President Park Chang-min of Hyundai Development Co.

Hyundai Development Co. has won the project in India to build the highest skyscraper on the subcontinent from RNA Co., a real estate development company, in January, which is the first project the company won in 23 years overseas after completing the highway construction project in Malaysia in 1991, the company said recently.

The project, worth $52.85 million, is to build a 54-storey deluxe apartment complex, named “RNA Metropolis” in downtown Mumbai, India, the largest commercial city in India.

The company took care of around 20 projects overseas -- in the Middle East and S.E. Asia -- in the 1970s and 1980s, but withdrew from overseas to focus on domestic construction projects in the 1990s, the company said.

Hyundai Development President Park Chang-min said the company will take on any construction projects abroad from now on with the Indian project as the starter, residential construction, plant construction such as power plants or others if the opportunities arise regardless of the location.

The purpose, he said, is to diversify the company’s business portfolio for the stable growth of the company. The company’s business diversification strategy calls for taking on various projects including power plants and large infrastructure projects. The LNG multi-purpose thermal power plant project that the company won in a consortium with other firms being built in Tongduchon, Gyeonggi Province, is to be completed this year.

Hyundai Development has also been eyeing an LNG power plant project in Tongyoung, South Gyeongsang Province, along with the redevelopment project for Haeundae, a popular marina resort, and Suyoung Bay for a yacht competition in Busan, the company said.

As for the residential construction projects at home, the company has streamlined its residential housing construction sites yet to have projects undertaken and will be able to supply an more units as the company revamps its housing construction projects. The company plans to supply 8,804 residential units from its 12 housing construction sites around the country this year, some 10 percent more than the number supplied last year.

Around 3,453 new units, or 40 percent of all total residential homes to be supplied, will come from five of its own housing construction sites around the country, while 4,862 units are going to be either redeveloped or rebuilt ones.

CEO Park said the company will ask every employee to rearm themselves morally to fight for the company’s objectives this year against any problems in its way.

“The company wants everyone to do his or her best, not just a limited number, as the company wants to truly make progress in its operations this year,” the CEO said.

The company has restructured its organization to reform its operation process so that those processes absolutely necessary for the company can be handled with intensity and those that are not absolutely needed will be dropped in the name of a “Work Diet,” as the company named its plan.

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A bird’s eye view of the 54-storey building, “RNA Metropolis”  to be built by 

Hyundai Development in Mumbai, India.

In the reorganization, the company will have five headquarters, one office, 32 teams, and five branches compared to the five headquarters, 37 teams, and five branches it had before.

The purpose was to strengthen the relations between the head office and work sites around the country and overseas through a flexible corporate cultural build-up and effective decision making by top management, Park said.