Korea Electric Power Corp. CEO Kim Ssang-soo pledged to boost the firm’s overseas sales to $26 billion by 2020 by improving the profitability and efficiency of its nuclear power and “green” businesses, the firm said Thursday.

“We must carry out the construction of nuclear power plants in the United Arab Emirates as planned and win another nuclear reactor contract from abroad this year,” Kim said in a New Year’s speech.

“Moreover, we need to raise the self-reliance rate of our fuel supply by around 10 percent more than last year.”

The nation’s largest electricity provider has been actively expanding its foreign businesses in the past few years. It won a landmark nuclear power deal with the UAE in 2009.

While seeking fresh nuclear power plant export opportunities, KEPCO has bought shares and assets of mines in Canada, Indonesia and Africa. The latter was to secure a stable domestic energy supply while seeking new revenue sources by involving in value chains.

Kim also stressed that KEPCO should lead the world’s green growth drive particularly by exporting its smart grid technologies, while stepping up efforts to develop more eco-friendly technologies.

The firm, which has been striving to make clean energy its new growth engine business, has set a goal to achieve sales of 14 trillion won ($12 billion) from such businesses by 2020.

It has announced earlier that it will invest over 3 trillion won to foster eight major green technologies. The list includes carbon capture and storage, smart grids, electric car charging systems, and integrated gasification combined cycle technology ― which turns coal into gas.

Meanwhile, regarding the firm’s management, the president said KEPCO will adopt a more performance-based rewarding system, thus offering more responsibility and compensation to its employees according to their outcomes.

Kim also said KEPCO should elevate the efficiency of its business to minimize factors that could lead to a raise in electricity prices.

By Koh Young-aah (youngaah@heraldcorp.com)