German industrial giant Siemens AG will boost its drive to participate in the South Korean government’s initiative to build thousands of smart factories across the nation by 2020, the firm’s president Joe Kaeser said. 

“Siemens are ready to support Korea on its way to 10,000 smart factories,” he said during a conference hosted by the National Academy of Engineering of Korea at a hotel in Seoul, Wednesday.

Smart factory use information and communications technologies to digitalize their processes and reap huge benefits in the form of improved quality, lower costs and increased efficiency.

The government plans to complete implementing digitalization on 10,000 existing small and medium-sized plants in five years in a bid to boost productivities in manufacturing sectors.

The manufacturing industries account for approximately 30 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

“We will play a significant role in the project and are in talks with Korean firms to seek ways to cooperate, like we forged partnerships with Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motors for the automation part,” said Kim Jong-kap, CEO of Siemens Seoul.

The executives declined to name a specific firm, but a handful of Korean conglomerates, such as Samsung Electronics and KT, started to work with the government to provide technologies like the Internet of Things.

“Digitalization can strengthen business ecosystems by enabling a much more comprehensive and intensive exchange of data and information,” Kaeser said.

He added that digitalization of manufacturing will improve the lives of people by relieving them of an ever greater range of routine and repetitive tasks.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)