us in good stead as the cut in foreign worker ratio in Singapore kicks in in 2015. We must continue to leverage technology and innovation to improve our productivity," he wrote.
The property and infrastructure sectors also face challenging prospects; the rollback of property cooling measures in China will take time to have a positive impact on demand, while the power sector continues to grapple with installed capacity exceeding demand.
Even so, Mr Loh is starting the year with an optimistic view of the future. Where property is concerned, he said: "Ultimately, the middle class in Asia is expanding and are still moving to cities."
On the power front, there are "exciting projects we will be striving to secure."
The group's counter closed one Singapore cent higher at S$8.86 on Friday.
@JoyceHooiBT
This article was first published on Jan 03, 2015.
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