Carlos Ghosn, chairman and chief executive of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, said Wednesday at a press conference in Seoul that the group will actively support Renault Samsung Motor’s new vision for 2016.

Ghosn said he believes RSM will head Renault Group’s current global strategy, “Renault ― Drive the Change,” and play a more vital role in the group’s future.

As reflected in the chairman’s words, RSM displayed considerable commitment over the past two years with an intensive revival plan that eventually delivered to the company a surplus for the first time in three years.

“I think the first phase of total recovery of RSM is finished. We’ve returned the RSM to a decent level of results,” said Ghosn. “The second part of recovery is now to increase our market share in Korea.”

The carmaker recorded 3.3 trillion won ($3.1 billion) in sales, 44.5 billion won in business profits and 17 billion won during the first six months of 2013.

The company mainly attributes its accomplishments to the launch of several wide-selling cars including the SM5 Platinum, SM5 TCE, SM3 Z.E. and QM3, as well as having managed to locally produce about 75 percent of its car parts.

“The cost of a car is decided not only by the productivity and capacity of a plant, but also the localization of parts,” said Ghosn.

“I hope that we will all push into solutions and agreements that preserve not only the short-term goals of the company, but also the long-term,” he added.

RSM’s new vision includes continuing to reduce costs and improving effectiveness to provide the best-quality cars in the local market.

Moreover, by 2016, the company plans to not only offer more designs and launch new models, but also strengthen its existing lineups so that it can increase its sales by over 70 percent and reclaim its position as the third-largest local automaker by sales.

RSM is currently involved in developing follow-up models for the SM5 and QM5, while its Busan factory is in the final stages of producing the Nissan Rogue, which will be exported to North America starting August.

“Although the Busan plant today is not at the top of its potential, it is still above average,” said the chairman.

“Our productivity is not stuck but needs a bit more time to reach the top 10 percentile of Renault’s production plant, which I am certain the Busan plant has the potential to do.”

By Kim Joo-hyun (jhk@heraldcorp.com)